The Specially Protected Areas Regional Activity Centre SPA/RAC (formerly RAC/SPA) is a UNEP Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/MAP) implementing agency. It is based at Tunisia through a host country agreement with UNEP. It was established in Tunis in 1985 by decision of the Contracting Parties to the Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea Against Pollution (Barcelona Convention); amended in 1995 and renamed as the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean). it is entrusted with responsibility for assessing the situation of natural heritage and assisting the Mediterranean countries to implement the Protocol concerning Specially Protected Areas and Biological Diversity in the Mediterranean (SPA/BD Protocol), which came into force in 1999.