The
Ramsar ArchivesThe
Ramsar Archives
1 November 2000
Headline
story. Ramsar's 25th Standing Committee meeting. The Standing Committee has completed its week of meetings,
23-27 October, with two days of preparatory meetings of the Subgroups followed by two and
a half days of plenary sessions. There were some 65 participants from SC-member Parties,
Observer Parties, International Organization Partners, and other observer States and NGOs,
plus Bureau staff and interpreters. Among the results: The SC endorsed and advised on the
Bureau’s cooperation with the CBD and other conventions, instititutions, and
processes, and encouraged the development of new initiatives such as the River Basin
Initiative, the Participatory Management Networking Service, and the Ramsar Wetlands
Training and Advisory Service. The members offered advice and sought further input on
several key institutional issues, such as Parties’ reporting of change in ecological
character, the legal issues surrounding potential restrictions of site boundaries, the
structure of the Ramsar Sites Database, and the implementation of several COP7
resolutions. The Committee reviewed the work of the STRP and set up a new Subgroup to
consider the STRP’s modus operandi. [Left: The Secretary General welcomes SC25
participants. Photo: Alexander Belokurov]
In addition, the SC approved the Bureau’s accounts for 1999-2000 and its work plan and budget for 2001, carried forward the drafting of Strategic Plan 2003-2008, decided upon the interim location of the MedWet Coordination Function, and approved a slate of Small Grants Fund project proposals. The suggestion of the Government of Spain to hold the 8th meeting of the Conference of the Parties in Valencia, 18-26 November 2002, was accepted with appreciation for Spain’s generous pledge of contributions to the COP budget, the draft COP8 agenda was approved, and a calendar of related meetings between now and then was established. The full report of the meeting will appear here in about a week’s time. [30/10/00]
Report
ready. Millennium
Wetland Event - Chairpersons' Report.
The Chairpersons of the Quebec 2000 event this past August, Clayton
Rubec and Bernard Bélanger, have finalized their 'balance
sheet' report on the success of the meetings, including final figures on everything,
lessons learned, lists of printed and other products expected from all the symposia,
and lots more. Read
our reprint of the Chairpersons' Report right here. (And
a few more photos of Ramsar's participation.)
[31/10/00]
Photo
essay. Ramsar
at Hallowe'en. Not many
secretariats of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) would display themselves
in full Hallowe'en regalia, absent the threat of excessive force. But the Ramsar
Convention on Wetlands, continuously innovative since 1971, is unafraid
to show its really silly side on this Web site. [1/11/00]
Headline
story.Australia enacts
landmark legislation to protect Ramsar sites and migratory birds. Getting
ready to enshrine your Ramsar obligations into national law, are you???
Former Ramsar Deputy Secretary General Dr Bill Phillips, now
of MainStream Environmental Consulting,
explains the new Australian legislation conferring federal legal obligations
on Wetlands of International Importance, and throws in excerpts of the relevant
legislation. This Australian effort is a significant advance and an excellent
model for other Contracting Parties seeking to embody Ramsar's wise use principles
in their national and federal legislation. It's
all here for your solemn contemplation, right now. [1/11/00]
Headline
story. China
plans mangrove inventory.
The China State Forestry Administration (SFA) has announced that an inventory
of mangrove resources would start next spring (northern hemisphere). Mangrove
is special forest vegetation and plays an important role in keeping ecological
balance along China’s coastal areas. So far some 14 mangrove type nature
reserves have been established. However, for various reasons no systematic and
overall inventory of mangrove resources has been carried out, and this is an
important gap having negative impacts on conservation and management of mangrove
resources. It is estimated that some 40% of mangrove area have been lost. SFA,
in its announcement, instructed that the forestry departments of all distribution
provinces (Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan) have to be responsible
to form a team for this inventory starting in spring of 2001 and prepare to
issue ownership/tenure certificates of mangrove before end of 2001. – Reported
by Li Lukang, Wetlands International China Programme (lilukang@public3.bta.net.cn).
[30/10/00]
Who's where?
Nick Davidson, Deputy Secretary General, is in Cambridge, UK, for the workshop "Towards the Harmonization of National Reporting", 30-31 October, sponsored by the UNEP Division of Environmental Conventions and UNEP's World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC). He'll report on the meeting when he returns in a few days. [30/10/00]
Who was where? Cumulated record of travels throughout the year.
New
on the Site:
Opening statements to the 25th
meeting of the Standing Committee from the International Organization Partners,
good policy snapshots; priceless paparazzi specials from Québec 2000 - the
Slovenian delegate attacks her dinner; Last
minute addenda to the Agenda Papers for the 25th Standing
Committee meeting. [1/11/00]
Ramsar
welcomes Nigeria as its 123rd Contracting Party.
UNESCO has informed the Bureau that on 2 October 2000 Nigeria
completed the formalities necessary for its accession to the Convention, as
amended by the Paris Protocol of 1982. The Convention will therefore come into
force for Nigeria on World Wetlands Day, 2 February 2001. The new Party’s
first Ramsar site is "Nguru Lake (and Marma
Channel) complex" (58,100 hectares), part of the Hadejia
Nguru Wetlands located in the northeast of the country, straddling the border
between Jigawa State and Yobe State. (The Hadejia Nguru floodplain was the subject
of an instructive case study in Ramsar’s Economic
Valuation of Wetlands, by Barbier, Acreman, and Knowler, 1997.)
Find out a bit more about this newest
Ramsar site, right here. [24/10/00]
Ramsar
Bureau braces for the 25th meeting of the Standing Committee.
The Subgroup on Finance will be meeting today, 23 October, followed by concurrent
sessions of the Subgroup on COP8 and the Subgroup on the next Strategic Plan
on Tuesday. Plenary Sessions follow on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Some
70 people are expected to participate (from 39 nations and
a big handful of NGOs), and that's not counting six simultaneous interpreters
and the entire dedicated staff of the Bureau in full armor. The agenda papers
have been available on this Web site for the past month, and this weekend the
last minute addenda and corrigenda have been posted as well -- the index can
be seen at http://ramsar.org/key_sc25_docs_index.htm,
and the detailed agenda for the meetings can be found there as DOC.
SC25-1. [Photo:
The Chairperson of the Standing Committee, Stephen Hunter (Australia), opens
the 24th meeting, November 1999.]
[21/10/00]
News
from the former Deputy Secretary General. Dr
Bill Phillips, long involved in Ramsar affairs as head of Australia's
delegation to the Convention, joined the Bureau in 1997 as Deputy Secretary
General and served to universal applause until early in the year 2000, when
he returned to Environment Australia. In his newest incarnation, he is MainStream
Environmental Consulting Ltd, and more information is available
here. [22/10/00]
Special
instructive note.
How to make signs for your
Ramsar sites. Illuminating
photographic examples - the Right Way, and the Wrong
Way. See it here.[18/10/00]
Results
of the Prespa Park coordination meeting in Tirana, 16-17 October. On
World Wetlands Day, 2 February 2000, the Ramsar Bureau participated in ceremonies
near Prespa Lake that were attended by the Prime Ministers of Albania, Greece,
and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia -- the purpose of the trilateral
meeting of Prime Ministers was jointly to declare the transboundary "Prespa
Park", a new protected area including parts of all three countries, an
innovative exercise in regional diplomacy, and their
joint declaration is available on this Web site. This first transboundary
protected area in the Balkan region has now moved closer to implementation following
a working meeting amongst these three countries which was successful in pushing
forward concrete plans for setting up a Coordinating Committee, developing a
strategic plan, and establishing infrastructure. Here is a summary
of the import of the meeting, followed by the agreed Conclusions.[20/10/00]
The
compendious threatened bird tome of all time. BirdLife
International, in cooperation with Lynx Edicions of Barcelona,
has produced the most impressive of all physical books about birds, Threatened
Birds of the World: The official source for birds on the IUCN Red List.
With a contributors' list numbering in the many thousands, Alison
J. Stattersfield and David R.
Capper (senior editors) have assembled 852 pages' worth of hot
stuff on birds, all of it beautiful but none of it too encouraging. This astonishing
volume will be particularly helpful for practitioners of the Ramsar Convention
on Wetlands, who will be able to use these detailed and highly sophisticated
data to create their own "shadow list", as it were, of wetlands in
their localities that can still offer habitat to these 0.75-gazillion threatened
and endangered species. Read more about
it here. [20/10/00]
Ramsar
texts newly on this site.
Ramsar Advisory Mission reports from the past: RAM35
to Nariva Swamp, Trinidad and Tobago (1995) and RAM36,
Ringkøbing Fjord, Denmark (1996); RAM29 to
St Lucia, South Africa (1992); RAM7, the first
mission to Keoladeo (1988); RAM20
to Ukraine (1990); RAM19
to Germany (1990); and RAM28
to Srebarna, Bulgaria (in French).Mission reports
of Ramsar consultations in Armenia
and Georgia, September 2000;
The Secretary General's encouraging remarks to the graduates of the 7th
International Course on Wetland Management, in Lelystad, The Netherlands,
yesterday; Eric Gilman's renewed call for proposals for the Society
of Wetland Scientists' Ramsar grants, the deadline for which looms
(1 November). [17/10/00]
Time
to get serious about World Wetlands Day 2001.
The Bureau will be making available a number of physical items for you to toss
around like confetti at your giant WWD rallies, clean-up days, bird-counting
parties, and pub crawls -- we already have available a very nice brochure
(E, F, and S) advancing the slogan "Wetland
World - A World to Discover!" and shamelessly promoting
the 30th anniversary of the Convention, with still another slogan: "30
Years Helping You Care for Your Wetlands" (available
here and in hardcopy). By mid-November we'll be posting out to
all requesters a slick information pack on Wetland Values and Functions
(E, F, and S), created by Sandra Hails and available in hardcopy in
an attractive folder and all to be reprinted on this Web site. Our five
stunning stickers from last year have been reprinted in fairly
large quantities, and by mid-December we will be offering a World Wetlands
Day 2001 poster (presently still in the 'concept' stage) to replace
the old one. Around the same time, we'll be making available some cute
computer mousepads with darling little
cartoon frogs on them, saying various wetland-related things in three variants
for the three Ramsar languages (English, French, and Spanish). (Test:
15 years ago, did you know what "mousepad" meant?)
As heretofore, the Ramsar Web site will be posting all the news you send of your plans for WWD 2001 activities as the Big Day approaches and, afterwards, your reports of what actually happened. Brief one-paragraph notes go onto a general Web page, longer reports, with or without JPEG photos, will get their own linked pages as time allows for posting them. The architecture on this Web site has now been set up, so please, beginning now, do send us your news as your plans take shape. [17/10/00]
Headline
story. Ramsar visit to Honduras. Earlier this year, the Ramsar Bureau had received
multiple complaints from national and international NGOs regarding problems with Ramsar
site number 1000 in Honduras - Sistema de Humedales de la Zona Sur de Honduras
(designated in July 1999), a complex of seven coastal areas totaling 69,711 hectares along
the Honduran portion of the Golfo de Fonseca. In accordance with Article 3.2 of the
Convention, the Ramsar Bureau made inquiries with the Ramsar Administrative Authority in
the country and received a formal reply indicating that all possible measures within the
legal system of Honduras had been taken, or were in the process of being taken, to resolve
the situation. Since, thereafter, the Bureau continued to receive complaints about the
effectiviness of the government action, Regional Coordinator Margarita Astrálaga visited
the country and the Ramsar site in September 2000 and spoke with representatives of the
Government and the NGOs. Here's a brief summary
of what she learned. [16/10/00]
IUCN,
Ramsar, and climate change. On
7 October, the Deputy Secretary General, Nick Davidson, spoke
to the climate change workshop at the World Conservation Congress (still winding
slowly down in Amman, Jordan) about potential IUCN roles in the emerging cooperation
between the Convention on Wetlands and the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change. A further note is added from Nick's pointed summary remarks
to the Making Waves interactive session, pledging Ramsar's efforts to assist
the IUCN Wetlands Programme in future to stay in touch with other global initiatives
in order to avoid unnecessary duplication of efforts. Here's
the brief text. [12/10/00]
The
United Kingdom adds two more Ramsar sites. The
Bureau is pleased to announce the designation of two new Ramsar sites in the
UK, effective 9 October 2000, bringing that Party’s total number of sites
to 158. Lee Valley
(448 hectares) comprises a series of embanked water supply reservoirs, sewage
treatment lagoons, and former gravel pits extending along about 24km of the
valley from near Ware southward to Finsbury Park in London. These water bodies
support internationally important numbers of wintering Gadwall and Shoveler
(Criterion 6)and nationally important numbers of several other bird species.
Four Sites of Special Scientific Interest are included within the site, and
virtually all parts of the site are subject to management plans in which nature
conservation is a high or sole priority. South
West London Waterbodies (828 ha) comprises a number of reservoirs
and former gravel pits in the Thames Valley adjacent to Heathrow Airport between
Windsor and Hampton Court which support internationally important numbers of
Gadwall Anas strepera and Shoveler Anas clypeata (Criterion 6).
Potential future decommissioning of reservoirs once they are no longer needed
for water supply may eventually require discussions with the current owners.
[10/10/00] [français et/y
español]
Ramsar at the World Conservation
Congress. "Making Waves: strategies for averting the world water crisis"
is the name of "Interactive" Workshop 6 at the World Conservation Congress in
Amman, Jordan, and today's first session is being chaired by Delmar Blasco,
Ramsar's Secretary General. Nick Davidson, Deputy
Secretary General, will be addressing the workshop as well, and Dr Jorge Jiménez
of Costa Rica, chair of Ramsar's Scientific and Technical Review Panel, will be serving as
a panelist. "Making Waves" has been organized by IUCN's Wetlands and Water
Resources Programme with collaboration of a number of IUCN regional offices and
commissions, with support from the Ramsar Convention, The Nature Conservancy, the World
Commission on Dams, and the Global Water Partnership for Southern Africa. [5/10/00] Update: Nick Davidson will be participating in the
workshop on Climate Change, chaired by Brett Orlando, 7 October.
Update
on the Asia-Pacific Migratory Waterbird Strategy for 2001-2005 and three species-group
actions plans. Conservation
of migratory waterbirds and wetlands in the Asia Pacific region has been promoted
through the Asia Pacific Migratory Waterbird Conservation Strategy: 1996-2000.
The Strategy, an international cooperative initiative, has core financial support
from the governments of Japan and Australia and is coordinated by Wetlands International,
and the Strategy is endorsed by the Convention on Wetlands and the Convention
on Migratory Species. The new draft will be finalized at the workshop
in Okinawa, 15-19 October, and any further inputs must be received
now. Taej Mundkur
reports to the Ramsar Forum on recent progress on this next edition.
[7/10/00]
Second
Pathfinder Workshop held in Colombia. In
furtherance of Resolution V/6 of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the
Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM), the MAB Programme of UNESCO, and the
Ramsar Convention on Wetlands promoted the holding of three subregional workshops.
The first one was held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, 17-20 July 2000, the second
was held in Colombia, 17-20 September 2000, and the third one will be held in
Asia at the end of the year. The South American workshop was also supported
by the European Union, the United Kingdom, WWF International, the Royal Holloway
Institute, and the Colombian Ministry of Environment. Here
is a brief report on the workshop from Margarita Astrálaga. [6/10/00]
Announcement.
Wetland hydrology and management
workshops set for EGS, Nice, 2001.
When the European Geophysical Society meets in Nice, France, in March 2001,
wetlands will be high on the agenda. Mike Acreman reports on
two workshops planned on Wetland Hydrology and Wetland Management. Learn
more here. [7/10/00]
Two
wetland workshops in Odesa.
(That's right, Odesa (not 'Odessa')
is said to be the correct Ukrainian spelling.)
Tobias Salathé reports on two
workshops held in Odesa at the end of September. The first one on the "Conservation,
restoration and wise-use of wetlands and wetland resources along the Black Sea
coast" was organized by Wetlands International with support from the
Netherlands Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries. Most of
the participants stayed on for the second workshop on "Water issues
and natural resources management", also organized by the Wetlands International
Black Sea Office. This was the final meeting of the Programme
on Technical Twinnings between Ramsar Sites in Closed Seas Deltas,
a MedWet project in cooperation with Eurosite, with financial support by the
Ramsar Evian Initiative of the Danone Group and the French Global Environment
Facility (FFEM). Here is his one-page
report on what really happened. [5/10/00]
Stamp collectors, line up and don't jostle. Here are two of the prettiest postage stamps you'll see in
a long while, recently issued by Armenia. The photographs were shot by Dr Karén Jenderedjian of the Ministry of Nature
Protection, who's also Chairman of the Ramsar Standing Committee's Subgroup on Finance and
is expected here at the secretariat in three weeks' time. Maybe Karén can find more
copies of these stamps for you - these originals are on their way by UPS courier to the
webmaster's youngest daughter for a prominent spot in her collection. [5/10/00]
|
|
Article
3.2 of the Convention. Article
3.2 reads "Each Contracting Party shall arrange to be informed at the earliest
possible time if the ecological character of any wetland in its territory and
included in the List has changed, is changing or is likely to change as the
result of technological developments, pollution or other human interference.
Information on such changes shall be passed without delay to [the Convention
Bureau]." Over many years, the Convention's bodies have worked hard to
refine definitions of "ecological character" and "change of ecological
character" for the guidance of the Parties. But as Dave Pritchard,
International Treaties Adviser for BirdLife International, points out in this
background paper prepared for the Standing Committee's deliberations in a few
weeks' time, the Article has significant other implications for the Parties
as well. The paper is available
here. [5/10/00]
The Standing Committee agenda papers beckon to you! Despite all the odds, the Bureau [with the help of experts
all over the world] has succeeded in finalizing all 31 massive primary documents (with
their gazillion pages of semi-useful attachments) scheduled for the consideration of the
25th meeting of the Standing Committee (23-27 October 2000, Gland,
Switzerland), many of which are interesting, or at least significant. They've been
sent in hardcopy by courier to all of the SC members and registered observers tomorrow at
first light, and they are also available on this Web site.
The SC25 agenda papers include: the Secretary General’s report on all the progress the Convention has made over the past year [2]; update on "compliance" issues among the Parties and the increasing importance of Article 3.2 [3, 8]; lots on the Convention’s "synergies" with the CBD and other conventions and financial mechanisms [5, 6, 7, 29]; progress on indigenous people [9] and river basins [11]; proposals for place, dates, and agenda for the 8th Conference of the Contracting Parties in Spain in 2002 [14, 15]; beaucoup de financial stuff [21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28]; Small Grants Fund issues [24, 25]; location of the MedWet Coordination Function [30]; finding a new Secretary General in due course [31]; and best of all (if better were possible) the second draft of the evolving Strategic Plan for 2003-2008 [18]. You’ll also be delighted to find background papers by Dave Pritchard (on compliance [3] and on the draft Strategic Plan [18]), Faizal Parish (on river basins [11]), and the Environmental Law Center (on "urgent national interest" issues [8]). The index is at http://ramsar.org/key_sc25_docs_index.htm. [1/10/00]
The
Nature Conservancy signs Memorandum of Cooperation with Ramsar. The
mission of The Nature Conservancy is to preserve plants, animals and natural
communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the
lands and waters they need to survive. Founded in 1951, The Nature Conservancy
is said to be the world's leading private, international conservation group.
Its 1-million-plus members have helped to protect more than 11 million acres
of habitat in the United States and nearly 60 million acres in Canada, Latin
America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. It currently manages 1,340 preserves,
the largest system of private nature sanctuaries in the world. Its results-oriented,
nonconfrontational approach allows it to forge partnerships with landowners,
corporations, and governments. Its commitment to working with local people gives
it an on-the-ground presence in communities around the world. This
new Memorandum of Cooperation, completed on 26 September 2000 between
Delmar Blasco, our Secretary General,
and Alexander F. Watson, Vice-President
for International Conservation for TNC, marks a large step forward in Ramsar's
tradition of meaningful cooperation with leading non-governmental organizations
in achieving the wise use mission in the field. The
text of the MOU is a classic example of intelligent cooperation.
(The Nature Conservancy's Web site is at http://www.tnc.org.)[now
http://nature.org/] [29/9/00] [français
et/y español]
Brief
report on the Ramsar Advisory Mission to the Ebro Delta. Following
a number of citizen and NGO notifications to the Bureau about problems in maintaining
the ecological character of the Ebro Delta Ramsar site, the Bureau, as required
by Article 3.2 of the Convention, made inquiries with the Administrative Authority
in Spain. Promptly the Spanish Ministry of Environment invited a Ramsar Advisory
Mission to the site, in coordination with the Department of Environment of the
region of Catalunya. Tobias Salathé of the Bureau, with experts
Patrick Dugan and María José Viñals as well as national
and regional authorities, applied the Ramsar Advisory procedure 18-22 September,
and Dr Salathé's report on the mission
is available here. The full report will be posted here after it's
been finalized. [26/9/00]
Exemplary
outreach device from Brazil. The
Ministry of Environment of Brazil, specifically the Protected Areas National
Program in the Secretariat of Biodiversity and Forests, has produced an extraordinarily
attractive maxi-brochure on Ramsar sites in Brazil. Entitled "Life begins
with water", the gracefully written text (available in both English and
Portuguese) folds out to show brief descriptions of the Convention, the wise
use principle, and Brazil's Ramsar role, with short factual blurbs on her seven
Ramsar sites -- then folds out again to a fine A3-size poster with a map and
photos showing the location and essential nature of all of those sites (this
illustration, photographed by Sasha Belokurov from its prominent display in
the Ramsar Bureau, doesn't do justice to the real thing).
Brazil has produced an especially elegant Ramsar-related outreach product that
should serve as an example and an inspiration to all of our other Contracting
Parties in their fulfilment of their Resolution VII.9 public-awareness obligations.
Update: the Portuguese copies are gone now,
write to dap@mma.gov.br instead, but we still have English versions to give
out to all deserving individuals. [26-29/9/00]
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.
