Information & Meetings
	What's new on the website
	Courses
	Conferences & Events
	New Coastal Publications

Environment
	Sea level rise will more dramatic than previously predicted

Development & Trends
.	Wadden Sea research reveals need for better management
	Import of bigeye tuna banned

Policy
	Water Framework Directive aims at "good status" of coastal waters
	EU Fisheries Council supports tough measures

What's new on the website

ICM information
Since the EU Demonstration Programme for Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) ended in 1999, the Coastal Guide Editors have taken up the challenge of analysing and promoting ICZM progress in Europe and Central Asia. Have a look at the new ICM introduction with sections on:
• ICZM programmes in Europe
• Integrated approaches and the role of the EUCC
• ICM in Central & Eastern Europe and NIS
• ICZM in the European Union
The Coastal Guide Editors are preparing and updating Country Files for all coastal states of Europe and Central Asia, twenty are already online. If you are interested to contribute to this work, please e-mail to Albert Salman at the EUCC International Secretariat (salman@eucc.nl). The ICM and country file pages can be found at http://www.coastalguide.org/icm/

Coastal Guide Country File England
The new country file England (drafted by Dr. Pat Doody) provides summary information and many hyperlinks on the following subjects: General Features, State of the Coast, Coastal Management and Planning, and References. You can find it at http://www.coastalguide.org/england/


Courses

Courses in geo-information management for sustainable development

The International Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences (ITC) in Enschede, the Netherlands, offers six PM and MSc degree courses in geo-information management for sustainable development, for example:

Coastal Zone Studies (September 2001)
The participants are taught how to collect and manipulate miscellaneous types of coastal data using remote sensing and GIS techniques. Examples from the Netherlands and many other countries are given. The course also includes the cartographic presentation of data and the use of Decision Support Systems. Environmental Systems.

Analysis and Management (September 2001)
The course is especially designed for those involved in developing environmental planning solutions and who want to strengthen their capacity to map, monitor and model the spatial component of environmental problems (e.g. applying remote sensing, GIS, decision support systems).

Contact information: e-mail: education@itc.nl, Website: http://www.itc.nl/education

Events recently announded

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

Sea level rise will more dramatic than previously predicted
A new, yet unpublished report by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that it is already too late to prevent large areas of arctic ice sheets from melting, reports the New Scientist of 25 November. Moreover, sea levels are going to rise more than the IPCC forecast reported four years ago. Instead of a maximum rise of half a metre in this century and 1,5 to 3 metres in the next 500 years, the rise will be 7 to 13 metres. This is enough to drown large areas of land and major cities. These rises will occur even if governments succeed in halting global warming within the next few decades, the unpublished report says. There are two factors that might lead to this stronger and longer rise: the slow spread of heat to the ocean depths and the destabilising of major ice sheets. It will take about thousand years for warming in the atmosphere to reach the bottom of the oceans, but the resulting thermal expansion would continue to raise sea levels for many centuries after stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations. Models show that after any warming above 2,7ºC, the Greenland ice sheet will disappear. The Western Antarctic ice shelf is also threatened, and if it melted it would raise sea levels by a further 6 metres. The IPCC report is being studied by the world's governments and is due to be published in May 2001.

Wadden Sea research reveals need for better management
echanical shellfish fishing methods do greater damage to the Wadden Sea environment than previously assumed and this should be taken into account when giving out new licences. This is one of the conclusions drawn by the Trilateral Wadden Sea Conference beginning of November. Another outcome of the conference was the recognition that the high eider duck mortality recently observed is indirectly linked to food shortage. The ducks show a high infestation rate with parasites which causes the need of higher food intake. Under these circumstances, the present density of cockles, mussels and spisula fish species is not high enough to sustain the duck population. Other issues discussed were the growing harbour seal population in the Wadden Sea that increasingly competes for space and resources with economic sectors such as tourism and fisheries; sand nourishment against shore erosion needs to be done in a more cautious manner (by taking sand only from areas of low ecological significance); and the call for a temporary reduction of shrimp fisheries in summer time in order to preserve young plaice stocks. The conference furthermore discussed ways of improving information flow between policy makers and scientists and decided to start continuous cooperation with South Korea to share knowledge on tidal flat ecology and ICZM. The official conclusions and recommendations of the conference will be published beginning of December.
Further information can be obtained from Prof. Wolff, e-mail: w.j.wolff@biol.rug.nl.

Import of bigeye tuna banned
In a major move against illegal fishing, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) banned this week the import of bigeye tuna from Belize, Cambodia, Equatorial Guinea, Honduras, and St Vincent and the Grenadines. All five countries are notorious flag of convenience countries - those that allow fishing vessels to operate under their flag without exercising any control over the activities of the vessel - and collectively operate a fleet of some 280 industrial longline vessels fishing illegally on the high seas in the Atlantic Ocean. Bigeye tuna, the main target of the Atlantic pirate fishing fleets, commands a high price on the Japanese market and is mainly used for sushi. Japan the European Union, the United States and other countries that are members of ICCAT, are now legally bound to close their markets to the tuna caught by vessels registered under the five flag of convenience countries. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is in the process of developing an international plan of action to 'prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing'.
Further information: Greenpeace: http://www.greenpeace.org/
FAO Fisheries Department: http://www.fao.org/fi/default.asp
ICCAT: http://www2.rediris.es/iccat/

Water Framework Directive aims at "good status" of coastal waters
After five years of discussing and revising drafts, the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) was finally accepted by the European Parliament and the European Council in September. The new legislation will replace a long list of present water related laws and enter into force the day it will be published in the Official Journal which is expected until the end of this year. However, the European Union member states have three years - until autumn 2003 - to adapt their national rules to the new European legislation. One of the key elements is the aim to achieve "good status" of inland waters, transitional waters (e.g. estuaries), coastal waters and groundwater. The objective is to prevent deterioration of the present status and to protect, enhance and restore all waters with the ultimate goal of achieving "good status". The criteria for "good status" include both concentrations of various substances in water bodies and emitted into the aquatic environment and the composition of biological communities. Their definition is a major challenge for European research. Other key elements include the concept of integrated river basin management across administrative and political borders, specific control and phasing out of riskier pollutants, and strengthening of public participation procedures. The WWF Europe/Middle East Programme has opened an informative website with original documents and explanatory text related to the WFD under http://www.wwffreshwater.org/initiatives/wfd.html

EU Fisheries Council supports tough measures
During the Fisheries Council meeting in Brussels on 17 November the majority of Member States shared the Commission's view that Total Allowable Catches (TACs) and quotas cannot on their own respond to the problem of the serious imbalance between fishing capacity and effort on the one hand and available resources on the other (see Coastal Guide News No. 23, http://www.coastalguide.org/news/2000-23.html#dev2). Most Member States called for stronger measures, including penalties for non-compliance, to overcome the problem. The Council also welcomed the intention of the Commission to present a report early in 2001 on the situation of fisheries in the European Union, in view of possible amendments to be brought to the Common Fisheries Policy before the end of 2002. This deadline would allow sufficient time to hold in-depth discussions throughout the Community before the presentation of the Commission proposals.
For further information, read the full press release: http://europa.eu.int/comm/fisheries/news_corner/press/inf00_26_en.htm

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: Erik Devilee, Levente Galambosi, Irene Lucius, Hanneke Mesters, and Albert Salman. 

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, POB 11232, NL-2301 EE Leiden, the Netherlands, tel.: +31-71-5122900, internet: http://www.eucc.nl

© European Union for Coastal Conservation