DAILY SCHEDULEMonday the 10th of may 2010

PRACTICAL INFORMATIONS

Plenary session 1from 9.00 am to 11.00 am

Opening ceremony of the 4th International Meeting: presentation of the World Ocean Network and of the 4th International Meeting (Worl Ocean Network’s posi-tion and objectives, the pu-blic mobilisation in relation to the current issues).

Workshops6 possible themes from

11.00 am at 1.00 pm and 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm

1. More impact for greater network visibility2. Actions underway, actions to develop3. Actions towards young people4. Actions towards adults5. Actions towards organisations6. Marine Protected Areas

Plenary session 2from 5.00 pm to 6.30 pm

World Ocean Network General Assembly.

Forumfrom 6.30 pm to 9.00 pm

Get to know the other par-ticipants and discover the projects they have develop-ped in their country by lis-tening to their stories and short presentations. Share their experience and learn more about the po-sitive initiatives shown all over the world.

Transportation

TrainTo check the time schedules please consult : www.voyages-sncf.com

BusInformation and time schedules available under www.tcrb.fr

TaxiInformation available under 03.21.91.25.00

Shuttle ServicePlease consult the time schedule given in your Welcome Pack.

Money

Banks are open from Mon-day to Friday from 8.30 pm to 12.00 am and from 2.00 pm to 5.00 pm.

Money exchange is pos-sible by card via the cash machine.

The Euro (€) is the national currency.1 dollar = 0,75 €1 pound = 1,15 €1 yuan = 0,11 €

Health

DoctorLoic Rousselot60 rue du Camp de droiteBoulogne sur mer03.21.10.81.81

DentistYann SachetRésidence St Cyrrue de la LampeBoulogne sur mer03.21.30.05.00

Hospital Centre Duchenne03.21.99.33.33

Clinic de la Côte d’Opale03.21.99.11.11

Uselful Telephone Numbers

Police: 17

Gendarmerie:03.21.31.75.17

Fire brigade: 18

Emergency medicalservices: 15

Hotline 4th International Meeting:06.60.66.89.66

very day, media outlets from across the world re-port disturbing news. Our planet is currently suffe-ring from attacks on mul-tiple fronts: global war-ming, pollution, decreased reserves of drinking water, loss of biological diversity, diversification and defores-

tation… Despite its vastness, the ocean, which covers three fourths of the Earth’s surface, is often left out of this alarming news. Will it be saved by mira-culous intervention? Unfortuna-tely, that’s far from the case: on the contrary, it is the receptacle of all our activities.

The ocean plays a major role in the world’s ecological balance. The ocean controls the climate and the water cycle. The ocean exchanges gases with the atmosphere and influences the composi-tion of the air we breathe. It is home to millions of species that have not yet been classified. We need its resources, we cross it in all directions, and it participates in our leisure activities and cultures… Nevertheless, barely 2 % of its surface area has been explored and still today, we know less about the ocean’s depths than the surface of the Moon…

We are terrestrial creatures, but our living condi-tions on the continent depend on the world ocean. Everyone is concerned, even if they live far from the sea. Preserving the marine environment is not reserved exclusively for specialists or just those living along the coast. It’s everyone’s bu-siness. The decisions made in the years to come on how this patrimony of humanity is managed will be decisive for future generations.

Here we are again, reunited in even greater num-bers, members and partners of the World Ocean

Network, continuing to build our action plan so that the public can understand the stakes asso-ciated with the Ocean and take action.

Hello and welcome everyone!

Philippe Vallette Co-Chair of World Ocean Network

Jean-Michel CousteauPresident of the Honorary Committee

4th International Meeting of the World Ocean Network.Acting together for the future of the Blue Planet

We are terrestrial creatures,butourlivingconditionsonthecontinentdependontheworldocean.

E

PORTRAITDr. Rudolf de GROOT,

I am not an economist, I am an ecologist. says Rudolf DE GROOT, associate professor at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. He works in the environmental systems analysis group and seeks to demonstrate that by devoting more resources to the preservation of the Ocean, we all bene-fit. « The results of 83 stu-dies show that the benefits of setting up p r o t e c t ed

marine areas are between 6 and 100 times the cost of their maintenance.. » This fact is too rarely taken into account in poli-cy decisions. « Private interests trump the collective interest. Decision makers have a short term vision. They forget to take into account the entirety of the services provided by the Ocean. » Air quality, the coastal protec-tion afforded by barrier reefs : all of the services that the ma-rine environment provides us with and too often forgotten, wrongly. « This is because, in the future, the cost to the tax-payer of paying for dealing with pollution, for the restoration of the coast or for the construction of protective sea walls will be a real economic problem. »

AWARENESS RAISING ON THE INDIAN COASTLINE By Anitha SANTHIAs an environmental educator in Kérala (A south-western Indian state) Anitha SANTHI is constantly preoccupied by the question of how to communicate on the environment to young people. More than 30% of Kéra-la’s population (of more than 30 million inhabi-tants) live on the coast of the Indian Ocean, which provides them with their livelihoods, through fishing and tourism. Po-pulation density and industrial pollution are becoming a serious threat to the coast.In order to educate inhabitants and alert the authorities Anitha SANTHI has been putting forward concrete measures. “Because young people often ask me: what can we do?”. To engender a sense of responsibility in a group, the individual must be respected. “Not everyone wants to get involved in a political party or an environmental association. But everyone, at their scale, can do something.” Working for an NGO, Anitha SANTHI helped about 50 children from a coastal village to produce a magazine. “In groups the children went out and gathered information on diffe-rent themes: water, waste, infrastructures, health...” in order to demonstrate that envi-ronmental concerns are really about everyday things. “Without running water and without sanitation, women suffer from urinary infec-tions. Without water treatement facilities the water is dirty and causes disease. Protecting the environment and human life are linked.” The children presented the magazine to the leader of the local government in order to ask him to take action. “The aim is not to pre-vent all human endeavours but to think again about how we can adapt our behaviour so that what we do does not put nature, or, by the same token, ourselves, in peril.”

PORTRAIT Dr David FREESTONE « There are still gaps in international law » The sovereignty of a country extends over its interior waters and a 12 mile strip of the sea. Beyond this limit, there are the EEZ, exclusive economic zones, which extend at least 200 miles out to sea, and over which countries have the right to ex-ploit resources and conduct research. Beyond this? « 65 % of the ocean lies beyond national jurisdictions. Since the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea signed in 1982 and the creation in 1994 of the International SeaBed Authority, there are still gaps in international Law.»How should the exploitation and exploration of the seabed be regulated ? It’s a major chal-lenge « because we are losing species about which we still know nothing » notes Dr. David FREESTONE « fishing vessels are increasingly powerful and devastate seabeds with their trawls. Then there is the question of mineral deposits discovered on the seabed. » As a legal specialist, Dr. David FREESTONE, believes in a new type of agreement between countries which would set standards for the protection of the marine environment and rules for fishing vessels, vessels transporting goods and also underwater cables. Protected areas placed under the control of an authority « which could be related to the United Nations or the International SeaBed Authority. » But it will be necessary to take into account the concerns of developing countries which are unable to compete with countries from the North because they lack the technology they need to exploit the ocean. « These countries say they are ready to sign an agreement on the condition that any profits accruing from the exploitation of the seabed are redistribu-ted. But this is currently being resisted by the USA »

WORLD OCEAN ACADEMYOpening the 4th International Mee-ting of the World Ocean Network: the first World Ocean AcademyThe World Ocean Academy is an innova-tion. Philippe VALLETTE describes it as a place for exchange, as a forum. « As pro-fessionals we need, every day, to have an overall vision of the questions facing the Ocean. This Academy is an opportu-nity to get up to speed together. »In their capacity as professionals in direct contact with the public, some fifty repre-sentatives from in-ternational organi-sations, scientists, teachers, aquarium directors and re-presentatives from NGOs were able to attend a day of pre-sentations in order to get up to date on the key questions facing the ocean : climate, biodiversity and governance.First, an observa-tion. While so im-portant in our lives, the ocean is poorly understood. The first scientific explo-ration of the ocean was only 135 years ago and most of the ocean’s deep is still unexplored. “Barely 30 years ago the ocean was seen as something inert”, notes Jean-Louis FELLOUS, Director of the International Committee on Space Research (Cospar).« Today, we know that the ocean is ex-tremely variable.”And it is suffering badly from the impact of human activities. In-dustrialisation, pollution, fishing, trans-

port and tourism. We are as yet unable to understand the scale of the conse-quences for marine ecosystems.“We don’t adequately understand the micro organisms which are nonetheless the pioneers in the great depths, exclai-med Felipe ARTIGAS, Professor at the Oceanology and Geosciences Laboratory of the CNRS. Yet it is these organisms that react first to changes in the envi-ronment.”There’s so much for research to disco-ver, but a lack of funding by government holds back progress. Government fun-

ding decisions are still too influenced by short-term eco-nomic interests. Rudolf de GROOT makes the case for a wider vision of the economic costs related to the loss of ecological ser-vices provided by the ocean. If it is to be protected this global heritage of humanity needs to be managed glo-bally. Global go-vernance is under

construction but it needs to go further. There is urgency, new mineral resources are being discovered at the bottom of the ocean is regions where there are no laws, beyong national jurisdictions.As a preamble to the three days of workshops, this World Ocean Academy asks the thousand and one questions which need to be asked if we are going to be able to imagine the future for the Blue Planet.

4thInternationalMeetingoftheWordOceanNetwork…

Acting together for the future of the Blue Planet

We need the Ocean. Yet, through our actions, we are putting in danger its health, the survival of the animal and plant species which in-habit it as well as the sus-

tainability of the energy re-sources it stores.By adapting our behaviours, we can contribute to saving the marine environment. There are a number of or-ganisations at local level ca-pable of raising the public’s awareness of the impacts that our everyday actions are having on the future of the ocean. These in-clude museums, aquariums, science and research orga-nisations, associations and NGOs.

To unite their efforts and give their message a global reach, it was necessary to enable these organisations to work together. This was the idea behind the World Ocean Network, which was created in 2002 by NAU-SICAA. It is an international association which is sup-ported by the IOC (Intergo-vernmental Oceanographic Commission). Today the World Ocean Network brings together 450 partners from across the 5 continents.

The Network has set it-self the mission of facili-tating the sharing of good practices, the initiatives of member organisations to convey a collective message as widely as possible.Through a collective cam-paign to convey the science, the World Ocean Network hopes to reach billions of people across the planet over the next ten year.

The World Ocean Network : uniting local organisations to convey an international message

Opening of the 4th International meeting of the World Ocean Network : the first session of the World Ocean Academy.