Origins: A Visionary Prince

Faced with the growing pollution of the Mediterranean Sea and the alarm raised in particular by Commander Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Alain Bombard, Marcel Clébant and Folco Quilici, and at a time when environmental awareness was still in its early stages, Prince Rainier III, a passionate advocate for the sea, decided to take action. He sought to restore the Principality as a global center for oceanography, as it had been under his great-grandfather Albert I, a pioneer of the discipline and founder in 1919 of the International Commission for the Scientific Exploration of the Mediterranean (CIESM), based in Monaco. He had chaired the Commission since 1956, hosted and actively supported in the Principality the 1959 IAEA/UNESCO international conference on radioactive waste disposal, and founded the Scientific Centre of Monaco (CSM) in 1960.

Following the organization in 1964, at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, of a CIESM symposium on marine pollution, and after several landmark speeches on the subject in Madrid in 1969 and in Monaco in 1970, he called, at the end of that same year during the CIESM congress in Rome, together with Commander Cousteau, then Secretary-General of the Commission and Director of the Museum, for the establishment of an unprecedented Franco-Italian-Monegasque cross-border cooperation to combat marine pollution in the pilot area between Saint-Raphaël and Genoa (hence the name RA.MO.GE., which appeared as early as 1971). This was a pioneering initiative, launched two years before the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, the first devoted to this issue.

The proposal was quickly welcomed by Italy and France, which in 1971 created its first Ministry of Nature and the Environment. The CIESM and the CSM took forward this pilot project, initially covering a limited area from the Alpes-Maritimes to the Province of Imperia, deliberately restricted for greater efficiency. In 1972, a group of experts from the three countries produced a scientific report, and the process, which was not without challenges and closely followed by the Prince, was set in motion.

Letter from Arthur Crovetto, President of the CSM, to Minister of State François-Didier Gregh, recommending “a thorough study of marine pollution to be undertaken at an international level (France–Italy–Spain–Monaco) for the western Mediterranean coastline,” December 17, 1969. A.N.M., SP/28/10.

Speech by Commander Jacques-Yves Cousteau at the solemn opening session of the CIESM congress in Rome, where he served as Secretary-General, with, among others, Prince Rainier III, President of the CIESM, beside him, Vincenzo Caglioti, President of the Italian National Research Council, on the left, and Clelio Darida, Mayor of Rome, on the right, photograph, December 2, 1970.

Letter from Commander Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Secretary-General of the CIESM, to the Director of the Hydrographic Service of the Genoa Naval Hydrographic Institute, requesting his support for the follow-up to the announcement of the future RAMOGE project made by Prince Rainier III at the 1970 CIESM congress in Rome, May 14, 1971. M.O.M.

Plate from the general report on measures to be taken against marine pollution at the administrative and scientific levels (RAMOGE project), approved on April 21, 1972, at a tripartite plenary meeting, including CEA photographs showing aerial views of the coastline from the Old Port of Golfe-Juan to Cannes, as well as the Port of Cannes.

Letter from Prince Rainier III to his Minister of State François-Didier Gregh concerning the report on the RAMOGE project approved in April 1972 and the follow-up actions to be taken, May 17, 1972. A.N.M., SP/28/11.

Report by Alain Vatrican, Secretary-General of the CSM, on the RAMOGE project and the general report approved in April 1972, addressed to Commander Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Commander Jean Alinat, Director and Deputy Director of the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, September 7, 1972. M.O.M.

Map of the initial pilot area of the RAMOGE project.

Quote:

-“A solution on a global scale will inevitably take time to achieve, as it involves multiple mechanisms and interests, but I believe that the Mediterranean coastal states must no longer wait: they must do everything in their power to safeguard their sea.”
Prince Rainier III, solemn opening session of the CIESM congress in Rome, December 2, 1970.

-“Without waiting for such initiatives to come into being, under the impetus of our President, H.S.H. Prince Rainier, the creation of a pilot working group, a joint scientific-administrative Italian-French-Monegasque group, will focus on concrete actions capable of putting an end to pollution in the particularly affected area of the Gulf of Genoa–Côte d’Azur […]. This sea could be considered a pilot sea.”
Commander Jacques-Yves Cousteau, solemn opening session of the CIESM congress in Rome, December 2, 1970.

-“France has established a ‘Ministry of the Environment’ […]. Its head, Robert Poujade, has come to Italy to study with our ministers the common issues, particularly regarding pollution along the coast between Genoa and Marseille, as well as the preparation of a conference bringing together all Mediterranean coastal countries and the search for a common Franco-Italian position at the global conference to be held next year in Stockholm.”
Il Messaggero (Rome), September 25, 1971.

Digital exhibition