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LESSONS FROM THE WATER FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE. HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE INTERNATIONAL WADDEN SEA CONFERENCE European water framework directive & coastal waters, Leeuwarden, May 2004 Paul Scholte, Wadden Sea Council Paul Scholte, Wadden Sea Council. WADDEN SEA, a NW European coastal area.
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LESSONS FROM THE WATER FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE INTERNATIONAL WADDEN SEA CONFERENCE European water framework directive & coastal waters, Leeuwarden, May 2004 Paul Scholte, Wadden Sea Council Paul Scholte, Wadden Sea Council
WADDEN SEA, a NW European coastal area • At the “downstream end” of the Water Framework Directive • At the “start” of the Marine Strategy
Experiences with the start of the implementation of the Water Framework Directive • The Netherlands is lagging behind other European countries • The Netherlands, as sinkhole of the Rhine, has much to gain from the WFD
STRENGHTS of WFD • Clearly defined Time Targets (2015, 2027), explaining the recent attention for the WFD in the Netherlands • River Basin approach, linking the Wadden Sea with its upstream river basins, source of pollution
WEAKNESSES of WFD • Fragmentation of the Wadden Sea by the applied river basin approach (6 in the Wadden Sea, in the Netherlands as different as the Rhine and Ems Basins) • Top-down approach, public involvement in implementation phase only
OPPORTUNITIES of WFD • Opportunities of WFD have received generally little attention • Yet genuine opportunity to improve the quality of European Water Bodies
THREATS of WFD • Monitoring, may become cumbersome and expensive • Poorly developed public participation (yet in the German part of Wadden Sea more developed) • Multitude of Management Bodies, without guidance in the directive • Lack of compatibility of Directives: habitat,bird, nitrate, Marine ?
LESSONS FOR THE MARINE STRATEGY • Need to streamline the various directives, e.g. ecoregion based approach should be compatible with river-basin approach • Monitoring, pragmatic choices to be made • Public participation, a major challenge to stimulate public interest in marine subjects • Directive vs Recommendation: Low impact of Integrated Coastal Zone Management Recommendation