1. Policy & Management

Trilateral Conference on Neobiota in the Wadden Sea

The 5th International Wadden Sea Day will be held in Wilhelmshaven on 26 August 2010 under the theme “Neobiota in the Wadden Sea - challenges for nature conservation”. It is organized by National Park Lower Saxon Wadden Sea together with the Common Wadden Sea Secretariat.
The conference has the aim to provide insights in recent research and management projects along the Wadden Sea coast, to assess the possible threat to the Wadden Sea World Heritage and to discuss with scientists and managers how new challenges by marine alien species can be met by trilateral policy and management.

Further information and draft program
www.waddensea-secretariat.org/news/symposia/WaddenSeaDay2010/WaddenSeaDay2010.html

First meeting of the new Wadden Sea Board

In conjunction with the signing of the 2010 Joint Declaration in Sylt in March 2010, a new governance structure has been adopted which replaces the existing structures. The Trilateral Wadden Sea Governmental Council will be the politically responsible body (Ministers) for the Cooperation. The Trilateral Wadden Sea Board will be the governing body of the Cooperation.
On 3 - 4 June, the new established Wadden Sea Board (WSB) had its first full meeting under its new chairman Mr. Peter Ilsøe, Head of Regional Office Wadden Sea Region of the Danish Forest and Nature Agency. The Board discussed the program under the Danish presidency, adopted a trilateral strategy for the period 2010-2015, as well as the new Rules of Procedure and Financial Regulations. A business plan for the period 2010-2013 together with a new architecture of the trilateral working group structure was elaborated for approval at the next Board meeting on 7 October 2010.

Further information about the new governance structures adopted at the Sylt conference: http://www.waddensea-secretariat.org/tgc/TGC-Sylt-2010.html. The meeting documents as well as the record of meetings of the Board will in principle be available at the website.

Wadden Sea World Heritage Site - What is happening?

A new joint Wadden Sea World Heritage logo was selected in a creative competition with participation from Dutch and German agencies and design professionals. Over 35 proposals have been submitted which were assessed by a jury consisting of representatives of all stakeholders during April and May. A selection of five logos was then put forward to the Dutch and German responsible ministries which took the final decision on the first three prices. The winner is…….

World Heritage inauguration ceremony

The first anniversary of the Wadden Sea World Heritage will be celebrated in the regions at various occasions in the framework of a joint campaign in summer 2010.
In the Netherlands, the official inauguration ceremony of the UNESCO World Heritage with participation of Mr.Rao, deputy director of the UNESCO World Heritage Center was held at the first Dutch World Heritage weekend in Lauwersoog on 19-20 June 2010. Mr Rao handed over the official certificate of the inscription to Ms Verburg, Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Qulaity at a ceremony on a boat in the Wadden Sea. At this ceremony participated representatives of all relevant stakeholders. The official ceremony for Germany will be organized in Schleswig-Holstein in early autumn 2010.

World Heritage Sustainable Tourism Strategy

The work on the development of a sustainable tourism strategy for the site has also started. As a first step, a quick scan of existing reports, projects and activities on sustainable tourism on regional, national and international was carried out including experiences from the Wadden Sea countries, international initiatives (EU, CBD, UNESCO, UNEP), and other World Heritage sites such as the Jurassic Coast and the Great Barrier Reef. It appeared that the existing strategies on sustainable tourism are mainly regional which have not yet been coordinated, and that the trilateral NetFroum project (2000) provides the only region-wide approach so far. The development of consistent Wadden Sea tourism strategy for the World Heritage is a new challenge and will be a role-model for lining tourism and conservation across borders. The strategy itself will be developed together with all stakeholders in the Wadden Sea regions in a participatory process in 2010/2011.

World Heritage Campaign 2010

As a common initiative of tourism organizations and nature conservation agencies, a joint World Heritage campaign is being elaborated by a professional agency for the second half of 2010. It will continue the campaign of summer 2009 and has the aim to increase the awareness amongst visitors and local people for the World Heritage. As agreed at the joint workshop with visitor in February 2010, a World Heritage information module is currently being elaborated which contains basic World Heritage information and can be extended with additional modules, thus be easily placed in centers or existing exhibition.

The official website portal of the Dutch-German World Heritage Site has been completely renewed with a new functional structure and design including interactive maps and was officially presented at the opening of the new World Heritage exhibition at the Sylt conference on 17 March 2010.

Further information about the World Heritage: http://www.waddensea-worldheritage.org/

2. Research & Monitoring

For the first time: Breeding bird trends in the Wadden Sea

Annual trend analyses of 26 important Wadden Sea breeding bird species are available now. The Joint Monitoring of Breeding Birds (JMBB) Group and the Common Wadden Sea Secretariat (CWSS) are presenting national and Wadden Sea wide trends based on trilateral breeding bird count data up to 2006. Although 8 species are showing an increasing trend, for 10 species an opposite development has been calculated. >>More

New Trends of Migratory Waterbirds in the Wadden Sea

The Joint Monitoring of Migratory Birds (JMMB) Group has updated the annual trend analyses of migratory birds based on trilateral count data from 1987/88 until 2007/2008. For each of the 34 waterbirds, 10 and 21-year trends have been calculated for the entire Wadden Sea and four subregions. >>More

AEWA - Critical Site Network (CSN) Tool

AEWA - Critical Site Network (CSN) Tool The Critical Site Network (CSN) Tool was launched at the celebration of the 15th anniversary of AEWA in The Hague on June 14, 2010. The CSN Tool is a new web-portal of waterbirds and their critical sites developed in the framework of the UNEP-GEF Wings Over Wetlands (WOW) Project. The GIS based tool shows the location of protected areas and gives information on nearly 300 waterbird species in the AEWA region like breeding areas, flyway population estimates and much more. The tool presents with nice maps how the extremely important Wadden Sea Area for migrating waterbirds species is related to other critical sites along the African and Eurasian flyways. >>More

http://dev.unep-wcmc.org/csn/default.html#state=home

3. Publications

Third CPSL Report published

In the 3rd CPSL report the results of the work of CPSL III, carried out between December 2006 and December 2009 are documented. CPSL has evaluated the relevance of spatial planning for dealing with sea level rise. For this purpose the CPSL group was augmented with experts from spatial planning. CPSL has also investigated the feasibility and effects of sand nourishment to balance the sediment deficit of the Wadden Sea tidal basins under increased sea level rise.
>>More

Exploring Contrasting Trends of Migratory Waterbirds in the Wadden Sea

A high number of waterbirds show declining trends in the Wadden Sea. While some species show a similar trend in all Wadden Sea countries, a sizable number of bird species shows different trends in different Wadden Sea countries. It is these contrasting trends that are the focus of this exploratory study.
 >>More

4. Trilateral Meetings

27 - 28 September 2010
Trilateral Seal Expert Group
Texel, The Netherlands

7 October 2010
Wadden Sea Board (WSB-2)
Common Wadden Sea Secretariat, Wilhelmshaven

09 - 10 November 2010
Joint Monitoring Groups Breeding / Migratory Birds (JMBB/JMMB 10/2)
Hamburg, Germany

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

5. Symposia & Workshops

Upcoming events

26 August 2010, Wilhelmshaven, Germany
Wadden Sea Day, Neobiota in the Wadden Sea - Challenges for Nature Conservation
www.waddensea-secretariat.org/news/symposia/WaddenSeaDay2010/WaddenSeaDay2010.html

A complete list of upcoming events is at:
http://www.waddensea-secretariat.org/news/events/otherconf.html