Information & Meetings
	Conferences & Events
	New Coastal Publications

Organisations
	New hyperlinks to websites

Environment
	Latest IPCC climate change report describes impacts in great detail
	Melting Arctic permafrost and ice sheets accelerate global warming

Development & Trends
.	European assessment of socio-economic costs and benefits of ICZM
	Commission extends guidelines on state aid for renewable energy sources

Policy
	EU aims at taking lead in preparing agenda for World Summit 2002
	Scottish Coastal Plans Inventory - a pilot
	Business and science agreed on ways to save sturgeon

Events recently announded

2002

Please note:
The overview of the Coastal Guide conference and event  meeting list can be found at http://www.coastalguide.org/meetings/
 

New Coastal Publications

New hyperlinks to websites

Blyth Offshore Windfarm: The Blyth Offshore Wind Farm, the first offshore wind farm in UK waters

GeoCoast An electronic journal intended to provide a new medium for scientists, academics, postgraduates and practitioners to communicate the findings of academic research, environmental applications, and technological developments concerning all aspects of geotechnology in Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM)

KeyWATER: the Information Portal for WATER People

Check out the other Website Links on the Coastal Guide

Latest IPCC climate change report describes impacts in great detail

The Third Assessment Report on the impacts of increased global temperatures by the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group II was approved at a meeting in Geneva from 13-16 February. (For the recently published Working Group I report, see http://www.coastalguide.org/news/2001-02.html). This new report re-examines key conclusions of the earlier assessments and incorporates results from more recent research. It describes in greater detail than ever before the impacts of global warming on civilisation and natural environment in various regions over the coming decades. It states that Southern Europe and the European Arctic are more vulnerable than other parts of Europe. The risk of flooding, erosion, and wetland loss will increase across much of Europe's coastal areas with implications for human settlement, industry, tourism, agriculture, and coastal natural habitats. The assessments of adoption strategies for coastal zones have shifted emphasis away from hard protection structures of shorelines toward soft protection measures, managed retreat, and enhanced resilience of biophysical and socio-economic systems in coastal regions. The report concludes that adoption options for coastal and marine management are most effective when incorporated with policies in other areas, such as disaster mitigation plans and land-use plans. Upward and northward in Europe a shift of biotic zones will take place. The loss of important habitats (wetlands, tundra, isolated habitats) would threaten some species. Higher temperatures and heat waves may change traditional summer tourist destinations. Coral reefs in most regions could be wiped out within 30-50 years by warming oceans as temperatures reach levels at which coral bleaching becomes an annual event. The report lists a string of small island states in the Pacific and Indian oceans and the Caribbean, threatened by climate change and where unique cultural and conservation sites have already been destroyed. The report concludes that governments and industrial countries must agree radical cuts in use of coal, oil and gas, and big increase in the use of renewable power. The next climate negotiations will resume for two weeks within the period from mid-June to late July 2001.
For official documents about the climate talks see a press release on http://www.unfccc.int. The executive summary of the Working Group II report can be downloaded from http://www.meto.gov.uk/sec5/CR_div/ipcc/wg1/WGII-SPM.pdf

Melting Arctic permafrost and ice sheets accelerate global warming

Svein Tveitdal, director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) centre in Norway, reported fresh evidence that rising temperatures in the Arctic are melting the solid structure of frozen soil known as permafrost and releasing climate gases into the atmosphere. Permafrost is the largest natural storage of carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas and of other greenhouse gases such as methane. As a result, global warming has been caught in a vicious circle. About 14 % - several hundreds of Gigatonnes (Gt) - of the carbon stored in the world's soils is estimated to be in the Arctic. Emissions of all greenhouse gases produced by human activities are about six Gt annually. Permafrost has been an ideal terrain on which to build but there are already impacts on roads, buildings, pipelines and other infrastructure occurring in Arctic areas like Alaska and Siberia as a result of the recent decades of climate change. The melting of the permafrost and the disruption caused may also have important impacts on the survival of wildlife, such as the reindeer, and on the traditional lifestyle of indigenous people living there. An estimated 200,000 indigenous people, are represented in Arctic Russia alone. However, not only permafrost and its release of Carbon dioxide is a major issue in the Arctic. The loss of ice in the Arctic could lead to a sudden acceleration of global warming as ice reflects radiation or heat from the sun back into space. The coastline along which many communities live might suffer accelerated rate of erosion, more frequent flooding and damage to buildings and infrastructure. Increased snow and rainfall and widespread melting of ice and permafrost may lead to higher levels of freshwater entering the Ocean. This freshening of the Arctic Ocean could have important impacts on ocean circulation. The alteration of speed and patterns of ocean currents will impact in turn the survival of fish stocks. The availability of nutrients and the disposition of larval and juvenile organisms are affected by changes in ocean currents and will therefore influence recruitment, growth and mortality of the fish stocks. As ocean currents also drive climate patterns, the implications are far reaching.
More about this subject at http://www.grida.no
UNEP Grid Arendal produced interactive maps, illustrating the current extents of permafrost - available at: http://grida.no/prog/polar/ipa/index.htm.

European assessment of socio-economic costs and benefits of ICZM

The European Commission's support for the ICZM Demonstration Programme has helped raise understanding of the importance and value of coastal zones to the European Union. This is one of the major conclusions of a study on the socio-economic costs and benefits of ICZM the European Commission had commissioned and which is now on the internet. The net socio-economic benefits significantly exceed the ICZM expenditures involved, arguing strongly for funding of ICZM projects, both through national governments and the European Commission. The report ends with a series of recommendations and proposals on the definition, delivery, management and evaluation of future ICZM initiatives. It finally suggests that the survey be repeated in 2005 to identify the long-term benefits and impacts. The study is available at http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/iczm/socec_en.pdf

Commission extends guidelines on state aid for renewable energy sources

This month, the European Commission published new "Community guidelines on State aid for environmental protection", thereby revising the guidelines of 1994. The document clarifies which forms of governmental aid schemes to promote the exploitation of renewable energy sources - such as wind, wave, and tidal energy - are compatible with the common market. Tax reductions, investments to promote renewable sources of energy (up to 100 percent of eligible costs), and operating aid in order to cover the difference between the cost of producing energy from renewable sources and the market price of that energy are being accepted under the guidelines. The Commission thereby appreciates the role of renewable sources in sustainable development and supports state aid in this sector - as presently practised in many EU countries. The next review of the guidelines will take at the end of 2007.
The Guidelines can be found by visiting http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/oj/index-list.html and clicking on "C 37".

EU aims at taking lead in preparing agenda for World Summit 2002

By adopting the communication 'Ten Years After Rio: Preparing the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002', the European Commission launched preparations for the World Summit in South Africa in 2002. In the communication it sets out EU priorities and actions for this event. The main focus will be on increased global equity, effective global partnership, better integration of environment and development, adoption of targets and more effective national action with stronger monitoring. A little less than ten years after the Rio de Janeiro Conference on Environment and Development, EU Commissioners of Environment and Development, Margot Wallström and Poul Nielson, acknowledged that assessment of progress made since Rio indicates that expectations have not been met. The Communication stresses the need for effective EU contributions to the World Summit. The forthcoming EU Sustainable Development Strategy and the recently proposed 6th Environment Action Program, which lists priority areas and key approaches vital to manage the challenges of sustainable globalization, will form a basis for the agenda.
More information (incl. the full Communication) can be accessed through: http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/agend21/index.htm.
Earth Summit information on http://www.earthsummit2002.org

Scottish Coastal Plans Inventory - a pilot

The Scottish Coastal Forum has prepared a "Coastal Plans Inventory" of plans and other documents relevant for the management of Scotland's coastline and published the resulting database and report on its web site in order to give a better overview of what exists. On the basis of submitted questionnaires, invited from a wide range of statutory and non-statutory bodies during 2000, the database records details of 462 documents. It is available on the SCF web site at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/environment/coastalforum under Coastal Plans Inventory.
For more information contact: Martyn Cox, Coastal Project Officer, Scottish Coastal Forum, e-mail: Martyn.Cox@scotland.gov.uk

Business and science agreed on ways to save sturgeon

For the first time, scientists, NGOs and business representatives involved in caviar trade from eleven countries gathered to identify priorities for conservation of sturgeon species and to formulate recommendations for action. At the meeting, which took place 9 - 11 February in Moscow, experts confirmed rapidly declining legal catches of sturgeon since the break-up of the USSR. Meanwhile caviar traders reported a marked decline in demand. These are important indicators that poaching and illegal trade, low efficiency of aquaculture and re-stocking, pollution, dam-construction and a lack of international and regional co-operation over the last few years have seriously injured the sturgeon population, thus causing damage to the sturgeon populations and the caviar industry. The participants of the meeting came up with a list of recommendations such as to improve the social and economic status of people that are presently making a living from poaching, as well as better regional co-operation in the field of trading and law enforcement to control poaching and illegal trade. Regional co-operation concerning aquaculture, stock assessment and re-stocking should ensure a unified approach to preserving the sturgeon for the future.
For more information, visit http://www.iucn.org/info_and_news/press/sturgeon.html, http://www.cites.org/CITES/eng/index.shtml

Deadline for submitting contributions to Coastal Guide News No 5/2001:
Wednesday March 7,  2001

COASTAL GUIDE NEWS is a biweekly newsletter published by the European Union for Coastal Conservation (EUCC) with financial support of Stichting DOEN, the foundation of the Dutch lottery "Postcode Loterij" and the Department of International Nature Affairs of the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries. For free subscriptions, comments or contributions to this newsletter, please contact news@coastalguide.org. 

© Articles may be reproduced free of charge with acknowledgement and citation of Coastal Guide News and the URL of the Coastal Guide (http://www.coastalguide.org). The articles of this and previous issues of Coastal Guide News can be found at http://www.coastalguide.org/news

Members of the Coastal Guide News editorial team: Ramon v. Barneveld, Erik Devilee, Irene Lucius, Hanneke Mesters, Guy Monod de Froideville, Albert Salman, Jolanda v.d. Sman, Josefien Wormgoor. 

Established in 1989, the European Union for Coastal Conservation (EUCC) is an association involving the largest coastal network in Europe with 750 members and member organisations in 40 countries. For more information please contact EUCC International Secretariat, POBox 11232, NL-2301 EE Leiden, the Netherlands, tel.: +31-71-5122900, internet: http://www.eucc.nl

© EUCC, 2001