Two decades of
Wadden Sea protection without borders
By Imke Zwoch, National Park Lower
Saxony
The Common
Wadden Sea Secretariat celebrates its 20th anniversary of
successful trilateral work on the protection of the Wadden Sea. The
trilateral secretariat is world-wide a unique establishment.
Everything started
in Den Haag in 1985. At the 4th trilateral Governmental
Conference on the Protection of the Wadden Sea, the concerned
ministers of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Netherlands and
Denmark decided to strengthen their cooperation by installing a
common secretariat. It was decided to choose the city of
Wilhelmshaven as central location within the cooperation area to
establish the “Common Wadden Sea Secretariat” (CWSS). In November
1987, the head of the secretariat Mr. Jens Enemark as first staff
member moved into the today so-called “Havenhaus” at the “great
harbor” Virchowstr. 1, where the previous year the National Park
Administration had started their work.
“For me, it was an
appealing job and a great challenge to get the secretariat up and
running. As an individual competitor, at the time, it was very
important for me to get the much needed support of the National Park
Administration” Jens Enemark remembers the early times of his work
in Wilhelmshaven. The city council of Wilhelmshaven and the city as
such always met his expectations as host of the secretariat. The
city’s administration was open and helpful towards the newly opened
secretariat.
The installment of
an international secretariat for the protection of an ecosystem in
its entirety is world-wide unique. The secretariat is equally
financed by the three partner countries. According to the
Administrational Agreement, the Common Wadden Sea Secretariat has
the main following tasks:
-
To provide assistance with regard to
trilateral conferences, the standing bodies and working groups.
-
To coordinate the trilateral monitoring and
assessment program (TMAP)
-
To collect and disseminate information on the
quality status of the Wadden Sea ecosystem and typical Wadden
Sea species (seals, birds)
-
To
collect and disseminate information on conservation measures and
human activities.
-
To provide assistance with regard to
trilateral meetings on practical management in the field of
nature conservation.
-
To collect and communicate information on
activities that may impact the natural environment of the Wadden
Sea.
-
To promote and review scientific research
projects.
-
To support scientific symposia.
-
To make suggestions for a coordinated
approach by the Parties in international fora.
-
To prepare the annual work program, budgets
and reports.
-
To undertake other duties assigned to it.
The Common Wadden
Sea Secretariat is represented by a secretary, supported in his work
by scientific and administrational staff. The political scientist
Jens Enemark, with Danish citizenship, has been the secretary right
from the beginning. He has lived with his Dutch wife for 25 years in
Groningen, respectively since working in Wilhelmshaven, he has lived
here half of the time for the last 20 years. Therefore, he speaks
all three languages including English as common work language of the
cooperation. Currently Enemark is working with 5 permanently
employed staff members and with 2 employees working under a time
limited contract. “Over the years we established an outstanding
team, which I am very proud of. All nationalities of the Wadden Sea
region are represented as well as the highest professional
background, which we need to fulfill our job". In the beginning of
1988 Ms. Marijke Polanski (administration, finances, personnel,
translation/language check) and shortly after the biologist Bettina
Reineking (protection of species and habitats) were employed as
first additional staff at the secretariat. Since 1990 the biologist
Dr. Folkert de Jong (integrated coastal zone management, ICZM, and
sustainable development) has been member of the team. The biologist
Dr. Harald Marencic joined in 1995 (coordination of the trilateral
monitoring and assessment program – TMAP) and in 1996 Mr. Gerold
Lüerßen took over the position of data-coordinator. The geologist
Manfred Vollmer has been employed under a time limited contract
since 1999, responsible for cultural and historic landscape in the
region, currently working as coordinator of the LancewadPlan
project, which is financed by the EU Interreg IIIB program. Ms.
Sabine Borke joined the secretariat in 2007 under a time contract to
support the administrational project work.
Oben: The team of the Wadden Sea
Secretariat (from left to right): Jens Enemark, Manfred Vollmer,
Folkert de Jong, Sabine Borke, Marijke Polanski, Gerold Lüerßen,
Harald Marencic (not on the photo: Bettina Reineking) (Photo: Imke Zwoch)
With the growing
number of staff over the years the secretariat had to move twice
within the building to be able to accommodate the secretariat
appropriately. Today the Common Wadden Sea Secretariat is occupying
the 2nd floor of the “Havenhaus” Virchowstr .1, facing
the harbor.
On the
governmental level the cooperation has already existed for almost 30
years. Since 1978, the responsible ministers have been meeting
regularly every 3 to 4 years to discuss the problems of protecting
the Wadden Sea and seek solutions. The “Common Declaration on the
Protection of the Wadden Sea” was signed at the 3rd
Governmental Conference in Copenhagen in 1982. The document is the
declaration of the three countries to work together and coordinate
the implementation of the international species and habitat
protection regimes in the Wadden Sea region. Here the Ramsar
Convention, the EU Habitats and Birds directives, the Bern
Convention as well as the Bonn Convention have to be mentioned.
The chair of the
cooperation changes after each governmental conference. Currently
Germany is chairing the trilateral cooperation handing it over to
Denmark after the conference in 2010. One of the most important
tasks of the secretariat is the preparation of these conferences
with all preparation meetings on all government levels involved as
well as the implementation of the results of the trilateral
governmental conferences.
Important results
of the last few trilateral governmental conferences were for example
the following:
- The Seal
Agreement has been the first regional agreement under the
Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild
Animals (CMS, Bonn Convention) at the 5th conference
in Bonn 1988
- The Seal
Management Plan for the Wadden Sea was first concluded at the 5th
conference in Esbjerg 1991.
- A common
management plan for the whole Wadden Sea – the Wadden Sea Plan –
and based on that a common monitoring program, the Trilateral
Monitoring and Assessment program – TMAP, were concluded at the
8th conference in Stade 1997
In preparation of the
governmental conferences, the Common Wadden Sea Secretariat produces
regularly, based on the results of the monitoring program TMAP, a
Quality Status Report (QSR). The last one was published at the end
of 2004.
Besides the
coordination work the secretariat undertakes trilateral projects to
implement the Wadden Sea Plan, for example:
-
The Demowad
project – the project developed the TMAP and the data management
of the cooperation (EU funded Life project, 1995-1998)
-
The Lancewad and
LancewadPlan project – the projects made an inventory of the
cultural historic landscapes and the management of the areas (EU
Interreg funded projects, 1998-2001 and 2004 – 2007)
-
The Wadden Sea
Forum – an independent forum on sustainable development of the
area (EU funded Interreg project 2002-2005)
-
HARBASINS is a
project on the harmonization of monitoring in the North Sea
coastal areas. (EU funded Interreg project 2005-2008).
In thee projects the
secretariat works closely together with other international
institutions (for example OSPAR convention, river commission) and
keeps bilateral cooperation contacts with England (Wash-Northern
Norfolk coast) and West Africa (Guinea-Bissau) in the framework of
the African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement.
In order to do its
work effectively, the Common Wadden Sea Secretariat, in particular
on the scientific research level, is dependent on working with all
scientific institutes and organizations in the area on Wadden Sea
relevant topics. The institutions are therefore asked to provide the
secretariat with their research results and publications, so that
the secretariat can fulfill its task to collect and disseminate
information.
Enemark and his staff
can be very proud of their accomplishments over the years. Recently
in preparation of the next governmental conference in 2010, two
independent consultants evaluated the work of the trilateral
cooperation. In this evaluation, the secretariat received the
highest regards by the persons contacted in the course of the
evaluation work. The secretariat is seen as a very important and
dependable link between the partners and their work. Additionally
the secretariat is regarded as a major factor in the implementation
of the common protection and management aims and the coordination
between research and monitoring.
Finally, what about
the future? How is the secretariat’s role seen? Aren’t eventually
all aims reached with work so effectively? Also this was part of the
evaluation report. Jens Enemark concludes: “In order to preserve the
unique ecosystem of the Wadden Sea cooperation, the work today is as
important as it was 25 years ago. New challenges by globalization,
for example on the topics harbors, shipping, energy or the
immigration of alien species into the ecosystem, the influence of
climate change and the possible nomination of the area as World
Nature Heritage Site require more than ever a close cooperation. Not
last but least is the trilateral cooperation a European and global
model for boarder-crossing nature protection".
Contact
Common Wadden Sea
Secretariat - CWSS
Virchowstrasse 1
D - 26382 Wilhelmshaven
Phone:+49 (0)4421 9108 0 (op.)
Fax: +49 (0)4421 9108 30
e-mail: info@waddensea-secretariat.org
