Common Wadden Sea Secretariat at UNFCCC COP23

This week, tens of thousands of national delegates and other participants are converging on Bonn for the 23rd Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Common Wadden Sea Secretariat (CWSS) used the opportunity and organized a side event titled “Collaboration in Climate Change Adaption and Mitigation” on 7 November 2017 at the conference grounds. The 90-minute event was held in cooperation with the Korea Marine Environment Management Corporation (KOEM), the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST) and Climate Planning Australia.

“Coastal habitats across the globe are facing similar threats”, stated Rüdiger Strempel, CWSS Executive Secretary and the event’s moderator. “There is a lot to learn from each other, which is one of the reasons why we use the Wadden Sea’s World Heritage title to connect with other regions of the world. With this side event we wanted to stress the importance of knowledge exchange in the field of climate change adaptation and mitigation.” The Wadden Sea World Heritage already cooperates closely with the authorities of the Banc d’Arguin in Mauretania, another key site on the East Atlantic Flyway, as well as with the Republic of Korea.

The audience of 40 heard presentations from Donovan Burton, of Climate Planning, Australia, who highlighted the economic risks of climate change arising from the threats to human settlements along the coast, from Ms Suk-Hui Lee of the Korea Marine Environment Management Corporation (KOEM) and Mr. Heung-Sik Park of the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST) on the Korean Blue Carbon approach and its application in salt marsh management and restoration and from Mr. Jacobus Hofstede, of the Ministry for Energy Transition, Agriculture, Environment, Nature and Digitalization of the Federal State of Schleswig-Holstein on the climate change adaptation strategy for the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea.

The presentations are available for download at the COP 23 website.