What's
New @ Ramsar What's
New @ Ramsar
2
May
2002
Headline
story. Sweden
enlarges nine Ramsar sites. Effective
19 November 2001, the Government of Sweden designated 21 new Wetlands of International
Importance and expanded the boundaries of nine previously-designated Ramsar
sites. Descriptions of the newly-named sites will appear here soon, but in the
meantime, here is a brief listing of
the new extensions. [02/05/02]
Headline
story. Dojran
Lake - first meeting of the ad hoc working group, 17 April 2002.
Dojran is shared between Greece and FYR Macedonia, and in the past few years
it has suffered a significant fall in the water level, coupled with increased
pollution concentration due to the reduced water volume and increased agricultural
run off. Under the initiative of MedWet, supported by the Greek Biotope/Wetland
Centre (EKBY) and Skopje office of the Germany's aid agency, Deutsche Gesellschaft
für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), a first meeting was held on 11 and
12 December 2001, hosted by EKBY in Thessaloniki and chaired by MedWet. The
ad hoc working group established by that meeting has now had its own first meeting,
and the MedWet Coordinator, Spyros Kouvelis,
describes its outcomes here. [01/05/02]
Announcement.
Waterbird Population Estimates 3rd Edition Consultation Draft.
Scott Frazier writes, "Wetlands International periodically prepares a global
summary of best available information of the status and trends of waterbird
biogeographic populations. Our last published estimates were contained in Waterfowl
Population Estimates 2nd edition (WPE). The Ramsar Convention's Resolution
VI.4 (Brisbane 1996) calls on Contracting Parties to use the estimates and thresholds
in WPE as a basis for designating Ramsar sites under Criterion 6. Now the CONSULTATION
DRAFT of 3rd Edition Waterbird Population Estimates is available on-line. As
always, these estimates have drawn on data compiled through the International
Waterbird Census coordinated by Wetlands International, and the expertise of
our extensive waterbird Specialist Groups network. The consultation period lasts
for 9 weeks, from 26 April to 30 June 2002. Expert
opinion, judgement and amendment are sought! Please see http://www.wetlands.org/news&/NewsItems/WPE3announce.htm.
For additional information on the application of Ramsar Criterion 6 for the
designation of Wetlands of International Importance, see: http://www.ramsar.org/w.n.waterbird_estimates_online.htm."
[30/04/02]
Headline
story. Niger
Basin Authority marks progress in Ramsar designations. A Regional
Workshop of the GEF - Niger Basin Authority (NBA) project on "Reversing
Land and Water Degradation Trends in the Niger River Basin"
was held 15-18 April 2002 in Niamey, Niger, attended by all the NBA member countries
representatives except those from Mali, as well as representatives of inter-African
and international institutions. Its objectives related to issues including the
improvement of the GEF-Niger Basin Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA) and
the approval of 10 pilot demonstration projects to be undertaken in the Niger
Basin. In ceremonies
associated with the workshop, M. Mohammed Bello Tuga (left), Executive
Secretary of the Niger Basin Authority, signed a letter from the NBA (co-signed
with the Director General of WWF International and the Secretary General of
the Ramsar Convention) to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr
Kofi Annan, reporting Guinea's designation of six new Ramsar sites in the
Niger Basin, as called for by Decision 6 of NBA Heads of State and Government
on 16 February 2002. A summary of the meeting, a few photos, and reprints of
some of the documents, including the letter to Secretary General Annan, are
available here, with assistance from Mr Denis Landenbergue of
the WWF Living Waters Programme, who represented the Ramsar Convention in the
meetings. [30/04/02]
Reminder.
Standing Committee Subgroup agenda papers are available here.
Subgroup on COP8
(15-17 May 2002) and Subgroup
on Finance (15 May 2002).
Who's
where?
Delmar Blasco, Secretary General, is in Galicia, Spain, to address a Friends of the Earth meeting on youth and wetlands and speak to a course on communications, education, and public awareness at the university there. He will be back in the secretariat on Friday afternoon, 3 May. [1 May 2002]
Who was where? Cumulated record of travels throughout the year.
New
on the Site: Exemplary
stuff: a number of
RISs of recently designated Wetlands of International Importance -- Argentina:
Lagunas and Esteros del Iberá; Kenya:
Lake Baringo; UK: Sleibhtean
agus Cladach Thiriodh; United Republic
of Tanzania: Lake Natron Basin; USA:
Quivira National Wildlife Refuge; Historical
note: Conference Report
and Recommendations from the Heiligenhafen conference in 1974 (which
was meant to be COP1). [26/04/02]
European
conference on transboundary waters. "Sustainable
management of transboundary waters in Europe" was the theme
of the international conference convened by the Environment Ministries of Poland,
Finland, and Germany and the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management
of the Netherlands in the Polish coastal resort Miedzyzdroje, from 21-24 April
2002 in honour of the 10th Anniversary of the Convention on the Protection and
Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes of the United Nations
Economic Commission for Europe, also known as the UN-ECE Water Convention (Helsinki,
1992). Tobias Salathé
reports on the objectives and results of the conference and provides
photos of the accompanying Vikings. [26/04/02]
Management
guide for Mediterranean Lagoons. Recently, after three years of intensive
work, the Languedoc-Roussillon Regional Directorate (DIREN) of the French Ministry
of Spatial Planning and Environment published a handbook "Guide méthodologique
de gestion des lagunes méditerranéennes" (in French). This is the impressive
result of collaboration of many university specialists, private scientists,
public authorities, consultancy firms, private institutions and NGOs, working
together under a European Union co-funded LIFE project for the conservation
of the coastal lagoons in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. Ramsar's
Tobias Salathé supplies further detail here. [23/04/02]
Ramsar
Pan-American Pre-COP8 Regional Meeting set for Ecuador. Representatives
of Ramsar Contracting Parties, non-contracting parties, intergovernmental institutions,
and non-governmental organisations will gather in Guayaquil, Ecuador, 1-5 July
2002, for the 2nd Ramsar Pan-American Meeting. The meeting will serve as final
preparation for the Neotropics and North American regions' position before the
8th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to be held in Valencia,
España, 18-26 November 2002. It will be hosted by the Ministry of Environment
of the Republic of Ecuador and the Ramsar Convention Bureau, with the generous
financial assistance of the governments of Canada, Spain, and the United States
of America. Further information,
registration forms, and documents are available here. [18/04/02]
Los representantes de los Países Partes de la Convención de Ramsar, Países no-Parte, organizaciones intergubernamentales y no-gubernamentales se darán cita en Guayaquil, Ecuador, del 1-5 de julio de 2002 para la II Reunión Regional Panamericana. La Reunión servirá como preparación final de la posición de las regiones de Norte América y el Neotrópico para la 8va Conferencia de Partes, a realizarse en Valencia, España, del 18-26 de noviembre de 2002. El anfitrión de la Reunión será el Ministerio del Ambiente del Gobierno del Ecuador, quién se encargará de la organización conjuntamente con la Oficina de la Convención de Ramsar, y con la generosa ayuda financiera de los gobiernos de Canadá, España y los Estados Unidos de América.
Announcement.
Standing
Committee Subgroup documents bobbing to the surface. The 26th Meeting
of the Standing Committee, 3-7 December 2002, gave its approval to many of the
Draft Resolutions and Recommendations to be carefully weighed (and hopefully
approved) by the 8th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties in
Valencia, Spain, in November 2002 -- quite a few of these are already available
on our COP8 index page. At
that time, however, many other documents were sent back to the Bureau, the STRP,
and others for further work, and the Standing Committee's
Subgroup on COP8 was authorized to give final approval to these at
its meeting 15-17 May 2002, for transmittal with the COP documentation to the
Contracting Parties and other registrants for COP8. Quite a few of these documents
for the Subgroup's consideration are now
available on this site and more will be arriving in the next few days,
in HTML, PDF, and Word formats. Don't miss this opportunity to wade through
yards of Resolution-English (French and Spanish versions will be prepared for
COP8 following the Subgroup's approval) and see where international wetland
conservation efforts are headed for the next few years. [18/04/02]
Draft
Strategic Plan 2003-2008 now available.
On 10 April 2002, the new printed version of the sixth draft of the Convention's
Strategic Plan 2003-2008 was communicated to the Parties by diplomatic notification
and shipped in five copies to each of the Administrative Authorities. Parties
are invited to consult through all the relevant sectors of government, the National
Ramsar/Wetlands Committees where they exist, and appropriate members of the
NGO community, with a view to arriving at broad-based final inputs to the Plan
at the 8th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties in Valencia
in November 2002. In addition, Parties are requested to follow a similar multisectoral
consultative process in arriving at "provisional national targets"
for each of the Plan's objectives and actions, and to that end "Provisional
National Target forms" have also been supplied to the Administrative Authorities
on diskettes. Copies of the sixth draft and the targets form are available to
the AAs and to the general public, both in printed form and in a variety of
electronic formats, and more information
is available here. [16/04/02]
Workshop
for Crane Network sites in Northeast Asia. As a follow-up to a first
workshop in China in August 2001, from 27 February to 
2
March 2002 some 30 participants from six countries met in Kushiro, Japan for
the "Workshop on Environmental Education and Ecotourism at Crane Network Sites
in Northeast Asia", organized by the North East Asian Crane Site Network. The
workshops are financially supported by the Ramsar Convention's Evian Project
(funded by the Société des Eaux Minérales d'Evian of the Danone Corporate Group
(France) and the French Global Environment Facility) and the City Government
of Kushiro, Japan, and Simba Chan, the Network's Flyway Officer, here
describes the purpose and result of the meetings and provides some photographs.
[16/04/02]
Wetland
training course at Azraq Oasis, Jordan, March 2002.
On 2nd to 7th March, Azraq Oasis Ramsar site (Jordan) served as a case study
for a 6-day Training Course on Management Planning organized under the MedWet
initiative. The course gathered about 30 participants from Albania, Egypt, Jordan,
Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, 
Tunisia,
from both governments and NGOs. The course will enable participants to design
management plans for 15 wetland and coastal sites (some of them Ramsar sites),
as part of the 2nd phase of the MedWetCoast project. The course was organised
in partnership by the Royal Society for Nature Conservation of Jordan,
ATEN (the French training organisation for protected areas staff), and
Tour du Valat Biological Station. Draft management plans were designed
by the participants for Azraq using existing baseline data, field visits, and
meetings with local stakeholders. The efforts made by RSCN to save as much as
possible of the Oasis despite the tremendous local pressure on water resources
was highly appreciated, as well as its professionalism in training, based upon
many years of collaboration in the Middle East. Dr Christian
Perennou, Project Leader for Training with Tour du Valat, provided
this report and a photograph of the participants. [16/04/02]
USA
names new companion site to Cheyenne Bottoms. The Bureau takes great
pleasure in announcing that the United States has designated
Quivira National Wildlife Refuge (effective 12/02/02, 8,958 hectares,
38°05'N 098°29'W) in the state of Kansas as its 18th Ramsar site. The new site
represents an excellent example of inland salt marsh, a rare habitat type in
the USA's midwestern region, ranging from high salinity to almost fresh water
depending upon varying precipitation and saline inflow from Rattlesnake Creek,
resulting from local geological conditions which bring a layer of salt groundwater
close to the surface upstream. The salt marshes, interspersed with mixed grass
prairie and agricultural fields, provide critical nesting, migration, and wintering
habitat for more than 311 bird species and literally millions of individuals.
A number of nationally endangered and threatened species are present, including
the bald eagle, peregrine falcon, whooping crane, interior least tern (Sterna
antillarum), and piping plover. A diversity of habitat is provided by native
grass uplands, fresh and saltwater marshes, and salt flats, and the site comprises
a major site for migratory birds - because of the sporadic nature of prairie
thunderstorms, Quivira complements the nearby Cheyenne Bottoms Ramsar site,
such that when one is dry or flooded the other is nearly always suitable for
use by shorebirds. The two sites, because of this sharing of habitat, often
host over 90% of the world's population of such species as stilt sandpipers
(Calidris himantopus) and white-rumped sandpipers (Calidris fuscicollis),
as well as hundreds of thousands of geese and cranes. A large and growing number
of tourists (presently 60,000 p.a.) enjoy wildlife observation at the site,
with benefit of a visitors' centre, and a Friends of Quivira volunteer support
group organizes many imaginative activities. To
provide a sample of good practice, the Bureau is making the new site's "Information
Sheet on Ramsar Wetlands" (RIS) available here.[11/04/02] [français
et/y español]
Yugoslavia
celebrates 25th anniversary of Ludas Lake as a Ramsar site. On 27-28
March 2002 the public enterprise managing Ludas and Palic lakes in the northern
Vojvodina autonomous region of Serbia (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia)
and cooperating agencies celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the declaration
of shallow Ludas Lake in the Pannonian steppe area as a Wetland of International
Importance on 28 March 1977 when the (then) Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
joined the Convention on Wetlands. Ramsar's Tobias Salathé participated
in the ceremonies, seminar, and discussions, and provided this
brief report along with some excellent photographs. [12/04/02]
WWF
European Freshwater Team meeting at Tour du Valat. On 2-6 April,
the WWF European Freshwater Team met for its first meeting with a new coordination
unit, headed by Andreas Wurzer, at their new office, situated in the Camargue
(Rhone delta) Ramsar Site in southern France at the premises of the Tour du
Valat Biological Station (a Mediterranean centre for research and conservation
of wetlands, one of the initiators of Ramsar's MedWet Initiative). Here's
a brief report. [12/04/02]
First
meeting of Bulgaria's Ramsar Committee. The inaugural meeting of
Bulgaria's National Ramsar Committee took place on 28 March 2002, with representatives
of government and non-governmental organizations casting a final eye over Bulgaria's
National Report for Ramsar COP8 and discussing a number of proposed new Ramsar
sites and extensions, among other items on the agenda. Ramsar's Sergey Dereliev
was there and contributed this
brief report with a few photographs. [12/04/02]
USA
extends Cheyenne Bottoms Ramsar site. The United States has added
a further 2,942 hectares to the "Cheyenne Bottoms State Game Area" Ramsar site
(now renamed the "Cheyenne Bottoms"), in the midwestern state of Kansas
(38°31'N 098°43'W), first designated in October 1988 and now with a new surface
area of 10,978 hectares. The Nature Conservancy manages about 7,000 of a potential
12,000 acres of prairie wetland habitat that lies to the north and west of the
Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area, including a number of "remnant depressional
wetlands with diverse hydrological regimes characteristic of wetlands classed
as ephemeral, temporary, seasonal and semipermanent". Additional areas continue
to be added to the site and the management plan is being revised to include
these new areas. The original designation of the site indicated that "approximately
45% of all migratory shorebirds nesting in North America stage at Cheyenne Bottoms".
[10/04/02] [français et/y
español]
Austria
designates 11th Ramsar site. The Bureau is very pleased to announce
that Austria has named Lafnitztal (2,180
hectares, 47°15'N 016°05'E) as its 11th Wetland of International Importance.
The interesting new site, which includes EC Directives Special Protection Areas,
is a length of the Lafnitz river, formerly the international frontier with Hungary
until the 20th century and presently the border between the states of Burgenland
and Styria in the eastern part of the country, comprising numerous natural and
semi-natural stretches over three-quarters of its length and an excellent example
of freely meandering river. The length of the river sides and associated seasonally
flooded agricultural land support a high species diversity, including otter
(Lutra lutra), Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis), and White Stork (Ciconia
ciconia) and as much as 10% of the world population of fire-bellied toad
(Bombina bombina) and yellow-bellied toad (Bombina variegata),
as well a number of rare and endangered plant species. The Ramsar Centre Lafnitztal
visitors' center offers school courses and field excursions.
[Photo here] [09/04/02] [français
et/y español]
Ramsar
address to CBD's COP6. On 8 April Mr Delmar Blasco, Secretary
General, addressed the plenary session of the 6th Meeting of the Conference
of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, meeting 7-19 April
in The Hague. He summarized the progress of cooperation between our two Conventions
and described the progress of the draft 3rd Joint Work Plan, before turning
his attention to other potentially fruitful areas of synergy. He expressed his
concern that the preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development
have not so far paid sufficient attention to coordination and synergies among
the biodiversity-related conventions, and he urged the delegates to seize the
opportunity to foster such synergies, particularly at national level. Here
is the text of his brief statement. [08/04/02]
Ramsar
begins search for next Secretary General. Many readers will be aware
that the term of the present Secretary General of the Convention, Mr. Delmar
Blasco, expires on 31 July 2003. The Standing Committee, at its 26th
Meeting, approved the timetable and procedure for selecting the new Secretary
General, and the Bureau is now welcoming applications for this most senior post
in the 20-member Ramsar secretariat based in Gland, Switzerland, near Geneva.
The deadline for applications is 30 September 2002, and interviews with shortlisted
candidates will take place just prior to the 29th meeting of the Standing Committee,
5-7 February 2003 -- the starting date is foreseen as 21 July 2003. The vacancy
announcement, including qualifications sought and terms of reference, is available
here in English, Français, and Español. [links
later removed] [05/04/02]
WWF
TV Centre wins award. The World Wide Fund for Nature's International
TV Centre has won a Certificate of Merit, in the category of Public Affairs/Video
News Release, in the Chicago International Television Competition. The film
"Niger - Bawa Ousmane Goah", produced by
WWF's Joanna Benn (jbenn@wwfint.org) and colleagues in September 2001,
highlights Mr Ousmane's work with the Programme for Local Development-Gaya (Swiss
Development Cooperation) in fostering community-based
planning and management in Albarkaïzé in the Gaya region of the southwest of
Niger, restoring life through sustainable management to the floodplains of the
"Zone humide du moyen Niger" Ramsar site
(designated June 2001). The film surveys the prevailing problems of deforestation
and unorganized use of the flooding cycle of this important length of the River
Niger, and then follows Bawa Ousmane Goah as he illustrates the planning meetings
with villagers, drawing upon their traditional knowledge, reforestation projects,
and sustainable use of the available water in a programme that has already produced
significant results in terms of agricultural yields and vastly increased numbers
of birds and fish. The work along the Middle Niger is part of an ongoing cooperative
effort of WWF's Living Waters Programme, the Ramsar Convention on
Wetlands, the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), and the Government
of Niger, based upon proposals by IUCN in 1992, and as a result of its success
in using the wetlands as a starting point for village-based development, the
SDC is supporting larger community-based development programmes in agriculture
and other sectors. [A little more here.]
[03/04/02]
From
the Ramsar Forum.
Friends of the Earth reports that a major UK contractor is pulling out
of the Yusufeli Dam Project in Turkey, and Prof. Uygar Ozesmi provides
additional perspective. This is from
the Ramsar Forum, 13 March 2002. [04/04/02]
Kenya
Wildlife Service announces wetland management course. The Kenya
Wildlife Service Training Institute at Naivasha will hold a six-week
"East Africa Wetland Management Course" from 16 September to
27 October 2002 at Lake Naivasha. A reprint of the brochure for the course,
including objectives, details, and forms for application, is available
here. [02/04/02]
Cooperation
between Ramsar and the World Resources Institute. Carmen
Revenga, Senior Associate, Information Programme, of the World Resources
Institute (WRI) in the USA has arrived in the Ramsar secretariat in 
Switzerland
to begin a five months' WRI secondment with Bureau staff. Her ambitious programme
of work includes a number of projects of benefit, not only to Ramsar and WRI,
but to CBD, IUCN, UNEP, and other bodies as well. Very briefly, these include:
1) fulfilment of a WRI contract from Ramsar/CBD to prepare a study of the status
and trends of inland water biodiversity; 2) Ramsar liaison with other ongoing
freshwater assessment work, such as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the
Conservation International Freshwater Hot Spots study, the World Water Forum,
and several others; 3) Ramsar liaison with the "Water Resources and Wetlands
e-Atlas" led by IUCN's Water and Wetlands Programme and involving WRI, IWMI,
UNEP GRID-Geneva, FAO, and the University of New Hampshire (USA); 4) representing
WRI with the River Basin Initiative, in the context of the CBD and Ramsar Joint
Work Plan; 5) advising Atlantis consultants, on behalf of WRI, on the Ramsar
component of the European Space Agency's TESEO project; 6) serving as Ramsar
liaison in efforts by IUCN, UNEP-WCMC, Conservation International, and The Nature
Conservancy to improve digitally available information on protected wetland
areas around the world, in the context of the forthcoming World's Parks Congress;
and 7) drafting a Memorandum of Understanding for future cooperation between
Ramsar and the World Resources Institute. The Bureau heartily welcomes Carmen
to the Bureau and IUCN HQ, just as spring begins to become really beautiful
around Lake Geneva. [28/03/02] [français
et/y español]
Andorra
publishes new book and prepares to join Ramsar. On 15 March 2002
Olga
Adellach Coma, La Ministra d'Agricultura i Medi Ambient of the Govern
d'Andorra, wrote to say that her country had taken the occasion of World Wetlands
Day, 2 February 2002, to launch a new book, Aigua i
Natura (Water and Nature), and to announce the Government's intention
of joining the Ramsar Convention. The preparations are already in hand and it
is hoped that more concrete news can be announced by the time of Ramsar's COP8
in Valencia, Spain, in November 2002. Here
are a few illustrations from the beautiful new book. [27/03/02]
Update
on the Society for the Protection of Prespa. In May 1999, the Society
for the Protection of Prespa (SPP) in northwestern Greece was awarded one of
the first Ramsar Wetland Conservation Awards. The next year, closely assisted
by the MedWet Initiative, it played a key role in the agreement of the governments
of Albania, Greece and the FYR of Macedonia for the establishment of a transboundary
park in the area, which was announced on World Wetlands Day 2000. The General
Assembly of the SPP met on 9 March 2002 in Aghios Germanos to assess its current
programme, and here is a brief report
on the results. [27/03/02]
Mediterranean meeting on water.
An interesting regional conference on 'Effective water
governance' was held in Athens on 19-20 March 2002. It was organised
by the Global Water Partnership - Mediterranean (GWP-Med) and the Mediterranean
Information Office for Environment, Culture and Sustainable Development (MIO-ECSDE),
as part of the global dialogue on this sensitive issue. Here
is Thymio Papayannis' brief report. [27/03/02]
Ramsar
and the MAB Programme agree programme of joint work. Ramsar and UNESCO's
Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) have much in common, particularly
in the designation, management and monitoring of wetlands as protected areas
(Ramsar's Wetlands of International Importance and MAB's Biosphere Reserves).
Currently there are 75 sites in 41 countries that are designated both as Ramsar
sites and Biosphere Reserves. To improve awareness of our common interests,
a Ramsar/MAB Joint Web
Site was established on World Wetlands Day 2001. To further develop
collaboration between Ramsar and MAB, an innovative and practical Programme
of Joint Work has been developed and approved by Ramsar's
Standing Committee (Decision SC26-51, 7 December 2001) and
MAB's International Coordinating
Council (at its 17th session in Paris on 20 March 2002). The
programme includes actions to review and further develop cooperation between
Ramsar and UNESCO, including MAB and other relevant programmes such as World
Heritage and the International Hydrological Programme, development of joint
guidance for designation, management and monitoring of shared designated sites,
using such sites as models for the promotion of better understanding and management
of critical wetland ecosystems, and raising awareness of the benefits of involvement
in both Ramsar and MAB. The Programme of
Joint Work is available here, and other MEAs and organizations with
which Ramsar has developed cooperative agreements
can be viewed here. [22/03/02] [français
et/y español]
Announcement.
New Web site for North American shorebirds and their fans.
Heidi Luquer, Outreach Coordinator, Western
Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network, announces that "WHSRN and the Prairie
Pothole Joint Venture [North America] are happy to announce the launch of their
new Web site: "Shorebirds: Prairies to Patagonia" for anyone interested in the
amazing migration of shorebirds - but especially educators, students and outreach
specialists. This site will be continually improved and updated with new information.
If you have photographs, links, maps, or any other kind of shorebird information
please let me know. You can reply to this message or write Luquer@manomet.org."
Shorebirds: Prairies to Patagonia http://www.manomet.org/WHSRN/Prairies/.
[22/03/02]
Saint
Lucia joins the Convention. The Bureau is very pleased to announce
that UNESCO's Office of International Standards and Legal Affairs has notified
the Secretary General that on 19 February Saint Lucia
deposited with the Director-General its instrument of accession to the Convention
as amended by the Paris Protocol (1982) and the Regina Amendments (1987). In
accordance with Article 2, Saint Lucia has designated two wetlands - Savannes
Bay and Mankoté Mangrove - as its first Ramsar sites and has
provided the required maps; their Ramsar Information Sheets are expected in
due course. The Convention will enter into force for Saint Lucia on 19 June
2002, and the Bureau welcomes Saint Lucia as its 131st Contracting Party. [20/03/02]
[français
et/y español]
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 
).
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 . . . . . . Take a number and a plastic
chair -- we'll call you when there's room at the head of the queue.