In the period leading up to the Rio conference, I was one of the hundreds of specialists engaged in drafting texts for the preparatory commissions. My own involvement was in the group that was preparing Chapter 17. The work was fascinating as we reviewed a wide spectrum of information and insights and engaged in profound discussions on policy options. We made our suggestions and sent them to the Preparatory Committees, often to discover that country representatives had raised objections to specific points forcing us to start over and over again! Though frustrating, the process made sense as it assured better �buy-in� by all the stakeholders involved.

Now, almost ten years after Rio, we are inaugurating a new interdisciplinary MSc course in Coastal and Ocean Policy. As one of the assignments in the course, I set the students the onerous task of reviewing the progress of Chapter 17 and establishing a web site with the results of their analysis. The present site contains the results of this work.

The analysis conducted by the students is not exhaustive (though it was certainly exhausting); some sections are more complete than others. The general scheme followed was to make a brief description of each section, to analyse whether or not perception of the problem have changed in the last decade, to examine what has been achieved and to comment on the gaps for completing implementation. Most of the sections also include case studies to provide in-depth illustrations of the results.

The web-site largely comprises of student texts that are unedited externally (or by me). The material is offered in the hope that it will serve to promote better integration of a systematic ten-year review of Chapter 17. From a personal perspective, working with these young professionals was every bit as exciting and challenging as work on the original text a decade ago. Thank you everyone for your efforts.

Laurence D. Mee
Professor of Ocean and Coastal Policy,
Plymouth University
31 May, 2001