| Issue # 10 - August 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
 EDITORIAL______________________________________________________________________________ EUROPEAN ACTION PLANS On 5-7 December ENCORA organises a coastal conference in Paris aiming at the development of European Action Plans. The Action Plans identify major unresolved issues underlying sustainable management of our coastal zones and key to facing challenges set by climate change, development pressure, trends in environmental quality and extreme events. They constitute an authoritative document reflecting the expertise of 1500+ ENCORA members and provide a reference base for future coastal and marine research investments, generating new incentives for the development of national and trans-national research programmes, including the 7th EC Framework Programme. We invite coastal and marine professionals throughout Europe to pre-register for the Paris conference. During the months preceding the event you will be invited to provide input to the conference by participating in one of the thematic internet forums on the ENCORA Portal. Pre-registration for the Paris Theme Conference is open till 15 September.  National news in this issue
 International news is in this issue
  ENCORA expands to Russia, Ukraine and North-AfricaNational coastal networks have recently been established in Russia and Ukraine and a regional network is being established in the North-African Maghreb countries Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. They provide new opportunities for sharing knowledge and experience on coastal and marine issues between these countries and the EU. The Russian network is coordinated by the Shirshov Institute (Southern Branch Gelendzhik, coordinator Ruben Kosyan) and the Ukrainian network by the Marine Hydrophysical Institute (Sebastopol, coordinator Valery Eremeev). The North-African regional network is coordinated by the Institut National de Recherche Halieutique (Casablanca, coordinator Abdellatif Orbi); national coordination offices are established in Algeria (coordinator Mr. Boudouma, Laboratoire d'Etudes Maritimes, ) and Tunisia (coordinator Mehdi Benhaj, Agence pour la Protection du Littoral). The networks are linked with the EU coastal networks in several ways (see also the ENCORA-TTC workplan): • the Contact Search Mechanism enables partner search for sharing coastal knowledge and experience with coastal professionals in the new ENCORA member countries; • the ENCORA Contact Database will be filled with information on coastal scientists, practitioners, policy makers, network ambassadors, institutes and projects; • information on ongoing programmes will be disseminated through national websites – the Russian and Ukrainian websites will have an English section and the North-African websites will be in French; • the Russian and Ukrainian networks will organise YPEP events enabling young coastal professionals from these countries to exchange knowledge and experience with EU countries on topics of common interest; • experts from the new ENCORA member countries will update the Coastal Wiki with coastal expertise in the respective countries and with information on practices and on regional seas: the Eastern Baltic, the Mediterranean, the Caspian and the Black Sea. You may call on the free services of ENCORA if you wish to strengthen cooperation with any of the new ENCORA member countries.  National Coastal Networks learn from each otherOur Greek national network workpackage coordinator has recently delivered a benchmark report presenting a comparative analysis of the functioning of the National Coordination Offices (NCO’s) during the first year of the ENCORA project. Results are presented according to performance indicators and analyzed in terms of strengths and weaknesses. An NCO officers meeting was held in June 2007 to discuss various aspects of the report and to learn from each others successes and difficulties. Many NCO’s had similar experiences. It appears that NCO’s were successful in raising a national coastal network and in creating mechanisms for sharing knowledge and experience. Some of the services offered by ENCORA generated from the beginning strong interest while others are not yet much used. Best appreciated services are the national coastal websites, the Coastal Wiki, the young professionals exchange programme and the contact database. The interest of coastal professionals for the contact search service is not yet at the expected level. The benchmark yields a range of recommendations listed in the report. Your suggestions are also most welcome; we will be happy to correspond with you on any idea how to improve the effectiveness of the networking services. ENCORA Portal evaluationWhat we found out about the ENCORA Portal After interviewing nearly 50 coastal scientists, practitioners and policy makers from all the ENCORA partners countries we found out that we have a lot in common when it comes to expectations for the ENCORA – Coastal Portal According to users, what we need to make our portal a real reference for sharing knowledge and ideas in Coastal Management, is a truly comprehensive and quality information or signposting, a clearer focus for users to find what they need and strong efforts for promotion. To see all evaluation findings please click here So what about changes? In the short term, a number of actions are already taking place such as online explanations for users, making the contact database editable by users, uploading relevant documents for each nation, etc. A total redesign of the website is also being considered. So what is in your hands? Actions are not only about technical aspects. Actually, the most important aspects are the need for coastal organisations like yours to use and to contribute good quality information to the Wiki or the CoastWeb library, to share or ask for ideas, contacts or knowledge through the Forum or the Contact Search mechanism. To make a real difference we need to tell others within our own organisations and our own networks about the ENCORA project and portal. Keep a lookout for a new checklist: “TIPS FOR PROMOTING ENCORA”, that will be made available online very soon! |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||
National news is in this issue
Ny DANCORE-brochure Den nye DANCORE-brochure er nu klar. JobsøgningEr du jobsøgende? Så tilbyder vi nu at lægge dit CV ud på DANCORE's hjemmeside. Se her Nye medlemmerDANCORE har på nuværende tidspunkt 155 medlemmer. I august er der kommet 4 nye medlemmer til fra følgende institutioner: DTU, Københavns Universitet og Ålborg Universitet. Gracilaria vermiculophylla = kvælertangHermed sidste nyt om Gracilaria. Vedlagt er et par fotos samt en artikel, der viser et kort over dens udbredelse indtil januar 2007. Artikel / fotos SPICOSA E-newsThe first SPICOSA newsletter is ready online at: http://www.spicosa.eu/enews/enews07-1.htm Nordic Marine Academy OpportunitiesCurrent opportunities for PhD students Current opportunities for researchers
|  Colophon The ENCORA objective is to facilitate and create new opportunities for sharing knowledge and experience on coastal issues in Europe. This electronic newsletter will inform you frequently about the activities and achievements of the network. Every issue will contain a section with news about your national network or ICZM related topics in your country. This electronic newsletter may be forwarded freely to others working in the ICZM fiels. If you would like to receive the ENCORA Newsletter directly, please contact your national coordinator or subscribe to www.encora.org. News-items for publication can be send to encore@rikz.rws.minvenw.nl. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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