Comments by the Wadden Sea Team to the draft Ministerial Declaration (Esbjerg Declaration)

Page 2, Preamble:

Acknowledge that the Wadden Sea Area is also an area where people live, work and recreate and reaffirm therefore the principle of sustainable development and the principle means for taking forward the recommendations and actions of Agenda 21 of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.

Acknowledge the benefits of the contributions by non-governmental organisations and Wadden Sea advisory boards, as an input to the preparation of the Conference, and therefore express a willingness to intensify their cooperation with such organisations in the work to protect the Wadden Sea.

Page 2, Progress Implementation Stade Declaration and the Wadden Sea Plan

Statement 2: To recognise the progress and potential lacks in implementation.....and to express the willingness to strengthen the fast and reliable implementation of the projects agreed upon in the future.

Page 3, State of the Wadden Sea Environment

To express concern about a number of problematic issues, in particular;

·  The high TBT concentrations in most of the Wadden Sea sediments;

·  The decline of mussel and eelgrass beds;

·  The decline of the natural situation in most of the Wadden Sea estuaries;

·  The mass mortality of Eiders in the Dutch Wadden Sea during Winter 1999-2000

·  The damage caused to the Wadden Sea through mechanical shellfish fishing methods

Agree to encourage those responsible for the design and construction of offshore installations such as Windparks to work towards ensuring that their design and construction does not preclude any environmentally sound disposal option.

Page 3; World Heritage Site Nomination

To decide starting a strategic and participatory planning process in case that most parts of the Wadden Sea Conservation Area will be nominated as a World Heritage Site in order to safeguard it for the present and future

Page 6, Communication, Information and Public Participation

To recognize that Communication, Information and Public Participation needs to be improved in the future in order to foster a sustainable development of the Wadden Sea region.

Our advice: Not to mention the Public Participation Workshop as we do not have any results.

Page 7, The Integration of Ecology and Economy

Müssen wir in jedem Falls etwas einbauen. Diskussion des Textes von Ruud am Montag.

Page 8, Sustainable Tourism and Recreation

To decide to implement the various projects and valuable recommendations of the NetForum in the Wadden Sea region in an integrated manner.

Page 8, PSSA

To acknowledge the feasibility study of the indepent expert (...organization included) as well as the WWF study „Protection of the Wadden Sea from ship accidents through the establishment of a PSSA Wadden Sea“ as part of the Wadden Sea Team Package Deal.

To decide upon designating the Wadden Sea and adjacent zones as PSSA.

Page 9, Future Aims

To acknowledge the Package Deal of the Wadden Sea Team as a valuable contribution for adressing the Future Aims.

To underline the importance of the future protection of the Wadden Sea with the help of the development of a agreed upon vision and a strategic plan.

To recall the importance of Integrated Coastal Zone Management as expressed in the Wadden Sea Plan.

To decide upon creating a Task Force that develops a concept for the proper involvement and participation of the inhabitants, users and stakeholders in the Wadden Sea region in the sense of Agenda 21 and Integrated Coastal Zone management and that addresses an organizational structure which makes all this operational.