Information & Meetings
	Conferences & Events
	Coastal Publications
	Vacancies

Organisations
	New hyperlinks to websites

Environment
	European environmental indicator report challenges public policy
	Bathing water report reveals: Europe's coastal waters cleaner
	New study calls for urgent action to save wild Atlantic salmon

Development & Trends
	Airbus factory threatens globally important wetland near Hamburg
	Wide-ranging impacts of Turkey's dam project revealed

Policy
	Baltic fisheries and environment lobbies strive for co-operation
	European Commission's Sustainable Development Strategy is out
	European committees comment positively on Commission's ICZM strategy
	One step closer to the ban of Persistent Organic Pollutants

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

Vacancies

Coastal and Marine Planning Officer at UK's MCS

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) is the UK's leading environmental charity dedicated to the protection of the marine environment and its wildlife. It was instrumental in bringing the concept of Integrated Coastal Zone Management to a wide audience in the 1980's. An opportunity is currently available to join the MCS team as a Coastal and Marine Planning Officer working under the Director of Conservation. The postholder will pursue the development of national strategies and policies to ensure that use of our coastal and marine environment meets the objectives of sustainable development, sensitive use and protection of biodiversity. The post will be based at the MCS office in Ross-on-Wye. The salary will be in the range £16-18,000 dependent on experience. The successful candidate must have at least two years experience in coastal zone management or marine planning, in addition to relevant qualifications. Please apply in writing, quoting the Ref: MPO1, with a covering letter enclosing your CV and SAE by 30th May 2001 to: Tony Martin, Chief Executive, Marine Conservation Society (MPO1), 9 Gloucester Road, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, HR9 5BU, U.K., tel: 01989 566017 , fax: 01989 567815, www.mcsuk.org.

W.S. Ocean Systems Ltd searching for engineers

W.S. Ocean Systems Ltd in Alton, UK, has the following vacancies:

1. Three engineering positions for Electronic and Chemical Instrumentation Systems
2. A Project Engineer / Senior Technician to take a leading role in the design and development of instrumentation systems
3. An Electronic Engineer / Senior Technician to support the product design team
4. A Chemical Applications Engineer / Technician also for the product design team.

For full details please e-mail or write to Mark Rawlinson, W.S. Ocean Systems Ltd., Omni Business Centre, Omega Park, Alton, Hants, GU34 2QD, tel.: +44-1420-541555, e-mail: info@wsocean.com, www.wsocean.com

New hyperlinks

Adopt a dolphin with WDCS
http://www.adoptadolphin.com/
Adopt a bottlenose dolphin in Moray Firth (UK) as an action for Ocean Day

Nefisco foundation - Aquaculture and fisheries consultants
http://www.nefisco.org
A non-profit foundation which supports the sustainable development of fisheries and aquaculture in developing countries by providing professional services in fisheries, aquaculture, training and research.

Check out the other Website Links on the Coastal Guide

European environmental indicator report challenges public policy

Public policy needs to become more effective in influencing the growing scale and evolving patterns of production and consumption if Europe is to achieve its environmental and sustainable development goals. This is the central message of the Environmental signals 2001 report published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) on 29 May. The Agency is the hub of the European Environment Information and Observation Network (EIONET) of some 600 environmental bodies and institutes across Europe. The report's findings include the following: Inputs into the north-east Atlantic of six important hazardous heavy metals and organic substances fell significantly between 1990 and 1998. EU emissions of the six Kyoto Protocol greenhouse gases fell by 2% between 1990 and 1998. Electricity from renewable energy sources increased by about 3% per year between 1989 and 1998, but the annual growth rate needs to rise to 5.5% to meet the EU's proposed target for 2010. Eco-labelling of tourist accommodation has increased significantly since 1990 but remains very marginal. The report, prepared for policy-makers and the public, is a major input to the 15-16 June Gothenburg summit, where EU leaders will take stock of strategies for integrating environmental protection into nine economic sectors and adopt the EU's first sustainable development strategy. The annual Environmental signals reports use key socio-economic and environmental indicators to assess progress in implementing environmental policies and integrating environmental considerations into other policy sectors. Such indicators are supposed to bring transparency and accountability to policy-making and create a basis for fine-tuning policies for maximum effectiveness.
The full text of Environmental signals 2001 is published on http://reports.eea.eu.int/signals-2001/index_html

Bathing water report reveals: Europe's coastal waters cleaner

Coastal and freshwater bathing water quality in the European Union continued to improve last year, according to the 18th Bathing Water report released on May 21 by the European Commission. The report covers 11,502 seaside beaches and 4,338 fresh water areas. In 1992, around 85% of 11,000 coastal waters had good quality bathing water. In 2000, almost 97% met the quality criteria of the EU's water quality law known as the Bathing Water Directive. Of the 4,200 inland bathing areas (lakes and rivers) monitored, in 1992 not even 50% had good water quality. In 2000 this figure had increased to almost 94%. The Bathing Water Directive aims to secure clean bathing water across Europe by avoiding or reducing the discharge of sewage which carries micro-organisms that can cause illness. While presenting the report, European Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström said: "In the light of new scientific knowledge and management standards we have decided to revise the directive to ensure that the improvements in water quality continue" (see Coastal Guide News No. 9/2001). Belgium scored the highest, the only country to have 100 percent record on all its beaches in sewage bacteria tests during the 2000 bathing season. Portugal scored lowest with a 92.2 percent pass rate. France, which failed to submit monitoring results for the second successive year due to industrial action, will face infringement action soon unless it resolves the situation, an EU official said.
For further information on the Bathing Water Report
For further information on the Bathing Water Directive
A tourist Atlas that gives the quality status of bathing waters:
http://europa.eu.int/water/water-bathing/tourist.html

New study calls for urgent action to save wild Atlantic salmon

WWF and the Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) are calling on countries participating in the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (NASCO) conference in Spain from 4 to 8 June, 2001, to take vital steps including a moratorium on certain types of fishing, and more effective watershed management, to ensure the wild Atlantic salmon's survival. Wild Atlantic salmon have disappeared completely from at least 309 river systems in Europe and North America and urgent action is needed to protect the species from the threat of extinction, according to a new study released by WWF. The Status of Wild Atlantic Salmon - A River by River Assessment, reports that, in the 2,005 rivers historically nurturing this species on both sides of the Atlantic, the wild fish have disappeared in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. And the species is on the brink of extinction in Estonia, Portugal, Poland, the United States, and parts of Canada. Nearly 90 percent of the known healthy populations exist in only four countries: Norway, Iceland, Ireland, and Scotland. In the remainder of the range, 85 percent of wild Atlantic salmon populations are categorised as vulnerable, endangered, or critical. According to the study-team the five major threats to these populations are: overfishing; dams and other man-made obstructions that impede salmon migration; river engineering projects that degrade habitat and alter natural ecological processes; pollution from industry and agriculture; and commercial salmon farming, which results in erosion of the gene pool through inter-breeding with escapees, and the spread of diseases. "The problem with ocean fisheries," said Bill Taylor, President of ASF, "is that they cannot be managed. The nets kill wild salmon from rivers that have endangered populations as well as those from healthier river populations. We must end all ocean netting for Atlantic salmon." Without decisive preventive measures, the already precipitous decline of the wild salmon catches will continue, the study warns. Salmon catches in the entire North Atlantic fell by more than 80 percent between 1970 and the end of the 20th century, the researchers found.
For further information contact Robert Kihara, WWF International, e-mail: rkihara@wwfint.org, Carlos Vallecillo, WWF-Spain, e-mail: medioscom@wwf.es, Sue Scott, Atlantic Salmon Federation, e-mail: policy@nbnet.nb.ca

Airbus factory threatens globally important wetland near Hamburg

Environmentalists worldwide mourned the loss of the case against Airbus in the German Federal Constitutional Court about filling the "Mühlenberger Loch" wetlands for the construction of an Airbus factory. The aim of Airbus is to complete the interior furnishing of planes, imported from France, here. The Association for the Protection of Hamburg's Elbe Region and the Association for the Protection of Mühlenberger Loch claim that filling the wetland contravenes two laws, the European Union's Wild Birds Directive and the EU Habitats Directive. Furthermore, the area is denoted as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, a global wetland treaty. The area is unique because of the thousands of birds living there. The European Commission is investigating the Airbus issue for irregularities.
For more information visit the website of the Animal Welfare's Airbus Think Twice campaign: http://www.airbusthinktwice.org/english/index.html

Wide-ranging impacts of Turkey's dam projects revealed

A new UNEP study shows that Turkey's large upstream Euphrates dams are at least partly to blame for the drying up of the Mesopotamian marshlands of the Tigris-Euphrates delta - the largest wetland in the Middle East and one of the most outstanding freshwater ecosystems in the world. As a consequence, coastal fisheries in the northern Gulf, dependent on the marshlands for spawning grounds, have experienced a sharp decline. A key site for migratory bird species, the Mesopotamian marshlands' disappearance has placed an estimated 40 species of waterfowl at risk and caused serious reductions in their numbers. In the past 40 years, the two rivers have been fragmented by the construction of more than 30 large dams, whose storage capacity is several times greater than the volume of both rivers. Further dams, including the much debated Ilisu dam on the Tigris, will probably even worsen the situation. By turning off the tap, dams have substantially reduced the water available for downstream ecosystems and eliminated the floodwaters that nourished the marshlands. The immediate cause of marshland de-watering, however, has been the (politically motivated) massive drainage works implemented in southern Iraq in the early 1990s. UNEP therefore urges the three main riparian countries (Iraq, Syria and Turkey as well as Iran for the Tigris tributaries) to re-initiate dialogue and adopt an international agreement on sharing the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates for the benefit of people and nature, and to ensure an adequate water supply to the marshes. The report, that is drawing on historical and fresh satellite imagery, is due to be released in summer 2001.
For further information, read http://www.grid.unep.ch/activities/sustainable/tigris/marshlands/index.html

Baltic fisheries and environment lobbies strive for co-operation

At a regular meeting of the Baltic Marine Environmental Protection Commission's (HELCOM) Group on Nature Conservation and Coastal Zone Management (HABITAT) held in Sigulda, Latvia, from 21 to 25 May, the International Baltic Sea Fishery Commission (IBSFC) and HELCOM agreed to join efforts in tackling problems of dwindling commercially important fish stocks in the Baltic Sea. "The dialogue could be a test case for successful regional co-operation between fisheries and environmental bodies, and interesting in the light of the new EU Fisheries Directive that will be ratified next year", said Henning von Nordheim, the Chairman of the HABITAT group. A frequent clash of interest between fisheries and nature conservation is the management of the three seal species inhabiting the Baltic Sea. The populations of these seals have recovered thanks to improved water quality, but they are still at less than 1 % (1000s rather than 100,000s) of their historic levels. The seals face continued danger from illegal killing, fisheries bycatch (caught in fishing nets) and pollutants such as dioxins. Giving in to the pressure of the fisheries lobby, HELCOM is discussing to change the current Recommendation on the Protection of Seals by next year. This could include the restricted hunting of grey seals. Although HELCOM reckons that commercially important fish stocks such as cod, salmon, sprat and herring face persistent problems, a spokesman for the IBSFC at the meeting in Latvia regarded the situation as stable except for cod. Integrated conflicting interests in the use and protection of marine and coastal resources of the Baltic Sea is emerging as a central challenge for HELCOM. Its contracting parties have agreed at the meeting in Sigulda to implement the process of Integrated Coastal Zone Management in their national planning systems. They also re-confirmed their will to implement the network of Baltic Sea Protected Areas agreed on in 1994 - so far, only the government of Lithuania has legally protected all three national Baltic Sea Protected Areas proposed.
For further information contact: Mr. Kjell Grip, Nature Conservation and Coastal Zone Management, HELCOM, e-mail: kjell@helcom.fi, Mr. Henning von Nordheim, Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, Germany, e-mail: bfn.ina.vilm@t-online.de, or Alan Pickaver, EUCC-The Coastal Union, e-mail: pickaver@eucc.nl

European Commission's Sustainable Development Strategy out

The European Commission has proposed a final ambitious European Sustainable Development Strategy, which is to be discussed and adopted at next month's Gothenburg summit. This final strategy focuses on four environmental areas: climate change, public health, resource management and transport congestion and pollution. To tackle these four areas, the Commission proposed a series of 'cross-cutting' principles, which are to ensure that future policy making is more coherent and cost effective, as well as to promote technological innovation and stronger involvement of civil society and business in policy formation. European policy in the field of transport, agriculture and fisheries, in which sustainable development is to be implemented as a core concern, will adopt these principles accordingly. Moreover, the strategy proposes a large number of concrete objectives and targets for the specific areas, some of which go beyond its Kyoto protocol and other commitments, i.e. cutting EU greenhouse gas emission by 20 percent by 2020 and an ambitious new EU energy tax regime. Subsidies encouraging wasteful resource use are also to be abolished. The position statement has received a generally warm response; whether this warm response will result in the actual backing of the strategy will become clear in Gothenburg next month.
Press release by the Commission at: http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=IP/01/710|0|RAPID&lg=EN
European Union Strategy for Sustainable Development at: http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/environment/eussd/index.htm
More information on sustainable development at http://www.sustdev.org

European committees comment positively on Commission's ICZM strategy

The Official Journal of the European Communities has published the opinion of two Committees on the Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) Strategy and its annexed Recommendations to the European Parliament and Council published in autumn of last year (see http://www.coastalguide.org/news/special1.html) The Committee of the Regions (COR) welcomes and endorses the Strategy but questions the commitment of the Commission in relation to its implementation. It advocates among others the set-up of a general framework for ICZM with a guiding set of principles at a trans-national level and encourages Europe-wide and national campaigns to raise public awareness of coastal zone issues. The COR also calls for an ICZM-specific programme of funding and support. The Economic and Social Committee, on the other hand, favours a financial package drawn from the Structural Funds and Community programmes such as Interreg. It also supports many elements of the Recommendations, but would like to see a Community level management and coordination unit as well as national ICZM units to be set-up. The Committee furthermore makes a plea for incorporating the coastal hinterland and upstream areas into ICZM strategies.
Further information: Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the "Communication from the Commission to the Council and European Parliament on Integrated Coastal Zone Management: A Strategy for Europe" and the "Proposal for a European Parliament and Council Recommendation concerning the implementation of Integrated Coastal Zone Management in Europe" at:
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/dat/2001/c_148/c_14820010518en00230025.pdf.
Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the "Proposal for a European Parliament and Council Recommendation concerning the implementation of Integrated Coastal Zone Management in Europe" at: http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/dat/2001/c_155/c_15520010529en00170021.pdf

One step closer to the ban of Persistent Organic Pollutants

At the Conference on the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) on 22-23 May, in Stockholm, Sweden, a total of 115 countries and the European Commission signed the Final Act of the Conference. Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are amongst the world's most dangerous chemical substances that persist in the environment, bioaccumulate through the food web - in particular in fish - and pose a risk of causing adverse effects to human health and nature (see also Coastal Guide News No. 25/2000). The Stockholm Convention sets out control measures covering the production, import, export, disposal and use of an initial list of twelve POPs grouped into three categories: 1) pesticides: aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, mirex and toxaphene; 2) industrial chemicals: hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); and 3) unintended by-products: dioxins and furans. The control provisions call for: eliminating production and use of intentionally produced POPs; eliminating unintentionally produced POPs, where feasible; and managing and disposing of POPs wastes in an environmentally sound manner. The Convention will remain open for signature at UN Headquarters in New York until 22 May 2002, and will enter into force 90 days after receipt of the 50th instrument of ratification.
The Conference on the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants: http://www.iisd.ca/linkages/chemical/popsd/index.html
UNEP Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) page: http://www.chem.unep.ch/pops/

Deadline for submitting contributions to Coastal Guide News No 12: June 13, 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". 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