 | Tineke Huizinga-Heringa, former Dutch minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM), has been named chairperson of the International Governing Board of Delta Alliance.
Delta Alliance is a global platform of delta regions that have joined forces to reduce the vulnerability of deltas and improve their resilience by exchanging existing knowledge, developing new knowledge in joint efforts and by making relevant findings available to policymakers and businesses. |
Delta Alliance brings together actors such as centres of expertise, government bodies, non-governmental organizations, consulting firms and industry to tackle problems in an integrated way and to work collaboratively towards sustainable development.
Deltas have been hot spots of social and economic development throughout the ages, often combining intensive agriculture, key infrastructure, industry and large urban centres. Yet many deltas are rich in biodiversity too, owing to their location on the boundary between land and water-rich ecosystems. These deltas currently face enormous challenges due to population growth, urbanization, climate change, rising sea levels, increased meteorological and hydrological extremes, salinization, land subsidence and the like.
Ten deltas are now members of Delta Alliance: the Rhine-Meuse Delta (Netherlands), the Mekong Delta (Vietnam), the Ciliwung and Mahakam deltas (Indonesia), the California Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (California, USA), the Mississippi Delta (Louisiana, USA), the Nile Delta (Egypt), the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Delta (Bangladesh), the Yangtze delta (China), the Pantanal Delta (Brazil) and the Parana Delta (Argentina). At each of these locations, a local network is being established.
The Delta Alliance is an initiative of the Knowledge for Climate Research Programme. Delta Alliance has an international governing board and a Netherlands-based international secretariat. In the position of chairperson, Tineke Huizinga succeeds Kees Slingerland, Managing Director of the Environmental Sciences Group of Wageningen UR. Under his leadership Delta Alliance was founded and established over the past years.
For more information on this topic, contact Alterra, Wageningen UR: Wim van Driel, Programme Manager Delta Alliance, tel: (+31) (0)317 482308, e-mail wim.vandriel@wur.nl.
