At the OSPAR Workshop on the Environmental Assessment of Renewable Energy in the Marine Environment on 17-18 September 2003 a key conclusion was the need for a mechanism to share and exchange information. This has been repeated at subsequent conferences in Denmark, Germany and the UK and the Copenhagen Strategy 2005 and the EU ad hoc Working Group on Wind Energy and Biodiversity. However, until now no such mechanism has been produced.
This website is the first attempt to provide a mechanism for the sharing of knowledge and experience and to promote the exchange of environmental information. Its contents and format have been agreed by the OSPAR Working Group on the Environmental Impacts of Human Activities (EIHA) and the Biodiversity Committee (BDC).
On the most part it provides a hub to direct users to where they can find information by providing links to relevant documents and websites and where possible provide an e-forum where practitioners can make contact with one another.
This website is managed and maintained on a voluntary basis and as such its success is dependant on all practitioners working on the environmental impacts of offshore renewable developments making contact and submitting details of websites, research and contacts. As it grows it is hoped that this website will be the first point of contact for everyone wanting to find and share information on the environmental impacts of offshore renewable energy developments.
This website is not intended as an advertising space for anyone wanting develop business interests in this area of work but to exchange information on existing or planned research and development initiatives. As such the hosts reserve the right not to post any submissions that it considers do not fit this ethos.