What's New @ Ramsar What's New @ Ramsar
2 April 2001
Headline
story. Wetland management
course set for Russia.
Irina Kamennova reports that a
National Training Course on the conservation and management of wetlands according
to Ramsar principles will take place in Russia, with all costs and organization
sponsored by the Wetlands International-Russia Programme with
financial support from the Government of The Netherlands.
The course description has
been reprinted here, with two evocative photos of the site of the course excursion
to the Cranes' Homeland. The description is in English, but not surprisingly
the course will be conducted in Russian (eat your hearts out). [02/04/01]
Who's where?
Delmar Blasco, Secretary General, is in Madrid, Spain, for discussions about the preparations for Ramsar COP8, set for Valencia in November 2002. [02/04/01]
Who was where? Cumulated record of travels throughout the year.
New
on the Site:
Spanish version of the Proyecto
de Plan Estratégico, 2003-2008; French version of the advice
on how to prepare project proposals for the SGF and other grant programmes;
European Archaeological Council's "Strategy
for the Heritage Management of Wetlands". [02/04/01]
Wetlands
and cultural heritage management. The
importance of people and their cultural heritage of wetlands has long been recognized
by the Ramsar Convention. Recently, the Ramsar Bureau has been developing closer
links with those involved in the cultural heritage management of wetlands, with
whom there is much common ground on the objectives of wetland management. Amongst
recent developments, Ramsar's Nick Davidson participated in the 2nd General
Assembly, Strasbourg, 22-23 March 2001, of the Europae
Archaeologiae Consilium (European Archaeological Council,
EAC), a network of representatives of national and subnational cultural
heritage management organizations and agencies, established in 1999 and currently
representing 21 European countries. Here you will find Nick's
informative report on the meetings and their significance for Ramsar;
his Foreword to The Heritage
Management of Wetlands in Europe, a splendid book which was
launched at the meeting; his statement
to the meeting congratulating the participants on the new book
and stressing avenues of future cooperation; and a reprint of the "Strategy
for the Heritage Management of Wetlands", which was adopted
by the EAC General Assembly on 22 March. [27/03/01]
Victor Pulido wins
award in Peru. Es un placer
comunicarles que el Sr. Víctor Pulido Capurro,
quien recibiera en 1999 el Premio de Conservación de Humedales de Ramsar, acaba de ser
galardonado con el premio Parque Las Leyendas de Perú. El Parque Las Leyendas es el
Parque Zoológico mas importante del Perú, y a la vez han nombrado al Sr. Pulido como
padrino del Jardín Botánico del Parque. Víctor es Director del Programa de Humedales en
Perú e importante colega en la implementación de la Convención Ramsar en Perú.
Felicidades!
[It’s a pleasure to announce that Mr. Víctor Pulido Capurro, who in 1999 was the recipient of Ramsar's Wetland Conservation Award, has received the Parque Las Leyendas Award. Parque Las Leyendas is the most important zoological park in Peru, and they have also named Victor as the Park's Botanical Garden patron. Victor is director of the Wetlands Program of Peru and an important colleague in the implementation of the Ramsar Convention in his country. Congratulations.] [27/03/01]
From
the Ramsar Forum. Design guidelines for stormwater pollution control
ponds and wetlands. Bill
Phillips reports from Australia on a new set of guidelines, useful and inexpensive
-- read it here.
[28/03/01]
Announcement.
MedWet Coordinator deadline extended.
Because a number of potential candidates for this position have indicated to
the Bureau that they have missed the deadline for applications originally set
for 28 February 2001, and responding to a request from the Greek Government,
the Bureau has decided to reopen the call for applications. The deadline for
receiving applications has been extended to 30 April 2001. Short-listed applicants
will be interviewed in Sesimbra, Portugal (near Lisbon), on 23 May 2001, immediately
after the closure of the 4th Meeting of the Mediterranean Wetlands Committee,
to be held in Sesimbra on 19-23 May. Applicants will be informed if they are
going to be interviewed at the latest by 10 May 2001 and are invited to keep
the date of 23 May free for a possible trip to Portugal. The full description
of the vacancy is available on this Web site. [link
later removed] [22/03/01]
Ramsar
unveils plans for subregional meetings before COP8. Ramsar
meetings of the Conference of the Contracting Parties are traditionally very
substantial affairs, with many technical and political issues under discussion
and many resolutions and guidelines emerging at the end. Historically, in order
to help the Parties prepare for these deliberations, regional and subregional
meetings are held in advance of each COP. For COP8 (Valencia, November 2002),
the Standing Committee has proposed an ambitious programme of ten subregional
meetings for Africa, Asia, and the Neotropics and one pan-regional meeting for
Europe. Standing Committee intends that the meetings will assess implementation
of the Convention since COP7, provide training in the new National Reporting
tool, reach consensus on regional inputs to the Draft Strategic Plan 2003-2008,
evaluate experiences with implementation of Ramsar's cooperative agreements
with other important MEAs, and suggest improvements to Ramsar's contributions
to the regions. The Bureau has prepared a descriptive programme that details
the likely dates and venue of each planned meeting and its objectives and intended
participants, with indicative budgets, and is seeking financial support to be
able to bring these events to fruition. Don't
miss this one! [23/02/01]
Archeology in the
Ramsar news again. The Deputy
Secretary General, Dr Nick Davidson, will be attending the European Archaeological Council Board meeting,
General Assembly, and 2nd EAC Heritage Management Symposium, on Cultural Landscapes &
Sustainable Development, 21-23 March. During the meeting he will be discussing with EAC
members the development of their wetland strategy and discussing a Memorandum of
Cooperation with Ramsar, as well as their involvement in preparing the cultural issues
activity for Ramsar COP8, and he will be speaking at the launch of their Heritage
Management of Wetlands book (for which Nick has contributed the Foreword on
behalf of Ramsar). EAC plan to distribute copies of the book to all European Ramsar focal
points. [21/03/01]
Progress
from PIANC's working group on wetland restoration. The
4th meeting of the working group on wetland restoration set up by the International
Navigation Association (PIANC) -- "to raise awareness and
to provide a technical guidance document targeted at engineers, scientists,
developers and managers in the ports and navigation sector, to assist them in
planning, design, construction, monitoring and management of fresh and saltwater
wetlands, internationally" – was held in London, England, 13-16 March
2001. Here is Tobias Salathé's report
on the event and the process of which it is a part. [21/03/01]
Wetland
workshop in Myanmar. The
Workshop on Wetland Conservation in Myanmar (Burma) was held
at the Taw Win Convention Hall at the Forest Department, Yangon, Myanmar from
20 to 23 February 2001. Jointly sponsored by the Forest Department, Ministry
of Forestry, Myanmar, and the Ministry of the Environment, Japan, the workshop’s
purpose was to discuss the current status on wetland management and conservation
in the Union of Myanmar, and to recommend future actions on management, conservation
and wise use of wetlands. Here's a
little more detail, a summary of the workshop's recommendations, and a few photos.
[19/3/01]
Symposium
on mountain wetlands set for late March 2001. "To
celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and the
40th Anniversary of WWF, in the context of WWF’s Living Waters Campaign,
and financed by the Ramsar Evian Project «Caring for Water Resources and Water
Quality », sponsored by the Danone Group . . .
With
the support of the following partners: WWF International, IUCN-The World Conservation
Union, the Danone Group, and Evian Mineral Waters . . .A two-day symposium entitled
«Mountain Living Waters» is being organized to prepare a draft
resolution for the protection of mountain wetlands of international importance
to be submitted to the next Conference of the Contracting Parties to Ramsar
in 2002 (Ramsar COP8)." Here's
the full announcement. [20/03/01]
News from
former Ramsar interns. Taeko Takahashi plans to join IGES. "I am pleased to inform you that I've received an
appointment at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), a policy-oriented
research institute, most of whose budget is from the Ministry of Environment in Japan. I
will be working on a new project, 'Long Term Perspective and Policy Integration' as a
Research Associate. The project aims to shift current development patterns toward more
sustainable ones by presenting its research and policy proposals at conferences, such as
Eco Asia and Rio+10 and working with policy makers. As the project is comprehensive and
covers a broad area, it sounds very exciting, and I am very much looking forward to
working on it. In addition, it would be great, if we see the area in which Ramsar and IGES
could collaborate in the future." [20/02/01]
Ramsar
assists at CBD's SBSTTA6.
The Convention on Wetlands is well-represented at the 6th meeting of the Convention
on Biological Diversity's Subsidiary Body for Scientific, Technical and Technological
Advice, now taking place in Montreal, Canada. Deputy Secretary General Dr Nick
Davidson is representing the Ramsar Bureau, and Dr Jorge
Jiménez of Costa Rica, Chair of
Ramsar's own subsidiary body, the Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP),
and STRP member Dr Max Finlayson
of Australia are representing the STRP under the terms of the Ramsar/CBD 2nd
Joint Work Plan concerning exchange of observers from the subsidiary scientific
bodies. Jorge spoke to the
general session on 12 March on the continuing cooperation between the bodies,
and later Nick presented a case study, on behalf of Ramsar and the other site-based
agreements (UNESCO's World Heritage Convention, UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere
Programme, and the Convention on Migratory Species and its range state agreements)
on how these multilateral environmental agreements are confronting the problem
of invasive alien species. Nick's
statement is also available here. Nick writes:
"On the key issue of invasive alien species, a topic to which SBSTTA6 is giving particular focus with three days of discussion in one of its two working groups, Ramsar was invited to give a short statement about the particular issues of addressing invasive species facing managers who are implementing site-based commitments to biodiversity conservation through global conventions. Invasive alien species are a major issue of concern for CBD Parties and the wealth of background information and guidance it is debating through SBSTTA6 will be of major assistance to Ramsar in providing assistance to its Parties by means of the guidance on wetland invasives requested for consideration by COP8." [15/03/01]
Announcement.
National Reporting date announced for COP8.
The 8th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties of the Convention
on Wetlands will take place in Valencia, Spain, 18 to 26 November 2002. In order
to leave sufficient time for Bureau staff to analyze the National Reports on
global and regional bases and prepare the documentation for distribution well
in advance of the COP, the deadline for National Reporting has been set for
28 February 2002. Contracting
Parties are earnestly entreated to have their National Reports in to the Bureau
by that date or not far off from it, and Parties should recall that Standing
Committee has indicated that NRs should be submitted in electronic format. The
National Report form and National Planning Tool is available at http://ramsar.org/cop8/cop8_nr_natl_rpt_intro_e.htm
(substitute a final 'f' or 's' for French or Spanish versions). [15/03/01]
Private
sector partnership launched to benefit Australian wetlands. The
Australian industrial firm BHP
has joined with Conservation Volunteers Australia to create "Revive! our
Wetlands", an innovative programme that will provide AUS$1.5 million for
wetland rehabilitation. Bill Phillips,
former Ramsar Deputy Secretary General, reports. [14/03/01]
Gifts
to the Earth in west African Ramsar sites. Mr
Delmar Blasco, Secretary General of the Convention on Wetlands,
will be visiting Mauritania, Guinea Bissau, and Senegal, 14-18 March, to assist
in the dedication of WWF Gifts to the Earth of the Banc d'Arguin Ramsar site
and other coastal wetlands. WWF
Director General Claude Martin's invitation conveys more detail.
[13/03/01]
News
on wetland inventory.
Kogi Tagi of Wetlands International-Japan provides background
information on the Asian
Wetland Inventory (AWI)
programme. Read it here.
[14/03/01]
Kenya
joins AEWA. "Dear
Ramsar Forum members, Last week Kenya deposited the instruments of Accession
to the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian
Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA). By doing this Kenya will become
the 30th Contracting Party to AEWA. As you may be aware AEWA is complementary
to the Ramsar Convention. The AEWA Secretariat welcomes Kenya as Contracting
Party and looks forward to a fruitfull cooperation. Best wishes, Bert
Lenten, Executive Secretary, African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement,
UN-Premises, Martin-Luther-King Str. 8 53175 Bonn, Germany, E-mail: aewa@unep.de
Web: http://www.wcmc.org.uk/AEWA" [13/03/01]
News
note from Honduras. For those
who have been following the case of the illegal shrimp aquaculture project with the Sistema
de Humedales de la Zona Sur de Honduras, Ramsar's 1000th Wetland of International
Importance - the Administrative Authority has reported that the developer has been fined
with the largest-ever amount for environmental damage, 1 million lempiras, and has been
ordered to restore the site to the condition in which he found it. [12/03/01]
New
texts on this site.
"Managing Ghana's
Wetlands", Ghana's
National Wetlands Conservation Strategy (1999), has been reprinted
on this Web site, joining the texts of the national wetland policies or strategies
of Australia, Canada, Greece, New Zealand, Spain, and Uganda. All of these are
extremely worth reading by officials contemplating developing policies of their
own. [12/03/01]
Wetlands
and archaeology. Increasingly,
the Convention on Wetlands has been turning its attention towards the management
implications of the cultural, historical, and spiritual values of wetlands,
in addition to the natural and economic values which have become fairly well
documented. Thus, it is extraordinarily timely that one of the leading archaeological
journals in English, Current Archaeology,
has devoted its entire Issue No. 172 (February 2001), with support from English
Heritage, to the many relationships between wetlands and archaeology.
Just as wetlands decision-makers are coming increasingly to realize the unique
archaeological importance of some of the wetlands in their charge, so too are
archaeologists emphasizing the special preservation qualities of wetland environments.
In a special section with contributions from Monica Kendall, Nick Davidson,
David Bull, and Robert Van de Noort, archaeologists are asked to consider how
best to use the Ramsar Convention to help ensure the protection of promising
and important sites. Here's
more info. [08/03/01]
International
Women's Day, 8 March, at the Ramsar Bureau. As
organizations all over the world debated the role of women in the workplace,
the women of the Ramsar Convention Bureau, glass ceiling or no, enjoyed appreciative
toasts from their colleagues, went right through the hors d'oeuvres and goat
cheese, and then ate the flowers. The men had to do the washing up (left).
Here's the whole preposterous
story. [09/03/01]
MedWet
Com4 set for Portugal, May 2001. The 4th Meeting
of the Mediterranean Wetlands Committee (MedWet/Com4) will be held in Sesimbra,
Portugal, 21-23 May 2001, with a pre-meeting field trip scheduled for 20 May.
The event is kindly hosted by the Government of Portugal, providing all facilities
and support for one delegate from countries requiring assistance. MedWet/Com4
will be organized by the Institute for Nature Conservation (ICN) with support
from the Ramsar Senior Adviser on Mediterranean Wetlands, Mr Thymio Papayannis.
Details to follow in semi-due course. [06/03/01]
"Rio+10"
- Ramsar and Agenda 21. Now
available, the Convention’s requested submission to the UN Department of Economic and
Social Affairs (DESA) for the review and assessment of the implementation of Agenda 21
(Rio de Janeiro, 1992), in advance of the "Rio+10" World
Summit on Sustainable Development, set for Johannesburg in 2002. Not for
light reading, this 100-page paper reviews the history and contributions of the Convention
on Wetlands in terms of seven of the "thematic review clusters" (briefly:
decision-making structures, major groups, EPA and training, marine and coastal, freshwater
resources, biodiversity and sustainable use, and UNCED-related and other conventions).
Each chapter reviews Ramsar progress and global contributions in the appropriate
categories, with case studies and supplementary examples, and ends with lists of Rio+10
challenges for Ramsar and recommended "course corrections" for the post-Rio+10
process, as requested. This paper is available in English in hard copy from the Bureau
(photo left) and in a Web version on this site.
(French and Spanish to follow) [04/03/01]
IUCN
names its new Director General. IUCN-The
World Conservation Union "brings together 79 states, 112 government agencies,
735 NGOs, 35 affiliates, and some 10,000 scientists and experts from 181 countries
in a unique world-wide partnership" and, in addition, lets Ramsar Bureau
staff eat in the headquarters cafeteria - and we get the free coffee from 10:00
to 10:30 on Wednesday mornings along with IUCN HQ personnel. So it's an important
event for Ramsar when IUCN chooses a new DG. On 1 March, IUCN announced the
appointment of its new Director General, Mr Achim
Steiner, well known for his recent outstanding performance as
Secretary General of the World Commission on Dams (WCD). "At 39, Mr Steiner
is one of the youngest ever Directors General of the organization. Brazilian
born, German by nationality, and educated at Oxford University, he has spent
much of his career in Latin America, Africa ,and Asia, gaining a strong understanding
of the realities and challenges facing the Southern Hemisphere. He joins IUCN
having led a three-year consultation process which resulted in the global launch
last November of Dams and Development: the Report of the World Commission on
Dams to widespread media attention and political acclaim." Here's
the rest of IUCN's press release. [02/03/01]
Secretary
General's World Wetlands Day sojourn to Uganda. Mr
Delmar Blasco, Secretary General,
traveled to Kampala and Lutembe Bay on Lake Victoria, 1 and 2 February 2001,
to help to launch Uganda's new wetlands strategic plan, deliver weighty speeches,
cut enormous Ramsar 30th anniversary pastries (left), bestow
awards upon canoe race winners, view school pageants, try on goofy hats and
plant flower things. View here
the parts that can be told. [1/3/01]
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Recent progress with the River Basin Initiative. The River Basin Initiative on integrating biological diversity, wetland and river basin management (RBI) is a joint initiative by the Ramsar Bureau and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) under the framework of the 2nd CBD/Ramsar Joint Work Plan. It aims to help Parties to the Conventions implement both the Ramsar Guidelines on integrating wetland conservation and wise use into river basin management (Resolution VII.18, Wise Use Handbook 4) and the CBD programme of work on inland waters biodiversity. Having recently been awarded a UNDP project development fund grant, the RBI secretariat is preparing a "country needs assessment" and will seek input at a side event during the CBD's SBSTTA-6 in mid-March. Here are the details, so far as presently known. [28/02/01]
Children's
book on the Colombian Amazon.
El Instituto Amazónico de Investigaciones
Científicas (SINCHI), en Bogotá, Colombia, ha completado una investigación sobre
ecosistemas acuáticos de la Amazonía y ha publicado una cartilla dirigida especialmente
a los niños, "Humedales de la Amazonia Colombiana. La cartilla contiene
32 paginas, excelentemente ilustradas, con valiosa información sobre la clasificación,
fauna, flora, servicios e importancia de la conservación de los humedales Amazónicos
de Colombia. Para mas información acerca de esta publicación favor de comunicarse
a americas@ramsar.org . Esta publicación
ha sido posible gracias a una aportación del US Department of State y el US
Fish and Wildlife Service a través del Fondo Humedales para el Futuro de Ramsar.
[28/02/01] [English version]
New
book on integrated management of the river Cetina watershed.
"The Priority Actions Programme, a regional activity centre of the Mediterranean
Action Plan (the UNEP implementing structure of the Barcelona Convention on
the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean),
has recently published the results of an environmental and socio-economic study
covering the river Cetina catchment in Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina.
This study is remarkable for several reasons that are close to some of the Convention
on Wetland's main concerns." Dr
Tobias Salathé reviews River Cetina
Watershed and the Adjacent Coastal Area: environmental and socio-economic profile.
[23/02/01]
Ramsar
responds to article on the Wise Use principle.
A recent article entitled "Wise use of wetlands under the Ramsar Convention:
A challenge for meaningful implementation of international law", by David
Farrier and Linda Tucker, in the Journal of Environmental Law,
Vol 12, No. 1 (2000), examined the evolution and various aspects of the Wise
Use principle under the Ramsar Convention and used Australia as a case study
to draw the conclusion "that in an Australian domestic context ratification
of the Biodiversity Convention has rendered the Ramsar Convention largely redundant."
This provocative statement was drawn from the authors' argument that the Ramsar
Convention is segmented in its approach and therefore "inherently limited",
whereas, the authors state, the Convention on Biological Diversity is not. Lest
this shaky conclusion go unchallenged, Dr Bill Phillips of
Mainstream Environmental Consulting, former Deputy Secretary General of the
Convention, has prepared a response which clarifies many of the article's misconceptions
and supplies compensation for its unfamiliarity with significant Ramsar events
over the past five or six years. Here
is his review. [23/02/01]
More to follow. Watch this space. Feedback and suggestions are welcome to: the Ramsar Convention Bureau, Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland (tel +41 22 999 0170, fax +41 22 999 0169, e-mail ramsar@ramsar.org). 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.