Declaration of
Principles
 We, the participants
of the second EMECS Conference, thank Governor Toshitam
i Kaihara for his vision in initiating this international
forum with the first EMECS Conference in 1990. We also
thank Governor William Donald Schaefer for inviting us to
Baltimore and for hosting the second Conference on the
shores of the beautiful Chesapeake Bay. We believe that
EMECS has proven its value as a stimulating forum for
sharing information and ideas on issues of great concern
to us all.
We affirm that EMECS is dedicated to the following
principles:
- facilitating the international exchange of
scientific information, including advances in
research and modeling on coastal phenomena;
- fostering understanding among policy makers and
researchers of the motivations and interests of
citizens which are essential to the
implementation of sound policy;
- improving communication and cooperation across the increas
ingly important science policy interface;
- building upon common commitments to protect coastal seas because of their
importance as places of physical beauty and cultural and historic meaning;
- providing a venue for exchange of technology useful to solving problems
of coastal seas; and,
- pursuing new approaches to governance informed by our concern for ecosystems that cross the jurisdictional boundaries that mankind has imposed.
We agree that EMECS must be committed to pursing these
principles into the Twenty-first Century, and we hope
they will guide the organization and participation of
future EMECS Conferences. In addition, we welcome
Governor Kaihara's intention to establish an
international EMECS center in Kobe, Japan, to pursue
ongoing efforts to protect and maintain our precious
coastal seas and their irreplaceable natural resources.
Finally, we enthusiastically endorse the generous offer
of Sweden to host EMECS '96 in Stockholm as consistent
with our recommendation that future EMECS conferences
should take place on various sites representing coastal
seas around the world.
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