PERSGA: Where it All Began:

PERSGA’s origins can be traced back to the early 1970s when the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization, ALESCO, initiated a program for the protection of the environment of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

ALESCO, with the assistance of UNESCO, convened a meeting in Bremerhaven, Germany in 1974, where initial ideas for an interdisciplinary research program were discussed. Subsequent meetings identified key regional concerns and proposed plans of activity, which gave rise to the Program for the Environment of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden (PERSGA). An interim secretariat was established in Cairo to implement this program under the auspices of ALESCO. The Secretariat moved to Jeddah in 1980. PERSGA’s legal basis stems from the Regional Convention for the Conservation of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, known as the Jeddah Convention, signed in 1982.