What's
New @ Ramsar What's
New @ Ramsar
4 January 2001
Headline
story. Colombia
adopts policy for coastal zones.
Fabian Navarrete Le Bas, Coordinador Ecosistemas Acuáticos
in the Ministerio del Medio Ambiente in Colombia, reports that on 5 December
2000 the Consejo Nacional Ambiental approved the "Política
Nacional Ambiental para el Desarrollo Sostenible del los Espacios Oceánicos
y Zonas Costeras e Insulares de Colombia" (National Environmental
Policy for the Sustainable Development of the Ocean and Coastal Areas and Islands
of Colombia). The Bureau has received a Microsoft Word version of this Spanish-language
document and would be pleased to forward it by e-mail attachment to all interested
parties. Make your request to 
.
[4/1/01]
New Year's greetings. The staff of the Bureau of the Convention on Wetlands wish
all of their friends and collaborators around the world a healthy and productive new year.
[1/1/01]
Headline
story. UK
designates another site in the Western Isles. The
Bureau is delighted to announce that the UK has designated as its 161st Ramsar
site, effective 22 December, Lewis Peatlands (58,984 hectares, 58°15’N
006°35’W). The new 
site
is largely made up of a near-continuous mantle of blanket bog (a significant
proportion of the total world resource), liberally dotted with small pools and
lochans. In the southern part, the peatland is more broken with outcrops of
rocks of Lewisian gneiss and lochans, forming a distinctive "knock and
lochan" landscape and including the largest freshwater nutrient-poor lochs
of south central Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles. The vast expanse of this
relatively undisturbed peatland supports a diverse range of associated flora
and fauna, including 31% of the world population of dunlin (Calidris alpina
schinzii). The hyper-oceanic, extremely humid upper boreal bioclimatic zone
predominates to an extent found nowhere else in Scotland. Human uses include
low-density sheep and red deer grazing, sport shooting and angling, and low-level
recreational use of "quad bikes" and other all-terrain vehicles. (Above:
Hiker south of Stornoway, adjacent to Lewis Peatlands Ramsar site. )
[28/12/00] [français
et/y español]
Headline
story. Ramsar
outlines cooperative efforts for the CCD's COP4. On
20 December, Dave Pritchard of
RSPB and BirdLife International, and member of the Ramsar Convention's STRP,
addressed the ministerial segment of the 4th Session of the Conference of the
Parties to the Convention to Combat Desertification on behalf of the Ramsar
Convention, and laid out four major areas of fruitful cooperation already under
way between the two conventions, indeed amongst several of the global environmental
instruments. The possibilities for harmonization and productive cooperation
under the rubric "wetlands in drylands" are so many that promising
on-the-ground actions are already being actively pursued. Here
is the text of the Ramsar address to the CCD. [22/12/00]
Who's where?
Ramsar staff will be conspicuous by their absence from IUCN HQ until about 3 January. A few of them may wander in to the Bureau from time to time, but since the heat's been turned down, the cafeteria's dark and locked, and the mail and the DHL/FedEx/TNT's been turned off, it might be best to save your urgent inquiries about the wise use of wetlands until people begin to peek in again after hols. [25/12/00]
Who was where? Cumulated record of travels throughout the year.
New
on the Site:
The Wetland Values and Functions info pack
has been reprinted here in its resplendent entirety; World
Wetlands Day inspirational message from the Secretary General (English,
French, & Spanish versions); Winners
of SWS's Ramsar grants for 2001. [29/12/00]
Other
texts newly on the Site: Two
Ramsar Advisory Mission reports from 1988:
no. 8, Parc national d'oiseaux du Djoudj
and no.
9, Réserve spéciale de faune du N’diaël, Sénégal.
[29/12/00]
Participatory
Management Networking Service (PMNS) getting started. Amongst
all its many deep deliberations, the 25th meeting of the Ramsar Standing Committee
pondered the question of the implementation of Resolution
VII.8 on participation of local communities and indigenous people
in wetland management, and at the end of the day welcomed the joint initiative
by IUCN, WWF, and the Ramsar Bureau to establish a Participatory Management
Networking Service (PMNS), to be managed by IUCN’s Social Policy Programme
(Decision SC25-8).
The Participatory
Management Networking Service (PMNS)
is intended to facilitate the dissemination of information concerning participatory
management of natural resources (Collaborative Management, Community-Based Management
and Indigenous Peoples Management). PMNS will link existing networks and institutions
to promote a better flow of rich and diverse experience, providing a common
space to share lessons learned, it is said. Learn
a bit more about it here. [21/12/00]
'Wetland
Values and Functions' info pack now available. As
part of the Ramsar Convention’s contribution to World Wetlands Day 2001,
the Bureau has prepared an information pack, in English, French, and
Spanish versions, consisting of ten fact sheets on the values and functions
of wetlands. Individual single-page front-and-back two-color fact sheets cover
the basic ideas, and wherever possible assign monetary values, in order to help
demonstrate the importance of wetlands in the most fundamental economic and
cost-benefit terms. Topics covered include: Flood Control, Groundwater Replenishment,
Shoreline Stabilisation & Storm Protection, Sediment & Nutrient Retention
and Export, Climate Change Mitigation, Water Purification, Reservoirs of Biodiversity,
Wetland Products, Recreation/ Tourism, and Cultural Value. Get
more detail and ordering information here. [19/12/00] FOLLOW-UP
HEADLINE:
The entire Wetland
Values and Functions info pack is now also available in English, French,
and Spanish in reprint form on this Web site, courtesy of Ms
Sandra Hails. Just kick your boots up on your brocaded footstool,
lean back in a relaxed manner with a cigar or whatever, and click
here to get started. [21/12/00]
Ramsar
exhibit replicated on posters. The
justly-famous "Ramsar Exhibit" was unveiled in May 2000 to deafening
applause and has already stunned crowds of passersby in large venues in Nairobi,
Québec City, Tokyo, Amman, and Bonn. Now, on the occasion of World Wetlands
Day 2001 and the 30th anniversary of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands,
the Ramsar Bureau has come to the aid of all those Friends of Wetlands yearning
for their own Ramsar Exhibits and has developed a poster exhibit which reproduces
in a relatively low-cost manner that very same magnificent original. Like
its parent, the Ramsar Poster Exhibit was designed by Saatchi & Saatchi
Switzerland and funded by the communications segment of the Evian Project, financed
for the Ramsar Convention by the private-sector Danone Group and the French
GEF. Get more detail
and ordering information here. [19/12/00]
Announcement.
Mangrove Action Project sets art and poetry contest for kids.
Monica Alicia Paz Gutierrez-Quarto,
Calendar Project Coordinator for the Mangrove Action Project (monicaquarto@mixmail.com
and mangroveap@olympus.net)
writes to the Ramsar Forum: "The Mangrove Action Project is seeking your
assistance in celebrating our 10th anniversary in 2002! We are sponsoring an
international children's art and poetry competition and would like children
in your country to enter this contest and learn more about the important roles
that mangrove forests play. Specifically we would like you to contact schools
and teachers in your area and provide them with information regarding this contest,
and also to act as a liaison between MAP and the local schools and as a resource
person regarding mangrove and ecological information." The
full details have been reprinted on this Web site. [22/12/00]
Ramsar
30th Anniversary poster is ready in time for World Wetlands Day 2001. 2
February 2001 is the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands
in the city of Ramsar, Iran, and a new poster has been developed to commemorate
the Convention's work in alleviating the worst effects of the continuing loss
of wetland values and functions around the world. This sobering outreach item
is guaranteed to cast a long shadow over any festive occasion and invite earnest
inquiries about what we can do to reverse present trends -- it's available in
reasonable quantities in the three Ramsar languages, and more
details are available here. [16/12/00]
Ramsar
inventory workshop produces "Inventory Route Map". The
Wetland Inventory Training Workshop,
organized by the Ramsar Bureau and the IUCN East Africa Regional Office and
held in Kampala, Uganda, 6-9 December 2000 with funding support from Switzerland’s
Ramsar Africa Grant, included participants from Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria,
Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. The purpose of the workshop was to define the
needs for wetland inventory in relation to wise wetland use at national and
local levels; examine the choices of wetland inventory types to provide the
most cost-effective information that is required; discuss the various methods
and approaches to wetland inventory and the minimum information needed; and
learn from the practical experiences of Uganda and other countries involved
in inventories, amongst other goals. The meetings developed an "Inventory
Route Map" from the African perspective, and this will
be fed into the ongoing work of the Convention’s subsidiary scientific
body (the STRP) on wetland inventory methodologies. This very interesting "Route
Map" is still unofficial, but this Microsoft PowerPoint presentation may
be of interest to many members of the Ramsar family and is available for download
here. (Readers will need to have PowerPoint installed in order to view this
200kb file.) Now you say 1) "Please
send me this nice Inventory Route Map .ppt" or you say 2)
"No, thank you, maybe later". [16/12/00]
Ramsar
Guidelines on big chocolate soup pots.
In December 1602 (we're told), the Savoyards attacked the city of Geneva (now
part of Switzerland), and the civic wives turned the invaders away by pouring
huge pots of hot soup down upon them as they tried to climb the city walls.
Genevans commemorate this triumphant occasion every year by 1) admiring,
2) breaking, and 3) devouring huge soup pots made of Swiss chocolate. Here
is your opportunity to watch Ramsar Bureau staff as they celebrate
this "Escalade" anniversary by 1) admiring, 2) breaking, and 3) devouring
huge soup pots made of Swiss chocolate. [16/12/00]
United Kingdom extends Ramsar
site in the Western Isles. The site
known as North Uist Machair and Islands, Phase 1
(RS no. 1004, 1,560 hectares, designated July 1999) in the Outer Hebrides islands of
Scotland has now got its "Phase 2", effective 3 November, with the integration
of further nearby SSSIs (Sites of Special Scientific Interest) into the site. The word
"machair" refers to areas of grassland upon sand, commonly behind coastal sand
dunes in northwestern Scotland. The Ramsar site, now including 4,705 hectares in this
astonishingly beautiful area, qualifies under Criterion 6 by supporting internationally
important numbers of Dunlin and Ringed Plover during the breeding season and Barnacle
Goose, Ringed Plover, and Turnstone during the winter. The total designation, which is
also a Special Protection Area under the EC Directive, now includes four sites on the west
and north coasts of North Uist and all or part of three islands in the Sound of Harris
south of Lewis and Harris. The RSPB maintains a small visitors’ centre and guided
walks at the Balranald Bog part of the site. The spread of the invasive American mink is
considered to be a potential threat and measures are being taken. [15/12/00]
Society
of Wetland Scientists unveils its Ramsar Support Grant Program Awards for 2001.
Eric
Gilman, chair of the SWS International Committee, has announced
the names of the winners of the SWS Ramsar Support
Framework grants programme, which offers four US$ 5,000 grants
annually to SWS members in developing countries who are engaged in work aimed
at implementing the Ramsar Convention, funded jointly by the SWS and the US
Fish and Wildlife Service. The winning projects for 2001 are those by Paul
Mafabi, Programme Coordinator of Uganda's National Wetlands
Programme; Milan Valachovic of
the Institute of Botany, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Department of Geobotany,
Slovakia; Sergio Gabriel Domber,
Manager of the Parque Nacional Laguna Blanca, Argentina; and Edgar
Gonzales of the Asociación Kechua Aymara para la Conservación
de la Naturaleza y el Desarrollo Sostenible (ANDES) and Indigenous People’s
Biodiversity Network (IPBN), NGOs based in Peru, jointly with Francesco
Giro, Director of Fundación
Natura, Spain. Brief descriptions
of these projects can be seen here on this site, as can a basic
run-down on the SWS Ramsar programme with last year's winning projects.
[14/12/00]
WWF
unveils "Water and Wetland Index" for European accession countries.
On 5 December 2000 in Brussels, Belgium, the WWF
European Freshwater Programme launched the first component of
its Water and Wetland Index, the
whole of which will be ready in time for ceremonies on 1 February 2001, for
reporting on World Wetlands Day. The press release for this early launch, covering
the European "Accession Countries" (Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia
and Turkey), notes that these countries "have rivers, lakes and wetlands
that are more natural and in a better state
than many found in the EU, and may have less difficulty than expected in complying
with the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive." "The belief
that these accession countries have overwhelming problems with the state of
their rivers and lakes is ill-founded" said Bent Hygum
of WWF's European Freshwater Programme. "While blackspots undoubtedly exist,
many rivers and lakes of these countries will offer the EU great natural wealth
and contribute strongly to the EU's biodiversity. The Mesta, Rába, Hornád, Hron,
Narva, Kizilirmak and Göksu rivers, the Rila, Strbské pleso and Vel'ké Hinbcovo
lakes and the wetland delta of the Gediz are among the pearls of Europe."
The whole press release and related materials are available at www.wwffreshwater.org/wwi/accession/overview.html,
and the European Freshwater Programme can be found at www.panda.org/europe/freshwater.
Inquiries can be directed to Mark Vanderbeeken in Copenhagen,
m.vanderbeeken@wwf.dk . [14/12/00] [Links are now out of date (2004).]
Ramsar
and the coral reef crisis.
Gilberto Cintron, US Fish and
Wildlife Service, represented the Ramsar Convention at the 9th International
Coral Reef Symposium in Bali, Indonesia, October 2000, and the associated ICRI
coordination meetings, and filed this
report on the meetings. [12/12/00]
Mexico
names a new site in theYucatán Peninsula. The
Ramsar Bureau is delighted to report that Mexico has designated, as its 7th
Wetland of International Importance, "Dzilam
(reserva estatal)" (61,707 ha; 21°35’N 088°35’W).
Dzilam is a coastal and marine reserve located in the north of the Yucatán Peninsula,
adjacent to the Ría Lagartos Ramsar site. The site includes a unique hydrological
system, "anillo de cenotes", a formation caused by the impact of a
huge meteor. This site comprises various habitats: marine areas of the continental
platform, seagrass beds, intertidal lagoons, sandy dune shores, flooded jungle,
dry low jungle and medium height jungle. The site provides important habitat
for more than 20,000 waterbirds, such as the Mexican pink flamingo and many
other migratory species. It is also an important habitat for a wide diversity
of species and life history stages of fish, molluscs and crustaceans, some of
them with a high commercial value, and it provides habitat for several endemic,
threatened and endangered species of cactus, reptiles and amphibians. The site
has extremely important cultural values, as it was an area of residence of prehispanic
cultures. 14,000 hectares of the site belong to private landowners. About 68%
of the population residing in the area derive their livelihoods from fishing,
hunting and agriculture, 8.5% from trade, 7.5% from industry, 4% from tourism,
and the rest work for the government. This is the 1044th Ramsar site globally.
[11/12/00] [français et/y
español]
Mauritania
designates its third Ramsar site.
The Ramsar Bureau is very pleased to announce that Mauritania has designated
its third Wetland of International Importance, as of 10 November 2000. "Chat
Tboul" (15,500 ha; roughly 16°33’N 16°24’W) lies
along the Atlantic coast, immediately north of the Parc National du Diawling
Ramsar site, around a former mouth of the Senegal river. Behind a ca.10km strip
of coastal dunes, in some areas with a cover of Sahelian-type vegetation, the
site includes a number of wetland types, from both permanent and temporary brackish
and saline lakes and pools, estuarine waters, intertidal mud/sand flats and
forested wetlands, sandy shores, and intertidal marshes. The site qualifies
under the uniqueness and biodiversity Criteria, as well as under the 1% threshold
for waterbirds (6) -- with several species (including Pelecanus onocrotalus,
Phoenicopterus ruber, Larus genei, and Recurvirostra avosetta)
meeting that standard -- and under Criterion 8 on importance for fish stocks.
A number of small-scale traditional fishing and transhumant grazing practices
are seen in the area, which also receives an annual allotment of fresh water
under the management plan of the Diawling Park. Possible threats are foreseen
from a proposal concerning evacuation of agricultural run-off from rice fields
and from overexploitation of coastal fish stocks, as well as from the spread
of shrimp and lobster farming. This is the 1043th Ramsar site globally. [9/12/00]
[français et/y español]
WATC
wetland management and restoration course brochures available here.
Every year since 1994, the Institute for Inland Water Management and Waste Water
Treatment (RIZA), part of the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water
Management in The Netherlands, has hosted the International Course in
Wetland Management at the Wetlands Advisory and Training Centre (WATC)
in Lelystad. Over the past few years, RIZA has also hosted an International
Course on Wetland Restoration. Both 4-6 week, certificate-granting
courses are organized according to Ramsar Convention principles (the Ramsar
Secretary General serves as chair of the Advisory Board), and many graduates
have returned to their own countries with a thorough experience of the Convention's
work both in theory and practice. The next iteration of the International
Course on Wetland Management will take place in Lelystad, 23 August
to 3 October 2001, and the International Course on Wetland Restoration
will take place in Lelystad, 6 June to 5 July 2001. Brochures and application
forms (in PDF format) are available here. [since
removed] [10/12/00]
Wetlands
International's Specialist Groups workshop furthers Ramsar objectives. On
Nov 4-5, Wetlands International held a 2-day workshop involving its global and
regional staff, Specialist Groups, other of Ramsar's International Partner Organizations
(BirdLife, IUCN) and Ramsar Bureau staff (Nick Davidson and Tobias Salathé).
The Workshop's primary aim was to review the working relationships between the
various parts of Wetlands International's network and to chart a strategic direction
for its future work. A number of key areas of activity were identified for future
development - work that will further strengthen the valuable role that Wetlands
International delivers as one of the Ramsar Convention’s four International
Partner Organizations. As part of the meetings, Wetlands International hosted
workshops to further develop Ramsar site selection and designation guidance
for wet grasslands, peatlands and threatened waterbirds - part of its lead role
as a member of Ramsar's STRP - and reviewed the draft project concept for a
Ramsar Wetlands Training and Advisory Service, prepared by
Wetlands International for the Ramsar Bureau and recently endorsed by the Standing
Committee. Background papers, workshop reports and photos of this fruitful meeting
are now available at http://www.wetlands.agro.nl/Wetlands_ICU/SGroups/Workshop2000/Workshop.htm
. [8/12/00]
Inventory training workshop now
under way in Uganda. The Ramsar
Bureau's Anada Tiéga (left) is in Kampala, Uganda, for the second Ramsar
African training session on National Wetland Inventory. This workshop, 6-8 December, is
intended for English-speaking African officers and has been funded from the Swiss African
Grant, generously maintained every year over the past decade or so by the Government of
Switzerland for Ramsar's wetland conservation actions in Africa. The first National
Wetland Inventory training session, attended by French-speaking Contracting Parties in
Africa, was held in Cameroon in March 2000 and financed from the Evian Project, supplied
to the Ramsar Convention by the private sector Danone Group. [5/12/00]
Announcement.
Draft agenda available for Ramsar COP8.
The 8th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties of the Convention
on Wetlands is slated to take place in Valencia, Spain, 18 to 26 November 2002.
The Provisional Agenda and Programme, including Technical Session subjects,
has been approved by the Standing Committee at its 25th meeting in October 2000.
The English and Spanish
versions of the provisional agenda are available here now. [4/12/00]
Wetlands
International strengthens Ramsar Database team. Scott Frazier,
Senior Wetland Inventory Officer at Wetlands International, reports: "Ellen Amting, a Dutch National from Amsterdam,
joined us today as Wetland Database Management Assistant. She replaces Jantien van Oord,
who recently moved to Haarlem. Ellen will bring the Ramsar Database team back up to full
strength and will assist with our other wetland database managment. Ellen studied Tropical
Ecology at the University of Amsterdam. She has done research and/or fieldwork in
spatial/landcover/vegetation (including wetlands) issues in Senegal, Kenya, Burkina Faso
and the Netherlands. She has a keen interest in GIS as evidenced by previous and ongoing
course work. She was a database management assistant on a Soil Information System before
joining us. Welcome Ellen!" [2/12/00]
Morava floodplain is subject of
impressive new DAPHNE book. A new
188-page hardcover book in Slovak and English has been published by DAPHNE (Centre for
Applied Ecology, Slovak Republic) with support from the PHARE Programme of the European
Commission, as well as WWF, the GEF, and the Slovak Ministry. This very useful book,
called "Morava River Floodplain Meadows –
Importance, Restoration and Management", is the result of six
years of research and restoration works conducted by DAPHNE. It shows the importance of
wetlands as ecological and economical resources, explains the main functions and roles of
floodplain meadows, reflects historical changes and provides detailed analysis on the
impact of different natural and human-induced factors on meadow communities. It also
provides recommendations on restoration of floodplain meadows, based on field experiments.
The chapter on "Economic valuation of benefits from conservation and restoration of
floodplain meadows" shows that conservation and restoration as well as sustainable
use of the river floodplains have a significant monetary value. Findings in this chapter
could be a useful tool to convince decision-makers that investments in restoration of
meadows are not only beneficial for conservation of biological diversity, but also
profitable. Available from bookstores, ISBN 80-967471-5-0; more information is available
from Ján Seffer, DAPHNE ( daphne@changenet.sk ). -- reported by Inga Racinska [30/11/00].
Final report of Evian training
project in Papua New Guinea. Aaron Jenkins, Wetlands International - Oceania,
reports on the successful results of a wetlands training/survey project carried out in
July 2000 under the auspices of the Ramsar Convention's Evian Project, with generous
funding from the private sector Danone Group. Here
is his brief report, with a few photos. [28/11/00]
UK
names first site in the Channel Islands.
The United Kingdom has designated, as its 160th Wetland of International Importance,
"South East Coast of Jersey, Channel Islands"
(3210ha; 49°09’N 02°02’W) in the Bailiwick of Jersey, a Crown Dependency
of the UK. Amongst the largest intertidal reef sites in Europe, this site 22km
off the coast of France comprises various habitats: reefs, boulder fields, mud,
sandy and shingle shores not covered by water at low tide, combined with shallow
tidal lagoons, seagrass beds and a large number of outlying reefs. The maximum
spring tide range of 12m exposes 17.5m2 of wave cut rock platforms, extensive
areas of reef, and a complex system of soft substrate gullies. The site provides
important winter habitat for waders and wildfowl and produces a rich and diverse
range of biotopes and some uncommon species assemblages. It meets Criteria 1,
2, 3, 4, 7, and 8 for inclusion in the List - in regard to the Fish Criteria
(7+8), because of the enormous water exchanges and substrate variability a wide
diversity of species and life history stages are present. The flora and fauna
is characterized by a number of limit-of-range species at both the northern
and southern margins of their distributions. Fishing is of great cultural, social,
and traditional importance to the population, and a wide range of non-exploitive
recreational activity is very important within the site. Effects of inorganic
waste disposal and sewage discharge are seen as potential threats. This is the
1042nd Ramsar site globally. [27/11/00] [français
et/y español]
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.