CONCEPTS FOR A TRILATERAL INTEGRATED MONITORING PROGRAM IN THE WADDENSEA

At the Sixth Trilateral Governmental Conference on the Protection of t he Wadden Sea, it was decided 'to cooperate in scientific research and monitoring with respect to the Wadden Sea....' As a consequence, a Tr ilateral Monitoring Expert Group (TMEG) was installed with the tasks t o elaborate the concept for an ecological monitoring which will enable a continous evaluation of the ecological state of the Wadden Sea as a whole and to present a plan for the implementation and execution of a first phase of the Joint Monitoring Program. The TMEG concept is base d on the approach that an ecological survey, evaluation and assessment requires a coordinated program of monitoring and concomitant ecologic al research. The program will be carried out on areas spread over the entire Wadden Sea region which are representative for specific subregi ons of the Wadden Sea. It consists of four central elements: a) conven tional monitoring defined by a set of issues of concern on the status of the Wadden Sea; b) regular checks of the representativity of sampli ng locations and reference areas; c) concomitant, mainly long-term eco logical research; here, the causal relationships between natural and h uman impacts and their possible consequences have to be identified and discriminated; d) a computer-based network of information exchange as a basic requirement of the realization of the program.