Information & Meetings
	Conferences & Events
	Courses

Environment
	Flooding and other natural catastrophes on the rise due to climate change

Policy
	EU Directive on public access to environmental information adopted
	Irish Sea to be managed by Whole Ecosystem Approach
	CITES decided on trade in bottlenose dolphins and whale meat

Events recently announded

Flooding and other natural catastrophes on the rise due to climate change

Natural catastrophes, the vast majority of which have been weather-related, have cost countries and communities an estimated $56 billion during the period January to September 2002, a study by the re-insurance company Munich Re shows. The final bill for this year's natural disasters could thus be over $70 billion. The findings were announced at the 8th Committee of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting in New Delhi, which ended with a Ministerial "Delhi Declaration", calling for rapid ratification of the Kyoto Protocol in the face of growing evidence of the damage done by climate change. Munich Re, a member of the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) Finance Initiative, has since the 1970s been compiling annual records on natural catastrophes and their costs. The report says there have been an estimated 526 significant natural disasters in the first nine months of 2002 with the highest number in Asia and 99 in Europe. One-third of the natural catastrophes were floods.
For more information and a copy of the report contact: Eric Falt, UNEP Division of Communications and Public Information, e-mail: eric.falt@unep.org or visit http://www.unep.org/Documents/Default.asp?DocumentID=266&ArticleID=3157.

EU Directive on public access to environmental information adopted

The conciliation procedure between the European Parliament and the Council on the Commission's proposal for a Directive on public access to environmental information ended with an approval. The Directive will replace the existing Directive 90/313/EC on the freedom of access to information on the environment. The new Directive improves public information access and is also the first step towards EU ratification of the international convention on access to information, public participation in decision making and access to justice in environmental matters, which was adopted at Aarhus in June 1998. The Directive provides that every natural or legal person, regardless of citizenship, nationality or domicile, has a right of access to environmental information held by or produced by public authorities, for instance data on emissions and discharges into the environment, their impact on public health or results of environmental impact assessments. Within two years time, the Member States must have implemented the Directive in their respective national legislations.
More information: http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2000/ce337/ce33720001128en01560162.pdf

Irish Sea to be managed by Whole Ecosystem Approach

A pilot project just started to test a new "marine nature conservation framework" in the Irish Sea. It is designed to apply the two principles of using a whole ecosystem approach and managing the sea at a regional scale and will involve the Government of Ireland, the Isle of Man and the devolved administrations in the UK. The pilot will seek ways of improving the integration of nature conservation with the activities of other sectors and will conclude with recommendations on how to adapt and simplify the existing policy and legal framework. The UK government (DEFRA) is funding the project. For more information, visit http://www.jncc.gov.uk/irishseapilot

CITES decided on trade in bottlenose dolphins and whale meat

At the Twelfth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) in Santiago de Chile this week, the proposed ban on the trade of Black Sea bottlenose dolphins was rejected. The proposal failed to win a two-thirds majority vote needed for approval due to different interpretations of the limited scientific data available on the species. Japan suffered the fourth successive defeat of its proposals to reopen international trade in whale meat, with winning only 43% of the available votes when it Needed a two thirds majority to win.
For more information, visit the CITES Homepage: http://www.cites.org,
COP12 news: http://www.iisd.ca/cites/COP12/index.html,
WDCS - Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society: http://www.wdcs.org

Deadline for submitting contributions to Coastal Guide News No 23: 27 November, 2002

COASTAL GUIDE NEWS is a biweekly newsletter published by the EUCC - The Coastal Union 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. 

Members of the Coastal Guide News editorial team: Erik Devilee, Marijke Kooijman, Irene Lucius, Piet Lansbergen, Hanneke Mesters, Albert Salman.
 

Established in 1989, the EUCC - The Coastal Union 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
 

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