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REGIONAL LINKS DIRECTORY

 
 
 

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.


 
  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.
       

  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.
       

  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.
       

  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.
       

  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.
       

  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.
       

  NORTH ATLANTIC 

The northern half of the world's second largest ocean is rich in islands, varied coastline and tributary seas. On the west are the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Hudson Bay and Baffin Bay. To the east are the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. As well as purely oceanic islands there are those which rise from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, including the Azores. Other islands such as The Canaries and Madeira rise from Africa's continental margins.
       

  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.
       

 
  SOUTHEAST ASIA 

  ANU College of Asia & the Pacific 
  ANU Resource Management in Asia-Pacific Program 
  ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity 
  ASEAN Review of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation 
  ASEAN Tourism 
  Asia Research Centre, Murdoch University 
  Asia-Pacific Adaptation Network 
  Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies 
  Asia-Pacific Data Research Centre 
  Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation [APEC] 
  Asia-Pacific Network 
  Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research 
  Asia-Pacific Network on Climate Change 
  Asian Development Bank 
  Asian Studies WWW Virtual Library 
  Asian Technology Information Program 
  Association of Southeast Asian Nations [ASEAN] 
  Centre for Asia Pacific Social Transformation Studies 
  Centre for Southeast Asia Studies 
  Cultural Heritage Centre for Asia and the Pacific 
  Diversitas in Western Pacific and Asia (DIWPA) 
  Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia 
  HWS Asian Environmental Studies 
  ICLEI Southeast Asia 
  Indo-Pacific Conservation Alliance 
  Institute of Southeast Asian Studies 
  International Marinelife Alliance 
  IUCN/SSC Southeast Asia Campaign 
  Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific 
  Pacific Asia Travel Association 
  Pacific-Asia Biodiversity Transect Network 
  Pan Asia Networking 
  Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia 
  South Asia Cooperative Environment Programme 
  South Asian Network for Development & Environmental Economics 
  Southeast Asia Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment [SEARICE] 
  Southeast Asia START Regional Centre 
  Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center 
  Southeast Asian Loop of BioNET International 
  Southeast Asian Press Alliance 
  The Asia Foundation 
  The Foundation for Development Cooperation 
  UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific 
  UNDP Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme 
  UNEP Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific