• Titel: Statement of Parliamentary State Secretary Gila Altmann at the Trilateral Governmental Conference on the Protection of the Wadden Sea Esbjerg, 31 October 2001

• Redner/in: Parl. Staatssekretärin Simone Probst

Minister Auken,
State Secretary Faber,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of Federal Environment Minister Trittin, I would like to thank you for this invitation. I am pleased to see among the participants representatives of NGOs and of the various regional andlocal authorities concerned. I was very delighted by the performance on wilderness by the youngsters here, there couldn't have been any better introduction to our session. Thank you to "the youngwild" .

Unfortunately, several accidents have happened since our last conference: Pallas, Erika, Baltic Carrier, alarming the general public and resulting in a call for more shipping safety.

Germany welcomes the important forthcoming decisions currently under negotiation within the EU and at the international level, for example

• on accelerating the phaseout of single-hull tankers or
• on establishing a Community supervision, control and information system for maritime transport or
• on tightening port state controls.

I believe that these protection measures, which are either in place or being developed, constitute important and indeed necessary tools for the protection of the Wadden Sea. The question ofidentifying the Wadden Sea as a PSSA has been the subject of discussion at several Governmental Conferences. Designation as a PSSA would be a political signal that the Wadden Sea is an area ofspecial importance worldwide. A decision to that effect would also have a significant impact on the sensivity of the navigation and on the tourism industry.

From the point of view of conservation, I in principle sympathise with the proposals submitted by the environmental NGOs. I appriciate their activities, and from an environmental point of viewtheir ideas are legitimate and should be seriously reflected. However, in the political context we carefully have to consider all aspects of competiting interest and find a consensus between theinterests of nature conservation and the interests of the shipping and port industries .

Nevertheless, establishment of a PSSA in the form proposed here is an important step to raise the awareness worldwide of the sensitivity of this region. I am convinced that the NGO`s willaccompany the further process and progress very intensely.

The debate about nominating the Wadden Sea region as a World Heritage Site has been underway for ten years now. This year, in Germany the general public has been given ample information and hasbeen actively involved in the debate, thus creating the most important prerequisites for nomination of the Trilateral Conservation Area.

• Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony have expressed a favourable opinion in principle, but would like to see the consultation process extended by another one or two years.
• Hamburg has successfully concluded its consultation process and has come out in favour of nomination.

It is Germany's hope that the process will be further advanced, so that a decision can be taken in the next two years.

Nevertheless the Esbjerg Conference should send out a clear signal saying "we want to continue the process", and it is of vital importance to win the support of the population, as prescribed inthe UNESCO guideline. In this context I explicitely want to thank Svend Auken for his statement today.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
The local population has a legitimate interest in participating in policy formulation for the Wadden Sea region and in ensuring its sustainable development, and this participation is indeed crucialfor securing the necessary level of acceptance. Germany, like the Netherlands and Denmark, would like to boost the involvement of the local population in policy making within the Wadden SeaCooperation. The aim is to start a project, "the Wadden Sea Forum", to give the local population the opportunity to develop their own sustainable development objectives.

The protection of harbour porpoises is an urgent problem. Although the situation of this species has now improved to a certain extent, this progress is clearly not sufficient. Germany hasestablished a protection zone for harbour porpoises in Schleswig-Holstein as well as a centre for this species on the island of Sylt as first steps for raising public awareness.

Another important step in this direction is the integration of environmental aspects into the fisheries policy, which finds expression in the recommendation to reduce by-catches in order toprotect marine mammals.

When we talk about prohibiting industrial fishery in favour of human consumption we are not only talking of protecting fishing stocks but also of protecting endangered species and prevention ofunintended by-catch. You could argue that this issue is not in the focus of this session but belongs to the framework of common EU fishery policy. Nevertheless in view of the current problemsenvironmental related policy should insist on being involved in this issue. It is a good tradition within the trilateral cooperation to address such items with nature protection impacts to theresponsible fora.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
A high level of acceptance for Wadden Sea Cooperation should continue to be at the top of our agenda, a goal that can only be achieved with broad participation from the general public. In thisprocess, incorporation of objectives of sustainable development is crucial, and it is recommendable for the population concerned to develop these objectives themselves.

However, it must not be ignored in this context that responsibility must also be assumed for overriding, supra-regional interests - reconciliation of individual interests and finding ofcompromises must also take place between regional, national and trilateral levels.
In conclusion, let me express my firm belief that it is important to focus our activities on the essential goals of the Trilateral Wadden Sea Plan in order to avoid duplication of work and keep theunderlying spirit of Wadden Sea Cooperation alive.

On this note, I wish you a successful conference.