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A MERRY
CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR
Best wishes to you and your family from the staff of the Common
Wadden Sea Secretariat.
1. Policy & Management
Danish
National Park inaugurated
 On
16 October 2010 the Danish Wadden Sea National Park was opened during
an official ceremony in Ribe. The inauguration was done by HRH Prince
Joachim and the ceremony was hosted by the Minister for the
Environment Karen Ellemann with participation also of official guests
from the two other Wadden Sea countries.
The Danish Wadden Sea National Park is Denmark´s third
and largest national park. It encompasses an area of almost 150,000
ha to equal app. 10% of the trilateral Cooperation Area. The
noticeable about the national park is that it includes not only the
Wadden Sea proper but also an off shore area, the islands, the
Skallingen peninsula and the Varde Å estuary and large parts of the
adjacent embanked marsh areas.
 The national park covers a
broad scope of objectives, in particular to protect and enhance the
nature and its cultural historical values, to further sustainable
development and to contribute to a coordinated development of the
Dutch-German-Wadden Sea area. It is explicitly stipulated in the
Statutory Order that the national park must be developed in
cooperation with the trilateral Wadden Sea Cooperation. The so-called
National Park Foundation, which is responsible for the establishment
and development of the national park, is headed by a Board. The
minister has designated Bent Poulsen as chairman of the Board which
is constituted by representatives from the local municipalities, and
various commercial and non-governmental organizations.
The Board is responsible for developing a national
park plan before the end of 2012. This plan must however not conflict
with the already existing protection regimes which cover most of the
area, i.e. the Nature and Wildlife Reserve, the N2000 designations
and the Law on the protection of the outer Tønder Marsh. In terms of
nature conservation, the national park reinforces the existing
protection regimes and will add to a more comprehensive and
integrated management of the area
For further information please visit the website:
http://nationalparker.skovognatur.dk/Vadehavet/
Hamburg
signed World Heritage Site Nomination
 On
20 December, the lord mayor of Hamburg Christoph Ahlhaus signed the
request to incorporate the Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park into the
Wadden Sea World Heritage property. The request will also be signed
by Federal Environment Minister, Dr. Norbert Röttgen and be submitted
to the UNESCO World Heritage Center in Paris in January 2011.
The request is a so-called request for a minor
modification of the boundaries of the Wadden Sea World Heritage
property to the World Heritage Committee in accordance with §§
163-164 of the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the
World Heritage Convention. If the request is passed the Committee
will approve at its meeting in Bahrein in June next year and the
Hamburg National Park will become part of the Dutch - German Wadden
Sea World Heritage which was inscribed on the World Heritage List in
June 2009.
UNESCO
World Heritage Marine Programme
 The first meeting of marine World Heritage Sites was
held on 1-3 December 2010, Honolulu, Hawaii. The meeting was
organized by the UNESCO World Heritage Center Marine Programme. The
purpose of the meeting was to bring the Marine World Heritage site
policy makers and managers together to establish a productive
exchange of success stories and management experiences among marine
World Heritage site managers and to deliver the contents for a draft
action plan toward navigating a new future for marine World Heritage.
There are 43 marine World Heritage properties on the
World Heritage List. They cover such wide variety of sites like the
Great Barrier Reef, the Wadden Sea, the Norwegian Fjords and the
Galapagos. There were representatives from almost 35 sites. From the
Wadden Sea participated Ms Vera Knoke from the Ministry of
Agriculture, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany and the secretary.
The discussions over the two days resulted in the
identification of key challenges and opportunities common for
practically all sites and a number of success stories. The common key
challenges and threats relevant for most of the marine sites were
a.o. the effects of climate change on the site in terms of enhanced
sea level rise or change in habitats and species, pollution from land
based sources, invasive species, international maritime activities
and litter from shipping. Also tourism development was considered a
major issue for marine areas in terms of regulations but also
considered a great opportunity for gaining support for the site.
The meeting was a success. Marine World Heritage
properties are the "Crown Jewels of the Ocean" and can
collectively make a difference to address the common key challenges
and to learn from the success stories and best practices to reinforce
the management of the individual properties.
 The
meeting was held on Hawaii on 4 December in connection with the
inscription ceremony of the latest and up till now biggest marine protected
and marine World Heritage area, the Papahänaumokuäkea World Heritage
Site (some 360,000 km2) northwest of the Hawaiian islands.
Further information at: www.marineworldheritage.org
Wadden
Sea World Heritage - What is going on?
The Wadden Sea Board adopted a Communication and
Marketing Programme 2010 - 13 at its meeting on 7 October 2010. The
programme is the business plan for the activities in the next three
year period. It guides the work and starts a rolling planning which
has to be adjusted at various stages.
It covers 1) information and awareness raising
activities (common website, information material, joint campaigns,
media support), 2) environmental education (International Wadden Sea
School, cooperation between educational centers, qualification
programmes, World Heritage educational products), 3) tourism and
recreation (development of a sustainable tourism strategy for the
World Heritage, infrastructure such as sign posts, high quality World
Heritage offers) and 4) reporting to the UNESCO World Heritage Center
in Paris and international cooperation with other World Heritage
sites e.g. along the East-Atlantic bird flyway.
The Wadden Sea Board also adopted the Terms of
Reference for the development of consistent sustainable tourism
strategy for the Wadden Sea World Heritage and established a Task
Group to implement the project in 2011 - 2012. The Task Groups
Sustainable Tourism Strategy (TG-STS) consists of representatives
from tourism and marketing organizations, ministries and provinces,
nature conservation agencies, and green NGOs from the Netherlands,
Germany and Denmark. Together with stakeholders in the regions, the
TG will develop common objectives and principles for such a strategy
together with a plan for actions to be undertaken by the partners
either together or individually in the forthcoming period.
 In
a joint celebration of the two federal states of Schleswig-Holstein
and Lower Saxony in Büsum on 2 October 2010, the UNESCO
representative Dr. Mechthild Rössler presented the official World
Heritage certificate to the two Environment Ministers, Dr. Juliane
Rumpf and Hans-Heinrich Sander. The ministers underline the joint
responsibility of the Netherlands and Germany for protection and
management of the Wadden Sea World Heritage and the new perspectives
for regional development and sustainable tourism.
Further information at:
http://www.waddensea-worldheritage.org/News_Details.31+M5d35ea8102d.0.html
20 Years
Seal Agreement
On 16th October 1990, Denmark, Germany and the
Netherlands signed the first regional Agreement under the Bonn
Convention. Since then, the seal population has increased
considerably - a true success story of the Trilateral Cooperation. In
a joint press release, the Secretariat of Convention of Migratory
Species (CMS) and the Common Wadden Sea Secretariat, commemorates
this success of 20 years transnational cooperation in seal
management.
The Agreement on the Conservation of Seals in the
Wadden Sea was the first regional agreement signed under UNEP's
Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals,
also known as the Bonn Convention. It was concluded after the first
distemper in 1988, when almost 60% of the seal population in the
Wadden Sea died. The Seals Agreement provides a framework and crucial
support to protect, manage and monitor seals in the Wadden Sea.
Further information at:
http://www.waddensea-secretariat.org/news/CMS_Wadden_Sea_%20Press_Release_20Anniversary.pdf
New
working structure of the Trilateral Cooperation
The Wadden Sea Board, which is the governing body of
the Trilateral Wadden Sea Cooperation and chaired by Peter Ilsøe,
Deputy Director-General, has now established is organizational
structure. Five Task Groups have been established: Management,
Climate, Shipping, World Heritage and Sustainable Tourism Strategy.
The Task Groups operate under and report directly to the Board.
Expert Network "Groups" such as the migratory and breeding
bird expert group, the trilateral monitoring and assessment expert
group, the trilateral data handling group, the seal expert group, the
IWSS network group, and networking with experts in various fields in
the context of e.g. workshops will be continued. Such expert groups
refer to the CWSS.
 http://www.waddensea-secretariat.org/trilat/structure/structure.html
New
communication officer at the secretariat
At the Ministerial Conference in Sylt in March 2010 it
was decided, that the communication about the Trilateral Wadden Sea
Cooperation should be enhanced in particular with regard to World
Heritage status and the new Danish Wadden Sea National Park. In order
to carry out these new tasks, a position of communication officer was
established at the Common Wadden Sea Secretariat. From over 60 job
applications from the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark, Ms. Nataliya
Drozdovych was selected. She will assume the job as Communication
Officer on 15 January 2011. Further information will be included in
the next issue.
2. Research & Monitoring
Towards a
Trilateral Research Agenda
 The
first international symposium of the Dutch Wadden Academy, organised
together with partners
from Germany and Denmark, was held in Leeuwarden from 8-10 December
2010. More than 200 scientists and managers from the Netherlands,
Germany and Denmark from the disciplines cultural history,
socio-economics, geology and ecology participated in the meeting.
At the symposium overviews of the current state of knowledge in these
fields were presented and main gaps in knowledge identified. These
served as the starting point for the formulation of the currently
most pressing trilateral research questions, to be included in a
trilateral research agenda.
Five workshops, addressing the topics "Economic
validation", "Food-web interactions",
"Tidal-basin inventory", "Sediment dynamics" and
"Archaeology" provided important input to the for
trilateral research agenda. In the coming year, the draft trilateral
research agenda will be further discussed by the trilateral
scientific and policy communities. The agenda will be presented at
the 13th International Scientific Wadden Sea Symposium in 2012."
More detailed information about the programme and the
registration form will be available on the website of the Wadden
Academy (www.waddenacademie.knaw.nl)
in October.
A comprehensive report of the symposium is at:
http://www.waddenacademie.knaw.nl/Report.305+M52087573ab0.0.html
First
transnational call for proposals on Wadden Sea Research
 At the end of the
symposium in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific
Research (NWO) and the German Ministry of Education and Research
(BMBF) signed the first transnational call for Wadden Sea Research
with a volume of 2 Million Euro. It has the aim to enhance
transnational and interdisciplinary research in the Wadden Sea. Two
main research topics resulting from global change processes have been
selected as themes for this joint call for research proposals in the
Wadden Sea region.
-
Georisks:
Responses to accelerating sea level rise in the Wadden Sea
region
- Biorisks:
Consequences of biological invasions for nature conservation in
the Wadden Sea coastal ecosystem
Deadline for applications is 28 February 2011. More
information is at:
http://www.ptj.de/waddenseacall
International
Symposium on Migratory Birds 2010 in Mopko, Korea
 In the framework of the
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Korea and the Trilateral
Cooperation, Marc van Roomen (SOVON) and the Gerold Lüerßen (CWSS)
were invited by the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs
and the Korea National Park Service for a 3 day field- and workshop
trip on October 12-14 along the Korean West coast followed by the
International Symposium on Migratory Birds in Mopko on October 15,
2010. Aim was to intensify the cooperation between several Korean
migratory birds monitoring and management related organizations and
the Trilateral Cooperation, especially to the Trilateral Joint
Monitoring Migratory Bird program (JMMB).
The field trip along the West coast of Korea showed
that embankments, economic activities and the building infrastructure
put high pressure on the remaining estuaries and tidal flats. At
present some major developments in Song-do and Seamangum are
continuing which have also impacts on ecosystem and local cultural
heritage.
The purpose of the conference was to enable
participants to share current knowledge on stopover ecology of
migratory birds and conservation of stopover sites, and to make
opportunities for communication with foreign researchers. Thematic
sessions explored topics such as the stopover characteristics of
passerines and shorebirds, and conservation efforts such as recent
research techniques, international networks, education, and habitat
management.
An informal meeting during the symposium it was
discussed how to enhance the cooperation with the Wadden Sea taking
into account the heterogeneous and complex structure of involved
Korean migratory waterbird organizations, e.g. by the establishing of
a Korean focal point for coordination of bird monitoring.
The MoU successfully supported the experience exchange
between two tidal flat areas with quite different development
backgrounds. The Wadden Sea area with a long history of economic and
landscape development and with more than 30 years of transnational
cooperation on the field of ecosystem conservation can provide
experiences, but can also learn from developments in other parts of
the earth.
3. Information & Education
Wadden
Sea - Korea Cooperation: Workshop on "Getbol" education
marks successful start of capacity building in Korea
 Following the
"First Joint Workshop Memorandum of Understanding Wadden Sea
Korea" in autumn 2009, a specific workshop and training course
on "Getbol" (the Korean word for tidal flat) education was
held in Mokpo, Muan and Sinan from 28.9.-2.10.2010. Aimed at Korean
managers of tidal flat visitor centres, tour guides, educators, local
residents and NGO activists, the purpose of this workshop was above
all to strengthen the organisational and educational capabilities by
sharing experience, know-how and material on tidal flat education
among the various Korean institutions as well as with the Trilateral
Wadden Sea.
The International Wadden Sea School, represented by
Ulrik Geldermann Lützen from the Danish Vadehavets Formidlerforum,
Jaco Spek from the Dutch visitor centre Ecomare and Anja Szczesinski,
coordinator of the IWSS, contributed presentations on various aspects
of Wadden Sea education and demonstrated practical educational
activities.
Altogether, the workshop was very successful with
highly motivated participants, fruitful discussions, a vivid exchange
of experience and ideas and a set of recommendations formulated by
the workshop participants for the future development of tidal flat
education in Korea as well as for the further cooperation with the
trilateral Wadden Sea. Further activities are planned for 2011 and
beyond.
Further information at:
http://www.waddensea-secretariat.org/trilat/international/international.html
Travelling,
cooking, playing: get to know the Wadden Sea with the IWSS' new
offers for school classes
 Sustainable,
professional and easy-to-book: The IWSS and the tour operator
explore&help present a new catalogue for "all
inclusive" class trips to Dutch, German and Danish Wadden Sea
destinations. The
flat-rate arrangements comprise a high-quality
educational programme, board and lodging as well as local
transportation according to the criteria of a sustainable tourism.
Altogether, seven thematic programmes at four destinations (Texel,
Wilhelmshaven, Hooge, Rømø) offer great experiences of Wadden Sea
nature and culture for pupils from elementary to high school.
For more information see
http://www.iwss.org/111.html?&L=0
An ideal recourse for groups staying in self-catering
houses provides the new version of the "Trilateral Recipe Collection".
With this material, international Wadden Sea experience already
starts at the kitchen table: From the Danish "Brændende
Kærlighed" via German "Lapskaus" to Dutch
"Zuurkool Stamppot" 34 recipes suitable for groups invite
to a culinary journey through the three Wadden Sea countries.
Practical tips for climate friendly cooking and sustainable grocery
shopping complete the collection, which is available as free download
in the IWSS Teachers Lounge on
http://www.iwss.org/teacherslounge.html?&L=0
On a virtual journey through the Wadden Sea leads the
new online version of the IWSS' "Get-to-know-the-Coast-Quiz".
What is the guillemot leap? Where does the East Frisian tea come
from? What kind of fishery has been prohibited to protect the Wadden
Sea? About 60 multiple-choice questions on the nature, culture and
protection of 19 Wadden Sea regions give a comprehensive insight into
the trilateral Wadden Sea. The Quiz is available in English, German,
Dutch and Danish. In each round, ten questions are randomly chosen,
making it worthwhile to play the game again: http://www.iwss.org/quiz.html?&L=0
4. Publications
Mollusks
in North and Baltic Sea
 Klaus Janke, 2010. Schnecken, Muscheln &
Tintenfische an Nord- und Ostsee. Finden und Bestimmen. Quelle &
Meyer, 191 pages, ISBN: 978-3-494-01456-2, 14,95 Euro
The book is an excellent overview of the marine
mollusks and provides detailed photos and drawings of the species
richness of the North and Baltic Sea. Any beach walk will turn into
an exciting collection experiences. In the attached species list all
findings are recorded so that the collection can be further
completed. The author was supported by Thomas Borchardt and Gerald
Millat who provided information about mollusk biodiversity and new
species, blue mussel fishery and aquaculture.
Wadden
Sea and Dolomites
 Dirk Ippen (Ed), 2010.
Wattenmeer - Weltnaturerbe - Dolomiten. Verlag Soltau-Kurier-Norden.
100 pages, ISBN 978-3-939870-39-5, 19,80 Euro
A special illustrated book that explores the
similarities and differences between the two contrasting natural
landscapes the Wadden Sea and the Dolomites, which both were
inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in June 2009. In seven
chapters, selected habitats in the East Frisian Wadden Sea and in
South Tyrol are described - two unique landscapes in Central Europe
which might not be comparable at a first glance but a comparable in
their beauty and magical appearance.
5. Trilateral Meetings
15 - 16 February 2011
Joint Monitoring Group of Breeding / Migratory Birds
17 - 18 March 2011
Wadden Sea Board
A complete overview is at:
http://www.waddensea-secretariat.org/trilat/meetings/meetings.html
Meetings of the Wadden Sea Forum (WSF) are at:
http://www.waddensea-forum.org/calendar.html
6. Symposia & Workshops
Wadden
Sea remote sensing techniques applied in Portugal
 The
user workshop on "Remote Sensing of Intertidal Flats" was
held within the project "Monitoring of Intertidal Flats"
funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) in the framework of the
Value Adding Element (VAE) Programme. It was hosted by the University
of Lisbon, Institute for Oceanography and took place in Lisbon on 2
-3 November 2010.
The projects had the aim to adapt existing remote sensing
techniques and classification methods developed in the Wadden Sea
over the last 10 years to the intertidal flat surfaces in the Tagus
Estuary. In several presentations, experiences in application of
remote sensing in the Netherlands, Germany, the trilateral and the
Portuguese context was shown, thus providing an impression how and to
what extend remote sensing products are currently included in the
praxis of operational monitoring.
At the workshop, monitoring results from the Tagus
Estuary and the Wadden Sea were discussed by scientists and end users
to identify the added value of remote sensing techniques for
research, monitoring and management. The TMAP and the Wadden Sea
World Heritage was also presented as an example on transnational
cooperation in monitoring and management.
The cooperation between Portugal and Germany / the trilateral Wadden
Sea Cooperation was discussed in terms of exchange of experience
especially for WFD reporting, the adaptation of in-situ measurements
for validation of remote sensing products, and on possible
cooperations in the framework of the East-Atlantic bird flyway.
More information:
http://www.brockmann-consult.de/vae-intertidal/
Upcoming
events
10-14 October 2011, Texel, The Netherlands
International Symposium on the Ecology of the Wadden Sea
NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research
http://projects.nioz.nl/ecologyofthewaddensea/1500/5/0/50
A complete list of upcoming events is at: http://www.waddensea-secretariat.org/news/events/otherconf.html
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