WSF 35 plenary on 9-10 May 2019 in Groningen, NL

The latest plenary meeting of the WSF took place on 9-10 May in Groningen, NL, at the Provinciehus. The meeting elected Mr. Stefan Mohrdieck from the county of Dithmarschen as new vice chair of the WSF (left), has worked on climate change adaptation strategies for the WSR and stakeholder involvement in the Single Integrated Management Plan (SIMP) for the Wadden Sea World Heritage Site. Also the new Memorandum of Understanding with the Trilateral Wadden Sea Cooperation was on the agenda as well as some further future topics for the work of the WSF.

Macroplastics Pollution in the Southern North Sea –
Sources, Pathways and Abatement Strategies

The University of Oldenburg has launched a project about plastic pollution in the southern North Sea. In 2019, a workshop with stakeholders is planned to analyse the potential influence of stakeholder groups on the marine plastic pollution as well as to discuss solutions to minimize pollution.
The WSF with its network of stakeholders is going to cooperate with the University of Oldenburg to support the project. Find more information here

Sustainability indicator project on regional and local level

The stakeholders of the WSF intensively discussed relevance and value of the late indicator tool and agreed to improve the instrument by in-depth analyses to make it more valuable and useful for stakeholders and policy makers on local and regional level by taking characteristics of the regions and specific circumstances into account. Therefore the data compilation and data assessment were part of a two-years project, co-financed by the “Niedersächsische Wattenmeerstiftung”. The final report “Development and Analysis of Sustainability Indicators” is available as pdf-download.

At the 11th Trilateral Governmental Conference for the Protection of the Wadden Sea on Sylt in 2010, it had been stated that the Wadden Sea Region (WSR) shall develop into a CO2-neutral region. This was reinforced at the conference in 2014 in Tønder.

To analyze the progress with regard to this aim, the Wadden Sea Board in cooperation with the WSF agreed to elaborate an inventory of CO2 reduction policies, measures and best practices. This was done on different levels, to get a complete picture, encompassing the European and national levels as well as the Wadden Sea Region with its provinces, counties and municipalities. On the local level only best practice examples have been compiled. The full report is now available for download. Inventory report for a climate-friendly Wadden Sea Region

The WSF has elaborated a report about developments in the Wadden Sea Region, including status reports about the work on demographic change and sustainability indicators. The approach for this report was to consider the objectives and statements of the political level, expressed in the Ministerial Declaration of the Trilateral Governmental Conference 2014 in Tønder, Denmark. Taking this approach into account, this report recalls those statements of the Tønder Declaration, relevant for socio-economic developments and stakeholder involvement in the Wadden Sea Region, assesses the main developments accordingly and presents recommendations of the WSF stakeholders for future actions.