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REGIONAL LINKS DIRECTORY
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Welcome to the GIN regional links directory.
The regional directory is categorised under nine major geographic regions. Each region contains
a list of websites specifically relating to the chosen region.
All websites listed here have been individually chosen based on their quality of content and
appropriateness to the specific region they represent. All links contained within this directory
are regularly checked to ensure they are currently available and do not lead to broken or missing
links. If you do happen to come across a broken link please let us know - email
our webmaster describing the
offending link and we promise to attend to it at our earliest opportunity.
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ANTARCTIC
The world's coldest and most inaccessible region consists of an ice-covered continent, Antarctica, centred on the South Pole and surrounding this, the vast Southern Ocean, which is largely covered by floating pack ice. The Antarctic is much colder than the Arctic and its only inhabitants are visiting scientists. Various nations claim different parts of the Antarctic mainland. In 1959, twelve nations signed the Antarctic Treaty and agreed that Antarctica should be used for peaceful purposes only.
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ARCTIC
The Arctic is an ocean more or less surrounded by land - just the opposite of the Antarctic, which is a huge land mass surrounded by water. The Arctic region generally refers to a rather large land area round the North Pole but the ocean is nearly five times as large as the Mediterranean and is covered with drifting ice which is sometimes 30m thick. Between Greenland and the Canadian mainland is Baffin Island, together with many smaller islands.
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BALTIC
An inland sea of northern Europe, the Baltic is nearly 1,600km in length. It lies between Sweden on the west, Finland and the former USSR on the east, and Poland and Germany on the south. It has three main gulfs - the Gulf of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Riga. Navigation in the Baltic has never been easy. The Danish channels and many of the harbours are too shallow for larger ships and wide areas are regularly frozen over for two months of the winter.
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CARIBBEAN
The Caribbean Sea is bounded by the West Indies, the east coast of Central America and the north coast of South America. It is nearly 2,400km long and from 650 to 1,100km wide. The many islands surrounding the Caribbean are really the peaks of mountains submerged beneath the sea. After the completion of the Panama Canal in 1914, this sea became one of the busiest waterways in the world, lying on the main route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
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INDIAN OCEAN
This is the third largest ocean in the world - after the Pacific and Atlantic oceans - and covers an area of 73,555,715sq km. The Indian Ocean is bordered by Africa on the west, India on the north and Australia on the east, but to the south there is open sea as far as the Antarctic. The southern half of the Indian Ocean has no large islands except Madagascar. Those in the northern half include Sri Lanka and Socotra besides many smaller ones.
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MEDITERRANEAN
The Mediterranean Sea is almost landlocked, being joined with the open Atlantic Ocean only by the narrow Strait of Gibraltar. It lies between Europe and Africa and is more than 3,220km long. The north side of the Mediterranean is broken up by the Adriatic and Aegean seas as well as by the peninsulas of Italy and Greece. Most of the islands are in the northern part of the sea. In 1869 the Suez Canal was opened, thus making the Mediterranean the shortest sea route between Europe and the East.
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NORTH ATLANTIC
Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre
Atlantic Coastal Zone Information Steering Committee
Centre for European and North Atlantic Studies
European Centre for Nature Conservation
European Coastal & Marine Union
European Environment Agency
European Environmental Bureau
European Federation of Agencies and Regions for Energy and Environment
European LEADER Association for Rural Development
European Network for Rural Development
European Network for Sustainable Tourism Development
European Partners for the Environment
European Travel Commission
European Union On-Line
Institute for European Environmental Policy
International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas
Local Authorities International Environmental Organisation [KIMO]
Nordic Atlantic Co-operation [NORA]
Nordic Centre for Spatial Development [NORDREGIO]
Nordic Council & Nordic Council of Ministers
Nordic Council of Ministers Portal for Children and Youth Culture
North Atlantic Biocultural Organisation
North Atlantic Coast Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit
North Atlantic Islands Programme
North Atlantic Killer Whale ID Project
North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative
North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission
North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation
North Atlantic Salmon Fund
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation [NATO]
North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission
North Sea Commission
North Sea Foundation
Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization
OSPAR Commission for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic
RAMPAO
WWF's North-East Atlantic Programme
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PACIFIC
The Pacific is the largest and deepest of all the oceans with an area of 165 million square kilometres, an area greater than that of all the world's lands put together. At its greatest width the Pacific measures 17,220km. It extends from the Bering Straits of the Arctic Circle, to Cape Adare, Antarctica, a distance of 15,450km. There are very few islands in the eastern Pacific. Its northern and western borders are fringed with chains of islands including The Aleutians, The Kurils and the Ryukus. The Inner Pacific islands are divided into three main groups - Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.
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SOUTHEAST ASIA
Southeast Asia is the name for the peninsular area of the Asian continent that lies between India and China, and stretches south along a chain of islands towards Australia. The countries of mainland Southeast Asia are Malaysia, Burma, Vietnam, Laos, Kampuchea, Thailand and Singapore. Further south lies insular (island) Southeast Asia. This is made up of thousands of islands containing the countries of the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia and East Timor.
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