What's
New @ Ramsar What's
New @ Ramsar
2
June 2000
Headline
story. Libya accedes to the Ramsar Convention. The Bureau is very pleased to announce that the Libyan
Arab Jamahiriya completed its accession formalities on 5 April 2000, and the
Convention on Wetlands, as amended by the Paris Protocol of 1982, will come into force for
the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya on 5 August 2000. The new Party has informed UNESCO, the
Convention’s Depositary, that two wetlands have been designated as Wetlands of
International Importance – Ain Elshakika and Ain Elzarga,
both on or near the Mediterranean coast in the general area of Darnah and Tubruq –
but Ramsar Information Sheets have not yet been received for them. The Libyan Arab
Jamahiriya becomes the Convention’s 121st Contracting Party, and these are
the 1026th and 1027th Ramsar sites globally. [30/5/00]
Headline
story. BirdLife International
identifies European IBAs. BirdLife
International has published a vital reference work that will have significant
value for everyone concerned with the implementation of the Ramsar Convention.
Important Bird Areas in Europe: Priority Sites for Conservation,
edited by Melanie F. Heath and Michael I. Evans with others, is a 1600-page
2-volume compendium of country analyses and individual site descriptions of
more than 3,600 sites that meet BirdLife's criteria for IBAs, which largely
overlap with the Ramsar Convention's Criteria for Identifying Wetlands of International
Importance, especially Criteria 6, and with the EC Birds Directive's guidance
for Special Protection Areas (SPAs). Ramsar’s Strategic Framework and
guidelines for the future development of the List of Wetlands of International
Importance, adopted by the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention
at the 7th COP in 1999, advocates a systematic and strategic approach to selecting
and designating new Ramsar sites in furtherance and recognizes that this requires
solid scientific data and inventories of wetlands within their territories that
qualify under the Ramsar Criteria. For the European region, this new publication
will go very far towards meeting that need. As is stated in the Summary to volume
I, "Many IBAs are wetlands of international importance yet only 30% of
these have been designated under the Ramsar Convention. Given the compatibility
of IBA criteria with Ramsar criteria, it is possible to estimate that a further
1,000 IBAs in Europe should be considered for designation as Ramsar sites because
of the internationally important numbers of waterbirds that they hold."
Here's more detail, availability,
and a photo. [29/5/00]
Interesting
Web site. The
Spanish Ramsar site at S'Albufera de Mallorca has a very interesting
Web site at http://www.oninet.es/usuarios/salbufera/ . An English-language
section is provided. [31/5/00]
New
on the Site: New
archival stuff: Spanish versions of early
Recommendations of the COP; Participants
in the Groningen COP2; Conference
report of the 3rd COP, Regina; the French
version of the COP5 Kushiro conference report. (30/5/00)
Ramsar Intern appointed for the Americas. Mr Marco A. Flores
has been appointed to the Bureau post of Intern/Assistant to the Regional Coordinator for
the Americas, to begin in early August 2000 for a year's tenure, replacing Flor de
María Salvador Pérez of Peru. Mr Flores, a citizen of the USA, is from the US
territory of Puerto Rico and earned his bachelor's degree in Environmental Science from
the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan in 1994. He has just completed his master's
degree in Environmental Policy and Management from the School of Foresty and Environmental
Studies at Yale University in Connecticut, USA. He is fluent in Spanish and English and
has work experience in many aspects of wetlands work, including hazards assessment and
environmental impact assessment, restoration, and community imvolvement. [25/5/00]
Announcement.
Ramsar Bureau seeks Intern
for Asia. It's time now
to begin soliciting applications for the position of Intern/Assistant to the
Regional Coordinator for Asia. Qualified candidates from that region are encouraged
to read the general terms of reference
for Ramsar Internships and apply by 30 June 2000, to begin on 1
November 2000. [18/5/00]
River
Restoration 2000 conference reported. The
European Centre for River Restoration (ECRR), under the umbrella
of the Dutch Institute for Inland Water Management and Waste Water Treatment
(RIZA), organised from 15 to 19 May 2000 an international conference on practical
approaches to river restoration throughout Europe, including a few review papers
on river restoration aspects in North America, China, and Australia. More than
100 specialists (engineers, biologists and administration staff) exchanged their
respective experiences and visited different river and floodplain restoration
sites in the southern Netherlands along the rivers Maas (Meuse) and Rhine (Waal,
Rijn). Here's a brief report.
[22/5/00]
Ramsar's
address to the CBD's 5th COP. Ramsar's
Secretary General, Delmar Blasco, addressed the plenary session
on the opening day of the CBD's COP5, 15 May 2000. Here's
the text of his remarks. [17/5/00]
Ramsar
Bureau unveils superb new exhibit.
Coming (perhaps) to a theatre near you - the new Ramsar traveling exhibit, spreading
the Ramsar wise use message to large venues whenever and wherever possible.
Financed by the Evian/Danone project, designed by Saatchi & Saatchi under
the direction of the Secretary General and the Bureau's Communications Team,
this enormous display of fine photos and poignant text, lumbered through customs
in two rather large wheeled suitcases, is presently drawing gasps from the spectators
at the 5th COP of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nairobi. If you're
not in Nairobi now, view it here
on this Web site, and then come to the Millennium Wetland Event
in Montreal in August and get a second chance to see it in real time. [17/5/00]
Australia extends its
Macquarie Marshes site in public/private partnership. Australia has extended the Macquarie
Marshes site (1/8/86, 18,143 hectares) by an additional 583 hectares, largely by virtue of
the kind of stewardship agreement between government and private landowners that is
showing considerable promise in several countries, including Australia, the UK, and the
USA. Environment Minister Senator Robert Hill writes: "I would like
to take this opportunity to commend Eric Fisher and his family, the owners of Wilgara, for their stewardship of this wetland and their future
commitment under the Convention to the long-term conservation of Wilgara. I would also
like to commend the work undertaken by the NSW [New South Wales] National Parks and
Wildlife Service in partnership with the National Parks Association and World Wide Fund
for Nature to secure the Ramsar nomination for private lands such as 'Wilgara'. The work
between the community, non-government organizations, and all spheres of government clearly
demonstrates that wetland conservation and sustainable use can be achieved through
cooperation with dedicated landholders." [16/5/00]
Mother's Day at the Ramsar Bureau. "Dear Moms of Ramsar Interns, Happy Mother's Day. It
would have been so difficult to start a new life and work in a foreign country without
your understanding and assistance with thoughtfulness. Thus, We, interns at Ramsar, would
like to take this opportunity to express our appreciation. This is just one way to
show our thanks out of millions. We placed flowers on the central table. Please take one
when you go home today. Thank you very much with four big hugs. Sasha, Evans, Flor, and
Taeko." [15/5/00]
Ramsar
plans for the CBD's 5th COP. As
the 5th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity
gets under way in Nairobi, Kenya, Secretary General Delmar Blasco and Regional
Coordinator Anada Tiéga are already there, and Deputy Secretary General Nick
Davidson will be joining them for the second week. Here's
what's on the agenda for Ramsar at the COP and associated events. [15/5/00]
SEHUMED's Valencia CD-ROM is now
ready. SEHUMED (Sede para
el Estudio de los Humedales Mediterráneos), which recently joined the Greek
Biotope/Wetland Centre (EKBY) and the Station Biologique de la Tour du Valat
as a third secretariat on Ramsar's MedWet Team, has just published an exemplary
educational tool on the wetlands of its home-ground Valencia region in Spain,
and in particular on L'Albufera de Valencia, one of Spain's Ramsar sites since
1989. With Spanish, English, and French versions on the same disk, and run-time
versions of QuickTime and other necessary plug-ins, the package provides an
attractive and informative introduction to the region's ecology as well as to
important issues common to many other wetland systems. For more information,
consult http://sehumed.uv.es or write to sehumed@uv.es. [16/5/00]
Wetlands in
Russia, volume 2: Important Peatlands. The 91-page second volume has appeared in the superb trilogy on
Russian wetlands produced by the extraordinarily productive Wetlands International -
Russia Programme: Important Peatlands has been managed by the
late Prof. Marina Botch and edited by Tatiana Minaeva and Irina
Kamennova, the latter of whom also made the accurate and fluid translation into
English, with editorial help by Marcel Silvius. 51 peat wetlands are
listed and described according to the structure of the Ramsar Information Sheet, forming a
sort of shadow list of potential Ramsar sites. You can discuss availability with the
Russia Programme directly at russia@wwf.ru or fax +7
095 7270938. [16/5/00]
Tanzania
joins the Ramsar Convention. The
Ramsar Convention is very pleased to welcome the United Republic of
Tanzania as its 120th Contracting Party. Tanzania's instrument of accession
to the Ramsar Convention, as amended by the Paris Protocol, was accepted by
UNESCO as of 13 April 2000, so the treaty will come into force for Tanzania
on 13 August 2000. As its obligatory first Wetland of International Importance,
the new Party has designated the vast Malagarasi-Muyovozi
Wetlands (3,250,000 hectares), which is listed as fulfilling
all eight of the Ramsar Criteria. More
detail on this new site is available here. [11/5/00]
UK designates Thames Estuary and
Marshes. The Bureau is pleased to
announce that the United Kingdom has designated its 151st Ramsar site, "Thames Estuary and Marshes" (5589 hectares),
also a Special Protection Area under the EC Birds Directive. The site comprises a complex
of brackish floodplain, grazing marsh ditches, saline lagoons and intertidal saltmarsh and
mudflat along the River Thames between Gravesend and Sheerness in Essex and Kent. The
habitats support internationally important numbers of wintering waterfowl, and the
saltmarsh and grazing marsh are of international importance for their diverse assemblages
of wetland plants and invertebrates. The site performs important hydrological functions,
including shoreline stablization, sediment trapping, flood water storage and
desynchronization of flood peaks, and maintenance of water quality by removal of
nutrients. Human uses include yachting, angling, wildfowling (seasonal), jet skiing,
waterskiing, and birdwatching; disturbance from some of these is a current issue but is
being addressed through negotation and awareness-raising. This is the Convention's 1025th
Wetland of International Importance and brings the UK's total surface coverage to 726,229
hectares. [12/5/00]
Announcement.
Wetlands International
- AEME seeks Coordinator for flyway project.
Following up on the news that UNEP-GEF has approved funding for a major initiative
to help conserve wetlands on the African Eurasian Flyway, Wetlands International
- AEME would like to announce a vacancy for the position of Coordinator of this
project. To read more about the project details visit: http://www.wetlands.agro.nl/Waterbird_Monitoring/AEWA-GEF.html
. Terms of reference for the position are available on this Web site.
[since removed] [12/5/00]
Ramsar
signs three-way MOU with CIESIN and Wetlands International.
The Ramsar Bureau has signed a memorandum of understanding with Wetlands
International, which maintains the Ramsar Sites Database under contract
with the Convention, and the Center for International Earth Science
Information Network (Columbia University, USA) for "Cooperation
for the Development and Operation of a Data Gateway for Ramsar Site Information".
The MOU's general objectives are to "develop an on-line Ramsar
Wetland Data Gateway through a multilevel, multidisciplinary,
diverse resource base, including spatial, tabular and graphic data, all of which
can be accessed through a common search interface"; to "encourage
innovation in information dissemination and decision-making by sharing expertise
on relevant information technologies, including interactive, on-line tools for
encouraging dialogue and participation among diverse user groups"; and
to "facilitate the development of more powerful data-sharing capabilities
within the Ramsar community by sharing expertise on such new technologies. Examples
of this may include the development of applications using the Spatial Database
Engine (SDE®) and OpenGIS®, incorporation of wetlands data catalogs into the
Ramsar Wetland Data Gateway, and sharing of expertise on metadata management".
Dr Antoinette Wannebo, CIESIN's focal point on the project,
has been active over the past year as an invited expert on the Convention's
Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP), as has Wetlands International's
focal point, Scott Frazier, Senior Wetland Inventory Officer
at WI. Here's the text of the MOU.
[9/5/00]
Announcement.
Two positions open at BirdLife
International. Our colleagues
at BirdLife International are seeking to fill two fundraising positions, one
for the European Division, to be based in Wageningen, The Netherlands, the other
for the Africa Division, to be based in Cambridge, UK. Here's the announcement
and the job description for the first of them. [since
removed] [10/5/00]
Wetlands International
joins forces with Australian wine company to raise funds for the Weerribben
Ramsar site, Netherlands.
Banrock Station is an Australian
winery which, as part of its public benefit activities, supports the conservation
of wetlands (see related story).
It has done so at its own vineyards in South Australia, but also elsewhere in
Australia. Since mid-1999, Banrock Station, Staatsbosbeheer (the Dutch Forestry
Service), and Wetlands International - AEME are cooperating on a wetland restoration
project in De Weerribben National Park in the northeastern part of The Netherlands.
For every bottle of Banrock wines sold through Albert Heijn, a Dutch grocery
chain, NLG 0.10 goes to this project. A first cheque for NLG 50,000 was handed
over during a ceremony in De Weerribben in November. The money is being used
to recreate open water and perpetuate the cycle of open water - land formation
- erosion - open water. Because of increased flood control and closing off of
the Zuyderzee, this cycle has been disrupted, leading to disappearance of open
water and loss of biodiversity. More information can be found on the WI-AEME
website ( http://www.wetlands.agro.nl ), and of course in the brand new Visitor
Centre of De Weerribben, recently opened by Staatsbosbeheer. Reported by Joost
Brouwer, Ph.D. Project Development Support Wetlands International - AEME Tel:
+31 317 47 88 75 Fax: +31 317 47 88 85 E-mail: brouwer@wetlands.agro.nl [9/5/00]
New Ramsar pin in the USA. A new Ramsar pin has been produced by the US Fish and
Wildlife Service, with accompanying bookmark, one of the USFWS' steps "to energize
our contacts with Ramsar site managers across the country". The USFWS is also
actively promoting the forthcoming annual meeting of the US NGO National Ramsar Committee,
which this year will feature the participation of site managers from the Chesapeake Bay,
Okefenokee, and Cheyenne Bottoms Ramsar sites. The meeting will highlight a viewing of the
new Ramsar video, which is also being reproduced in the USA in English and Spanish for the
use of site managers. [Sorry for the bad image. It's hard to scan a pin.]
[8/5/00]
The Ramsar Rug is now a reality. Mr A. Najafi writes that the Islamic Republic of Iran is
presenting the Ramsar Bureau with a new carpet (photo right), 1
by .80 meters, of cotton and wool and some 2500 knots per 7 square cm. (apparently about
404,700 knots in all!), and 27 days in the making! The Department of Environment will be
presenting the new carpet to Ramsar's Secretary General, Delmar Blasco, at the CBD meeting
in Nairobi next week. [8/5/00]
Major
event in Ramsar history.
The Ramsar ‘Toolkit’
is finally ready – the English version anyway: French and Spanish versions
will be ready in the next few months.The so-called Toolkit
embodies nearly all of the various guidelines that have been adopted by the
Conference of the Contracting Parties to assist wetland managers, national authorities,
and others in implementing the Convention’s mission and objectives. Formally
entitled the Ramsar Handbooks for the Wise Use of Wetlands,
the nine brochures are organized along the lines of the three "pillars"
of the Convention: 1) The wise use of wetlands; 2) Wetlands of International
Importance; and 3) International cooperation. Read
the whole story here, and then, if you should still feel that this
Toolkit is something that needs to happen to you, write to our colleague Valerie
Higgins and ask for one or more or all of the volumes you need,
allowing a little time for delivery since Valerie, and the rest of us, are all
very busy right now. [4/5/00]
Development
Assistance Officer named for Ramsar.
The Secretary General is very pleased to announce that the interviewing panel
was unanimous in its decision to offer the position of Development Assistance
Officer to
Mr Alain Lambert,
a national of Belgium born in 1960. Mr Lambert has an MSC degree in International
Law from the Université Libre de Bruxelles and another in Environmental Economics
from Wye College in the University of London. Formerly Chief of the UNIDO field
offices in Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil successively, he became Donor Relations
Officer in 1994 at IUCN headquarters in Switzerland. Since May 1997 he has served
as Senior Environmental Officer in Brazil for DFID, G7 Pilot Programme to Conserve
the Amazon. He speaks and writes French, English, Spanish, and Portuguese all
very well. Mr Lambert is married with three children. Here's
a description of the position and some more detail. [3/5/00]
Habemus
accountantem. Mr.
Ibrahim Shaame (Tanzania) has arrived in the Ramsar Bureau to take up his
post as the Convention's first accountant, working in consort with the new Development
Assistance Officer and with the Bureau's Finance Assistant, Paulette Kennedy
(left). Mr. Shaame has most recently been working in the Finance Department of the
International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva. Apart from his training in accountancy,
Mr. Shaame has a sound knowledge of computer hardware and software packages. He is fluent
in Arabic, English, French and Swahili, with familiarity with German as well.[3/5/00]
Memo
of Cooperation signed with Cartagena Convention.
At ceremonies yesterday (1 May 2000) at the International Environment House
in Geneva, Switzerland, Mr Delmar Blasco, Secretary General
of the Convention on Wetlands, and Mr Nelson Andrade, Regional
Coordinator for the United Nation Environment Programme's Caribbean Action Plan,
signed a Memorandum of Cooperation intended to help Contracting Parties to the
Conventions to identify and strengthen conservation of those sites of international
importance that are relevant to both Conventions. The Convention for
the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean
Region, known as the Cartagena Convention
from its place of adoption in Colombia in 1983, came into force in 1986 and,
through its secretariat, serves to facilitate the direction and coordination
of the legal implementation of the Caribbean Action Plan. The new MOC contains
a 'Statement of Work' which itemizes eight areas of intended cooperation and
information sharing, all intended to assist in identifying potential wetlands
for nomination as Ramsar sites or as protected areas under the SPAW Protocol,
avoiding duplication of efforts and maximizing joint efforts where appropriate,
and mutally supporting both Conventions amongst their Parties. Here
are some news and photos, and here's
the text of the MOC. [2/5/00]
More
to follow. Watch this space.
Feedback and suggestions to: the Ramsar Convention Bureau, Rue Mauverney
28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland (tel +41 22 999 0170, fax +41 22 999 0169, e-mail
). Updated
regularly by Dwight Peck, Ramsar Bureau.
Back
Issues of the Bulletin Board. Early in every month, the current edition
of the Bulletin Board is copied to the Ramsar
Archives page, and you can dig through the back issues there -- their
contents are still indexed on the Global Index
page in perpetuity.
visitors
to this site since........ Wait . . . . . . . ? . . . . . . ?? Oooh, I
must have dropped it.