- Support to the ICPDR Process on Navigation & Ecology 2007
This initiative has been launched by the ICPDR in cooperation with the Danube (Navigation) Commission and the International Sava Commission. The overall goal is to reach, by the end of 2007, a stakeholder agreement on basic guiding principles and criteria in form of a " Joint Statement on the Development of Inland Navigation and Environmental Sustainability in the Danube River Basin ".
Mr Zinke consults the ICPDR Secretariat since 2006 on the preparation and execution of this process, focusing on technical workshops and excursions to sensitive waterway development sites (April 2007 in Orth/Austria, June in Calarasi & Bucharest/Romania, and October 2007 in Zagreb/Croatia).
- Submission of the application to the International Thiess Riverprize 2007
On 4 September 2007, the ICPDR has won the Australian $300,000 (approx. 180,000 Euro) International Thiess River prize 2007 for its excellence in water management in the Danube River Basin . The announcement was made in Brisbane , Australia , during a special award ceremony at the 10th annual International River symposium
The prestigious International Thiess River prize is awarded each year for outstanding achievements in river management across the world. It is today one of the most highly regarded and richest international water management awards. "The River prize identifies the world's best practices in water management, preservation and restoration. Selected finalists of the 2007 prize came from Canada , China and New Zealand .
Mr Zinke was asked to formulate the application text which the ICPDR Secretariat submitted in March 2007.
- Verification and mitigation of mining hot spots in the Balkan region
Since 2006, the UNEP office in Vienna coordinates a refined assessment of South East European mining-related risks: Together with the Prof. Philip Peck (an Extractive Industries Specialist from Lund university, Sweden), Mr Zinke has verified in spring 2006 a long list of mining-related environmental hot spots in Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. This is part of the ADA (Austrian Development Agency) funded project " Improving regional cooperation for risk management from pollution hotspots as well as transboundary management of shared natural resources ". The resulting report ranks some 15 mining sites that pose substantial transboundary risk to the environment, public health and safety, and to the regional socio-political stability in SEE.
These and other activities under the slogan " Mining for Closure " are organized within the framework of the Environment & Security Initiative (ENVSEC) of UNEP, UNDP, OSCE, UNECE and the REC. It aims at improving regional cooperation for risk management from pollution hotspots as well as the transboundary management of shared natural resources
Next step has been to determine suitable measures needed to remediate and reduce the environmental risk at selected pilot sites. Innovations for contaminated mine waters assessment, management and remediation were presented at a technical workshop on March 26 - 29, 2007 in Brestovacka Spa, Bor , Serbia . This included a field trip to the Bor and Majdanpek mines. Mr Zinke co-facilitated this workshop.
Workshop summary report
Subsequent to the workshop, Mr Zinke guided two mine water experts, Gilles Tremblay and Nand Dave from Natural Resources Canada on a field trip to jointly assess some of the identified mine sites in BiH (near Sarajevo and Srebrenica).
Picture gallery from field trips to mining sites in Serbia and Bosnia-Hercegovina (photos from March 2007)
The new "Protected Area Network of Parks" aims,
- to create a European network of very well protected wilderness areas,
- to improve nature protection by sustainable tourism development and
- to provide a reliable trademark which guarantees nature protection and is recognised by all Europeans.
Since 2002, the PAN Parks Principles & Criteria were verified in ten parks. Mr Zinke is one of six independent Lead Verifiers and presently verifying/monitoring the following national parks:
Archipelago ( Finland, 50,000 ha): since 2007 (lead)
Fulufjället (Sweden, 38,000 ha ): since 2007 re-verification (lead)
Paanajärvi (Russia, 104,000 ha): since summer 2005 (picture gallery)
Majella (Italy, 74,000 ha): since summer 2005 (lead) (picture gallery)
Oulanka (Finland, 28,000 ha): 2002- 2006 (lead)
Bieszczady (Poland, 29,000 ha): 2002- 2006
Retezat (Romania, 38,000 ha): 2004
- Internationally Shared Surface Water Bodies in the Balkan Region - Characteristics and State of Policies of River Basins.
This report (184 pp. with colour maps) was prepared by Zinke Environment Consulting (for the German Federal Ministry for Environment) and INWEB/Aristotle University Thessaloniki (for UNESCO). It is an extended inventory of the Balkan's transboundary river and lake basins. This refers to
- Hydrographic, geographic, environmental and socio-economic data (largely the INWEB/UNESCO part of the study), as well as
- Information on water policies (international agreements, national institution setting, projects and critical problems to be addressed by donors) as the task of the ZINKE study part.
This study is part of two recent initiatives in the Balkan region:
One by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, together with Global Water Partnership-Mediterranean (GWP-Med) and the World Bank, within the so-called Petersberg II process (started at a workshop in December 2004 in Ruedesheim/DE),
and the other by UNESCO and the UNESCO Chair/International Network of Water-Environment Centres for the Balkans (INWEB).
(A pdf-file of the study can be received upon request!)
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