Trilateral Monitoring and Assessment Program

The report has been prepared by the TMAG following a decision of the Stade Conference in 1997 to evaluate the experiences with the TMAP Common Package at the Wadden Sea Conference in Esbjerg in October 2001. The report is an evaluation of the current implementation status of the Common Package as of February 20001 and of the experiences with the Common Package concerning requirements of the trilateral Targets and the EU Bird and Habitat Directives (NATURA 2000). It also entails an evaluation of the present organizational structure of the TMAP and proposals to further develop the TMAP to meet future demands and challenges.

Until the beginning of 2001, the financial and organizational preconditions to implement major parts of the Common Package were established in all three countries. Considerable effort has been undertaken to adapt the national monitoring programs to the requirements of the TMAP. The large majority of the parameter groups could be implemented but gaps still exist for several parameter groups, which could not be implemented in one or two countries because of financial reasons. This concerns the following Common Package parameters:

The implementation of the associated TMAP data handling system is behind schedule for all parameter groups although the major technical parts of the data management has been successfully solved and is ready for use. The TMAP data units in Germany are accessible via the Internet and selected data sets can be downloaded, whereas in Denmark and the Netherlands the installation of the data units have not yet been finalized. The delay is mainly caused by the absence of a functioning long-term working structure for the implementation of the data handling system in the three countries. As a consequence, a fully operational data handling system will not be available until the end of 2001.

The necessary financial and personnel resources should be made available to implement the remaining parameters of the Common Package and to make the TMAP data handling fully operational as soon as possible in accordance with § 21 Stade Declaration. Because of the importance to establish an operational data handling on a long-term basis, this issue is further addressed under organizational aspects.

Although most of the basic information for most of the Targets in the Wadden Sea Plan can be obtained by the Common Package, substantial gaps exist which hamper a more comprehensive Target assessment considerably. An extension of the Common Package is necessary in order to meet all requirements of the Targets and the EU Habitat Directive. The major information gaps concern fish communities, blue mussel species parameters, breeding success of birds, grey seal and harbour porpoise and tourism data. These gaps should be filled with priority. Table 1 provides an overview about the proposed priority projects and the estimated financial implications:
Proposal 1
To implement the five priority projects in order to meet the requirements of the Wadden Sea Plan Targets and the EU Habitat Directive.

Table 1: TMAP priority projects and estimated financial implications (in Euro)

Priority project	Contents	Costs
		NL	FRG	DK	Total
1. Fish monitoring	a. Inclusion of Demersal Young Fish Survey (DYFS), b. Investigate possibilities to include pelagic fish.	- -	- -	- -	- -
2. Blue mussels	Inclusion of blue mussel species parameters (running national programs).	-	-	-	-
3. Birds breeding success	Continuation of the trilateral pilot project of 1996-97; (yearly costs)	25,500	44,000	12,700	82,200
4. Marine Mammals	a. Implementation of a two-year pilot project on grey seals, b. Investigate possibilities to carry out a pilot survey for harbour porpoise.	22,000 -	16,600 -	- -	38,600 -
5. Tourism	Preparation of a project proposal to develop a standard monitoring program (by Inter-Regional Wadden Sea Coop.).	-	-	-	-

In addition to the proposed five priority projects, activities are necessary to further develop and optimize the TMAP for requirements of the Targets and the Habitats Directive. These activities could be carried out by the TMAG as part of their regular work and can be implemented without any additional costs. This concerns mainly further investigations before a decision can be taken, e.g. a precise definition of the specific information needs (Target specification), development of an appropriate monitoring strategy, projects, costs and funding possibilities, as well as national preparation. The TMAG proposes to include this work into the annual work program:
Proposal 2
To instruct the TMAG to investigate possibilities to further improve the TMAP Common Package with regard to the Targets and the EU Habitat Directive on the basis of an annual work plan.

A functioning work structure is indispensable to achieve the aims of the TMAP, namely a scientific assessment of the ecosystem and an evaluation of the implementation status of the Targets. The existing TMAP work structure has been functioning well and should be continued with the TMAG as the main coordination body and the existing TMAP sub-groups:
Proposal 3
To maintain and continue the existing TMAP work structure.

The data handling is an essential part of the TMAP to carry out the given tasks properly. The current data handling work structure is not established on a long-term basis and therefore insufficient to guarantee a steady national TMAP data flow into the units, a reliable and constant availability of TMAP data on the trilateral level, and finally the desired information flow between monitoring, assessment and management.

Furthermore, a trilateral coordination is required for a harmonized implementation, maintenance and further development of the TMAP data handling system These tasks concern the coordination of trilateral data handling operations, the implementation of structures for further parameter groups, the coordination of projects to update and extend the trilateral data handling tools and the support of the trilateral working groups concerning data handling aspects. Table 2 provides an overview of the estimated financial implication to maintain an operational TMAP data handling system:
Proposal 4
To employ data handling persons at each national database and a data handling coordinator at the CWSS on a long-term basis.

Table 2: Estimation of the financial implications for the TMAP data handling at the 4 national data units and the CWSS (in Euro).

	National data units	Trilateral coordinator	Total
The Netherlands	33,000*	22,000	55,000
Germany: (2 Units)	66,000*	22,000	88,000
Denmark	33,000*	22,000	55,000
	132,000*	66,000	198 ,000

* The personnel effort depends on the individual preconditions at the individual data unit. As a minimum, one part-time position is estimated for the maintenance of the TMAP data unit (TMAG 1997).

The TMAP assessment work such as the preparation of the QSR 1999 demonstrated that an efficient work is often hampered by an inadequate product definition and working structure which results in a delayed publication of the monitoring results. Therefore, it is important to better define the products to be delivered, and to establish a structure for the assessment work and publication. This also includes appropriate technical tools (graphical and statistical tools) to visualize and analyze the data available from the TMAP data units. The assessment results could then be made easier and faster available to the relevant authorities, interest groups and local citizens than in the past in accordance with the Wadden Sea Plan (Chapter I, § 15). The publication of results in reports, brochures and newsletters, should be supplemented by modern presentation tools like Internet platforms or e-mail newsletters. The TMAG proposes to establish a TMAP information system entailing coordinated assessment and reporting procedures, as well as the publication and presentation of the results. Further investigations have to be carried out before an estimation of the possible financial implications can be given:
Proposal 5
To agree that it is necessary to develop a TMAP information system to make the TMAP results easier and faster available to relevant authorities, interest groups and local citizens and to instruct the TMAG to investigate the possibility to develop such a system entailing a comprehensive assessment and publication procedure.