Turning long-term monitoring into policy-Using the national park schleswig-holstein wadden sea as an example

Abstract

Environmental monitoring in its broadest sense aims at determining the quality and extent of human influence on the environment and to record long-term changes (Kellermann & Riethmüller, 1998). It can provide a basis for political actions; however, the influence of monitoring on political decisions has been controversial (see, e.g., de Jong, 2006). Using the protection of the National Park Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea as a best practice example, this chapter shows the strength of long-term monitoring data as a solid basis for conservation concepts. Along with an efficient organisational structure-i.e. in the frame of the trilateral cooperation between the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany for the protection of the Wadden Sea as a whole-monitoring is able to influence or even induce political decisions. A number of achievements of the trilateral cooperation are presented. Future challenges, which will arise from the implementation of EU directives and international conventions like the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), are discussed with a focus on the role of monitoring data within such processes. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.