| Issue # 25 - October 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
 CLUSTERING OF COASTAL AND MARINE NETWORKS IN EUROPEThousands of organisations in Europe are active in the coastal and marine public and private sectors. Many of them already cooperate in networks, for tuning activities or for exchanging knowledge and experience. There are hundreds of networks - formal, informal, project-based, institutional, sectorial, regional, international, etc., often with partly overlapping objectives and membership. The great variety of networks became particularly apparent from the profusion of stakeholder reactions to the consultation on the EU Maritime Policy. During the past months several initiatives have emerged to order the landscape of existing co-operations, by the connection of existing coastal and marine related networks. These initiatives can be considered as a first achievement of the new marine and maritime EU policies, which call for a concentration of stakeholder organisations. In previous Enews issues we have informed you of the establishment of a European Coastal and Maritime Platform, a follow-up of the ENCORA Coordination Action. The inauguration of the Platform is foreseen at the Littoral Conference in Venice on 28 November. This Platform provides a structure to continue the cooperation of national and thematic ENCORA networks, while strengthening the interaction with other coastal and marine networks. Other similar initiatives have been launched as well, especially in the marine research community. A formal cooperation agreement among research institutes has been established in the MARS network (European Network of Marine Research Institutes and Stations), with several FP6 Networks of Excellence and the Marine Board as major initiators. Another initiative, led by ICES and the Marine Board, has been triggered by the FP7 call for a Maritime Partnership. Both initiatives strive for a broad cooperation, similar to the Coastal and Maritime Platform. It is not yet clear if these different clustering initiatives will join in a common network of networks. The Coastal and Maritime Platform initiative strongly encourages such a joint venture, with an equal status of early partners and later joining partners. The commitment of all parties to such a joint initiative is likely not yet fully settled at the inauguration of the Platform in Venice. The inauguration therefore will probably be the start of a partnership that will evolve in the following months.  National news in this issue
 International news is in this issue
  ENCORA THEME WORKSHOPS AT LITTORAL 2008Littoral attendants are warmly invited to attend two ENCORA workshops that will be held on 25 November in the morning: WORKSHOP ON MARINE BIOLOGICAL VALUATION : AN INTEGRATED VIEW ON NATURE'S INTRINSIC VALUE Marine biological valuation aims at assessing the intrinsic value of marine biodiversity, without reference to anthropogenic use. As such marine biological valuation should be considered complimentary to socio-economic valuation within the development of decision support systems for coastal and marine management. Through the EU Coordination Action and the EU-Network of Excellence MarBEF - Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning important scientific steps towards the establishment of a biological valuation concept and protocol were taken. The added value of such a marine biological valuation methodology is however only proved through its application. We therefore would like to take the next step by escaping the science box and open the discussion to practitioners. During this interactive workshop, targeted at practitioners, we will tackle questions, such as: (1) Can marine biological valuation be regarded complimentary to EU Directives, such as the WFD, Habitat- and Bird Directive? (2) How to compare different ecosystem components? (3) How to deal with invasive species within the marine biological valuation concept? (4) Can marine biological valuation be used for monitoring purposes? Session organisers Magda Vincx, Steven Degraer WORKSHOP ON PUBLIC PARTICIPATION Introduction by Irene Lucius Achievements Theme 2, results Paris meeting Introduction Comcoast Project Trazar Astley-Reid: Lessons learnt from Comcoast Discussion: Can these lessons be exported across Europe? Frank Ahlhorn: Case study Nessmersiel Discussion: Prospects of Participatory Integrated Assessment Processes Discussion: How to continue the progress made Wrap-up and conclusions Alan Pickaver, Wouter Kreiken  YPEP ECHOESFrom 1-3 September 2008, DANCORE (the Danish Network for Coastal Research) hosted a YPEP seminar on Marine Invasive Species at the Brorfelde Observatory situated in the centre of Zealand, Denmark. The participants formed an international group of young professionals from Morocco, Italy, Greece, Austria, Sweden and Denmark, most of them with a background in marine biology. The group gathered at Brorfelde on Monday evening and after dinner saw the old observatory housed at Brorfelde. The programme was focused on Danish and other European researchers’ experience with invasive species both within flora and fauna. A great diversity of presentations was given such as An overview of Marine Invasions, Characterization of a Brown Invasion, and Vulnerability of Marine Communities to Invasion; the native side of invasions. Also the results of work in Australia on Caulerpa Species on Temperate Reefs was given. The final touch of the programme was a discussion among the participants about the implications of invasive species for marine biology. ENCORA SURVEY FOR BETTER NETWORKING SERVICES OUT NOW!We call on you, as an ENCORA member, to give us feed-back on the ENCORA networking services, and to provide us with suggestions for improval to be implemented by the European Coastal & Maritime Platform. Please tell us what are your motives for joining and supporting the concept of an (inter)national network and which activities of the Platform would be of greatest interest to you and to your organization. Your reactions to the questionnaire will help to us define the future Platform programme of activities and to help the National Networks improving their services and operation. If you have not received the questionnaire, please download the file here and let the ENCORA team know what the future European Coastal & Maritime Platform can do for you! You may send it back to the officer of your country or at mailto:info@encora.eu | | ||||||||||||||||||||
National news is in this issue
Kortlægning af forskningen inden for klima og klimatilpasning  En storstilet undersøgelse kortlægger i øjeblikket det danske forskningslandskab inden for klima og klimatilpasning. Et vigtigt element i denne kortlægning er en spørgeskemaundersøgelse. Formålet er at kortlægge de nationale forskningsaktiviteter og forskningskompetencer inden for klimaområdet. Undersøgelsen er rettet mod samtlige forskningsinstitutioner i Danmark med forskningsaktiviteter inden for klima og klimatilpasning. Alle er inviteret til at deltage. Har du ikke modtaget en invitation, men arbejder du med klimaforskning, så send en mail til kft@dmu.dk og modtag en invitation Forskere, som responderer på spørgeskemaundersøgelsen, vil gennem deres besvarelse bidrage til en styrket tværfaglig national og international forskningsindsats på klima- og klimatilpasningsområdet. Kortlægningen skal bidrage til grundlaget for Folketingets fremtidige prioriteringer inden for klima- og klimatilpasningsforskning og gennemføres i et samarbejde mellem Koordineringsenheden for Forskning i Klimatilpasning (KFT) og Forsknings- og Innovationsstyrelsen (FI). Resultatet af kortlægningen vil efterfølgende blive offentliggjort til gavn for forskningsmiljøet. Littoral 2008 og ENCORAUnder Littoral 2008, som afholdes den 25.-28. november i Venedig, vil der som tidligere nævnt være mulighed for at deltage i forskellige ENCORA sessions. Hovedemnet bliver lanceringen af "the European Coastal and Maritime Platform" (ENCORA's efterfølger), som vil finde sted fredag den 28. november. Udover ENCORA-aktiviteterne har konferencen følgende overskrifter: - Global changes in the coastal zone: analysis, adaptation and mitigation, downscaling issues and relative to large scale changes - The Natura 2000 implementation in coastal zones - The Water Framework Directive (WFD) and coastal transitional waters - Natural and human interactions in the coastal zone: co-evolution or impact? - EU Policies and ICZM implementation in Europe (e.g. EU Maritime Policy, Flooding Directive; INSPIRE Directive; amongst others) - Coastal geology: sedimentary processes, Holocene evolution and the impact of sea level rise - Circulation and transport modelling - Safeguarding cultural heritage, a "new" topic in ICZM Klik her for opdateret program. Seminar on Marine Nature Conservation and Restoration Danish Society of Marine Biology 11 November 2008, Copenhagen, Denmark Read more Danish Sea Research Conference 2009 27-29 January 2009, Elsinore, Denmark Read more 12. videnskabelige VadehavssymposiumHermed fremsendes 1. announcement til det 12. videnskabelige Vadehavs-symposium, som denne gang finder sted i dagene 30. marts - 3. april 2009 i Wilhelmshaven. Symposiets hovedtema er: "Vadehavets økosystem i relation til EU-lovgivningen". Vi skal samtidig opfordre til at bidrage med danske indlæg på konferencen - herunder fremsendelse af "abstracts" - (aller)senest inden jul! Yderligere information kan indhentes ved henvendelse til: Harald Marencic Det Fælles Vadehavssekretariat (CWSS) i Wilhelmshaven e-mail: marencic@waddensea-secretariat.org Tlf. +49 4421 9108 15 eller John Frederiksen Miljøcenter Ribe e-mail: jobfr@rib.mim.dk Tlf. 72 54 85 12
|  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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