What's
New @ Ramsar What's
New @ Ramsar
6
November
2002
Headline
story. MAB Europe - Ramsar meeting in Czech
Republic. "The Role of Wetlands in
Biosphere Reserves" was the theme of a EuroMAB workshop convened
by the Czech National Committee for the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme,
the Czech National Ramsar Committee, and the Pálava Biosphere Reserve
from 13-18 October in Mikulov Castle, Southern Moravia. About 70 participants
from 19 European, Central Asian and North American countries presented papers
and posters and debated the following themes: a) wetlands as sources of biodiversity
in Biosphere Reserves, b) buffering effects of wetlands on water budget and
water quality in Biosphere Reserves and the role of water resources (including
groundwater) for wetland maintenance, c) management (including restoration)
of wetlands for sustainable functioning in Biosphere Reserves, and d) resolution
of conflicts between economic use and environmental quality of wetlands in Biosphere
Reserves, towards the application of the "wise use" concept. Among
them were many Ramsar national focal points and wetland and Ramsar site managers
who contributed their specific experience to the interesting debates. The workshop
conclusions are available at http://ramsar.org/mtg_czech_mab2.htm.
Therein, eight action points listed for increased cooperation between MAB and
Ramsar are most noteworthy. More about UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere programme
and possible synergies to improve efficiency can be found on the joint Ramsar-MAB
Web site at: www.unesco.org/mab/ramsarmab.htm.
Tobias Salathé reports, with
photos. [06/11/02]
Headline
story. "Ramsar - has it made a difference?"
The 2002/03 edition of the important Yearbook
of International Cooperation on Environment and Development (Earthscan,
2002) has just been published and carries, amongst insightful summaries of all
the major MEAs and NGOs presently working in the field (including Ramsar), a
feature article by Michael J. Bowman, Senior Lecturer in Law at the University
of Nottingham and Director of the University of Nottingham
Treaty Centre, entitled "The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands:
Has it Made a Difference?". Dr Bowman's paper supplies a thorough survey
of the history and structure of the Convention, and a sophisticated assessment
of its effectiveness so far. The fact that it's not quite the panegyric that
I would have written for the same purpose makes it all the more valuable, coming
as it does from an outside expert in the international environmental law community.
With the kind permission of Michael Bowman and editor Oystein B. Thommessen
of the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, which prepares the Yearbooks (formerly called
the Green Globe Yearbooks), we've reprinted this valuable article in Web
and PDF formats for the edification
of both students and experts alike. [31/10/02]
Announcement.
On-line COP8 registration has been de-activated.
With the passing of the deadline for registration for Ramsar COP8,
30 October 2002, the on-line registration forms have been de-activated. Delegates
from Contracting Parties exclusively are requested to send their registration
forms by fax/email before 10th November 2002, if not already done. Media registration
should be made through the Press Department of the Ministry of Environment of
Spain. You should fax a letter from your agency, newspaper or media outfit,
with a copy of the registration form, requesting accreditation, and then send
the original by post or special courier. Correspondence should be addressed
to: Sra. Rosa Pradas, Gabinete de Comunicación, Ministerio de Medio Ambiente,
Plaza de San Juan de la Cruz, s/n, 28071, Madrid España, Tel: +34-91
597 68 00 / 67 07, Fax: +34 91 597 59 08, email: gabinete.prensa@gabmin.mma.es.
[31/10/02]
Who's
where?
We're still here, registering late COP8 sleepyheads, preparing for workshops and side events, pumping out the last feeble docs, and heading off to COP8 in a matter of days. If your routine enquiries don't receive an immediate reply, be charitable. If you're coming to COP8, we'll see you there -- if not, talk to you in December. Or January.
Who was where? Cumulated record of travels throughout the year.
New
on the Site: 
COP8
Update:DOC. 6, the Secretary
General's Article 8 report on changes to the Ramsar List; Oceania
implementation report (DOC. 30) now available; Documents DR
26 on the Implementation of the Strategic Plan 2003-2008 and DOC.
7 on the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which were not
included in the last official mailing of documents, are now available [28/10/02].
Select your format at cop8_docs_index_e.htm.
[31/10/02]
Ecuador
names rich new Ramsar site in the Galápagos Islands. The Bureau
is very pleased to announce that Ecuador has designated its 9th Wetland of International
Importance for the Ramsar List, as of 17 September. The Humedales
del Sur de Isabela (872 hectares, 00°57'S 090°58'W) is an
area of coastal and marine wetlands, including the Poza de Los Diablos and other
small ponds as well as the beaches, mangroves, and shallow marine waters of
the Bahía de Puerto Villamil on Isabel, the largest of the Galápagos
islands. An extremely rich area in terms of its biodiversity, the site, on islands
of recent volcanic formation, has a high number of endemic species, many of
which are listed as vulnerable or endangered in the IUCN Red List: the Lava
gull (Larus fuliginosus), for example, the Galapagos penguin (Spheniscus
mendiculus) and Galapagos sea lion (Zalophus californianus wollebacki),
the Green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) and Green sea urchin (Lytechinus
semituberculatus), the marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) and
the sea cucumber (Stichopus fuscus). Moreover, the site sustains more
than 22.5% of the endemic subspecies Galapagos flamingo and significant proportions
of a number of native fish species. Nearly all of the site falls within the
Parque Nacional Galápagos, and human uses include tourism, non-commercial
fishing among the local population, and the raising of such introduced mammals
as goats, pigs, and cattle. The potential proliferation of introduced species,
particularly of rats, cats, the African kikuyu grasss, and the invasive tree
frog Scinax quinquefasciata since 1998 (the first amphibians in the islands),
is noted as a cause for concern. This is Ramsar site number 1202, so the Convention
now has 1201 sites on the List. [30/10/02] [français
et/y español]
Australian
project tests way to describe ecological character. Bill
Phillips, erstwhile Deputy Secretary General of the Convention, has
announced the completion of a project to develop a methodology for assessing
the baseline ecological character of a Ramsar site. He writes to the Ramsar
Forum, "Forum
members may be interested in a recently completed project by a team of scientists
in Australia who set out to design a datasheet to standardise the collection
of data for benchmarking the ecological character of Ramsar sites across the
country. The drivers for this project were a desire to have this fundamental
descriptor information gathered systematically to allow early warning of change
and also to establish baselines for long-term monitoring and determining impacts."
The project's Executive Summary
(included here) continues: "The act of designating a wetland as
a Ramsar site carries with it certain obligations, including to manage the site
to retain its 'ecological character' and to have procedures in place to detect
if any threatening process are likely to or have already altered the 'ecological
character'. Therefore, describing the 'ecological character' of a Ramsar site
is a fundamental management tool for Parties which should form the baseline
or benchmark for management planning and action, including site monitoring to
detect negative impacts." Bill's
message provides the broad outlines of the methodology that has been
developed, and the proposed
datasheet itself is attached here in Word format. [30/10/02]
Bureau
gets New Regional Coordinator for Asia. The Bureau is delighted to
announce that, following interviews last week with five extraordinarily strong
candidates, the position of Regional Coordinator for Asia has been accepted
by Dr Guangchun Lei of China. He will be
replacing Najam Khurshid, who returns to his native Pakistan following
two and a half years of service with the Bureau. Following completion of his
bachelor's and master's degrees in Forest Protection at Central South Forestry
University in China, Dr Lei served from 1988 to 1993 as Chief of the Division
of Nature Reserve Management in the Forest Department of Hunan Province, overseeing
some 31 protected areas amongst which, the famous Dongting Lake, was one of
China's first Ramsar sites upon its accession to the Convention in 1992. 
He
earned his Ph.D in Ecology in 1997 after four years of study at the University
of Helsinki in Finland, and since 1999 has served both as a Professor in the
Department of Ecology and Environmental Biology in Peking University and as
Yangtze Programme Leader with the WWF China Programme, and is now Director
of the Freshwater & Marine Programme, WWF China Programme --
in the WWF post, he has been able to assist the Chinese government in formulating
its ambitious Wetland Conservation Action Plan, advise on the national wetland
survey, and serve as national focal point for the Mekong River Basin Initiatives.
The Bureau staff welcomes Dr Lei warmly and looks forward to his joining us
for COP8 in Valencia in a few weeks' time. [29/10/02]
Call
for Southeast Asian case studies on integrating wetlands, biodiversity, and
river basin management. As a contribution to the Ramsar-CBD River
Basin Initiative (RBI), the Global Environment Centre (GEC) is preparing a guideline
for Southeast Asian countries on "Integrating Wetlands, Biodiversity and
River Basin Management". This will build on the Ramsar Handbook 4 on "Integrating
wetland conservation and wise use into river basin management". It will
be produced in English and four Asian languages: Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian
and Malay. The project is funded by the ASEAN Regional Centre for Biodiversity
Conservation (ARCBC). Here is Ms Chew
Oi May's announcement, with specifications and a form for indicating
your interest. [28/10/02]
Announcement.
Maite
Martín Crespo Muro (maite.martin-crespo@dgcn.mma.es) informa que el Programa
de Cooperación Internacional de la Dirección General de Conservación
de la Naturaleza del Ministerio de Medio Ambiente de España está
organizando unas JORNADAS IBEROAMERICANAS DE COOPERACIÓN INTERNACIONAL
EN HUMEDALES en el marco de la VIII Conferencia de las Partes Contratantes
de la Convención Mundial de Humedales. 
Maite Martín Crespo Muro (maite.martin-crespo@dgcn.mma.es) informs that the International Cooperation Program of the General Directorate on Nature Conservation of the Ministry of Environment of Spain is organizing the IBEROAMERICAN DAYS OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION in the framework of the VII meeting of the Contracting Parties of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
Announcement.
CYTED Wetlands Network monograph. Dr. Lucas Fernández,
coordinator of the XVII CYTED Wetlands Network (lfernandez@geprop.cu) informs
that the Iberoamerican Network is preparing a monograph on Latin American and
Caribbean wetlands. Specialists from the region are invited to contribute to
this work. Types of works to be accepted include: research results from regional
wetlands studies; conference presentations from professors having participated
in the Network's recent training course; and presentations from course students.
Please contact Mr. Fernández for more details.
Dr. Lucas Fernández, Coordinador Red Humedales Subprograma XVII CYTED (lfernandez@geprop.cu) informa que la Red Iberoamericana de Humedales del Programa CYTED está preparando una monografía sobre los humedales de América Latina y el Caribe. La monografía será publicada en dos volúmenes que contendrán tres categorías de trabajos: a) resultados de investigaciones o trabajos sobre humedales de la región, b) conferencias de los profesores del recién concluido curso de capacitación de la Red y c) trabajos presentados por los alumnos del curso. [28/10/02]
First
of two Ramsar Advisory Missions to Doñana. Doñana National
Park in southwest Spain is one of Europe's greatest wetlands and one of its
most prestigious protected areas. It was designated as a Wetland of International
Importance in 1982, and is also a UNESCO World Heritage site, a Biosphere Reserve
under the UNESCO MAB programme, and an EU Special Protection Area. However,
human pressures have had their effects, and in 1990, Doñana was included
on the Montreux Record of Ramsar sites requiring priority attention because
of fears that excessive water abstraction, mainly for tourist developments along
the coast and irrigated cultures in the immediate vicinity of the National Park,
would irrevocably degrade the ecological character of the site. Problems were
compounded by a disastrous toxic spill upstream in 1998. Both the Spanish and
the Andalusian governments have been making considerable progress, however,
and in early October 2002, the end of the dry season, Ramsar's Tobias Salathé
and Ramsar consultants Luis Costa and Francesc Giró undertook
the first of two planned Ramsar Advisory Missions to the site, in cooperation
with national and regional officials; a wet season follow-up mission is planned
for early spring 2002. Here is a brief
report by Dr Salathé and a few photographs of the scene -- the
full mission report will appear in due time. [23/10/02]
Announcement.
Standing Committee 27 docs available here. Standing
Committee next meets on the day prior to the opening of the 8th meeting of the
Conference of the Contracting Parties, 17 November 2002, where it will conduct
some quick business and transform itself into the Conference Committee for the
duration of the COP, thereafter to be displaced by a newly-elected Standing
Committee for 2003-2005. There are three documents needed for the SC27 meeting,
and they are being posted to Standing Committee members today. One is the draft
agenda. The second concerns the Small
Grants Fund and includes the Bureau's recommendations for SC approval
(only the highest rank proposals are included in this public version of the
document). The third concerns the Convention's
audited accounts for FY2001. Here they are.
[24/10/02]
Japan
names two new Ramsar sites. The Government of Japan has designated
two new Wetlands of International Importance, both chiefly because of their
great value for migratory shorebirds. Fujimae-higata
(323 hectares), a tidal flat near the port city of Nagoya, is an important staging
site along the East Asia-Australia Flyway with one of the highest shorebird
counts in Japan. It is said that, when plans to "reclaim" the tidal
flat entirely for a dumping site were abandoned by the City Council, "the
site became a symbol of the wetland conservation movement in Japan". Miyajima-numa
(41 ha) is a small, open, shallow freshwater lake left by the nearby Ishikari
river, and one of the most important staging sites for migratory Anatidae species,
especially large ones, that winter in Japan. Japan presently has 13 Ramsar sites,
totaling 84,089 hectares, and these two new designations bring the Convention's
global total to 1200 sites. More details
on the new sites can be found here. [22/10/02]
New
National Wetland Centre in Spain. The Council of Ministers of Spain,
at its meeting on 4 October 2002, agreed to authorize the establishment of a
State Foundation for a "National Wetland Centre" to be located in
the city of Valencia (venue of Ramsar COP8), although the Centre may have branches
in other places in the country. According to the Council's announcement, the
objectives of the Centre are "to increase, spread and divulge the scientific
and technical knowledge on wetlands, to promote their sustainable use, and to
encourage collaboration among government authorities, academia, and public and
private entities for the conservation of these ecosystems". [21/10/02]
Orderly
progression of events.
Second mailing of COP8 documents now going out.
The first mailing of documents for the 8th Meeting of the
Conference of the Contracting Parties (Valencia, 18-26 November 2002) went out
to the Parties by diplomatic channels in mid-August, and now the second and
(more or less) last mailing is going up the same pipe. All of the Draft Resolutions
and Recommendations (43 of them!!), as well as all of the administrative and
supplementary information documents (35 of them!!) are now going out to the
Parties, and will soon be shipped off to registered participants as well, in
hardcopy or on CD-ROM according to their stated predilections. It's all available
on this Web site as well -- visit the
Docs page and bring your wheelbarrow
along with you. [18/10/02]
Czech
Ramsar site successfully removed from the Montreux Record. The
Czech Republic has accomplished the measures needed for removal of the Ramsar
site Novozámecky a Brehynsky rybník
from the Montreux Record, the list of Wetlands of International Importance requiring
urgent conservation attention, as of 26 September 2002. The fishponds, created
in the 14th century, were placed upon the MR in 1994 as a result of considerable
adverse ecological change resulting from mismanagement of the site and surrounding
areas; following a Ramsar visit and some emergency Small Grants Fund assistance
in 1997 in the construction of damaged works, support from the national government,
and an enormous amount of work by concerned officials at the scene, the situation
has been turned round and the future seems promising for the site. Ramsar's
Tobias Salathé has supplied an instructive summary of the situation,
and additionally we include a reprint of the "Montreux Record Questionnaire"
submitted as part of the removal process and some excellent photos of the site.
So go here next. [15/10/02]
Wetland
Functional Analysis Research Programme users meeting. At the eve
of launching the Sixth EU Framework Programme for Research and Technology Development,
the partners of long-standing research consortia across Europe gathered for
a European User Forum in Brussels on 25 September 2002 to confer with users
of their research results, such as the UK Environment Agency, the German Federal
Institute of Hydrology, the Romanian national company Apele Romane, the European
Topic Centre for Inland Waters (of the European Environment Agency), the European
Environmental Bureau, WWF, the Environment Directorate General of the European
Commission and the Ramsar Bureau, about their needs. The Wetland Functional
Analysis research programme is coordinated by Edward Maltby at Royal
Holloway Institute for Environmental Research in London with research partners
in France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Sweden,
and the UK. A brief report on the significance
of the meeting is available here. [14/10/02]
Wetland
Management Workshop in Mexico. José María Reyes
(jmreyes@semarnat.gob.mx) informa
que la Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos
Naturales de México (SEMARNAT), en cooperación con
diversas organizaciones nacionales e internacionales está llevando a
cabo el 5° Curso-Taller Sobre Manejo y Conservación de Humedales,
del 7 al 20 de Octubre, en San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. El objetivo
del taller es capacitar personal en la identificación, planificación,
manejo y conservación de los humedales de México y promover los
objetivos del Plan Norteamericano de Aves Acuáticas, Acta de Conservación
de Humedales de Norteamérica y Convención Ramsar. Para mayor información
favor visitar la página web: http://www.semarnat.gob.mx:16080/vs/programa_humedales.shtml
y seguir este espacio proximamente para un informe sobre el taller. [13/10/02]
José María Reyes (jmreyes@semarnat.gob.mx) informs that the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales of México (SEMARNAT), in cooperation with several national and international organizations is hosting the 5th Course-Workshop on Management and Wetlands Conservation from October 7-20, in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. The objective of the workshop is to train personnel en the identification, planning, management and conservation of the Mexican wetlands, as well as to promote the objectives of the North American Waterbird Plan, the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, and the Ramsar Convention. For more information go to the following webpage: http://www.semarnat.gob.mx:16080/vs/programa_humedales.shtml and watch this space in the near future for a report from the workshop.
Ramsar
Information Centre inaugurated in France. On 25 September 2002, the
Ramsar Information Centre and the Pré Curieux Water Gardens were formally
opened in Evian, France, with a tour of the premises, ample 
explanations
and a few speeches, and semi-re-frozen canapés in the gardens in a bitter
north wind. The estate of Pré Curieux on the shores of Lake Geneva (Lac
Léman) -- almost visible from the Ramsar Bureau on the Swiss side of
the lake -- has been purchased and renovated by the town of Evian, the department
of Haute Savoie, and the region of Rhône-Alpes with the semi-governmental
French organization 
Conservatoire
du Littoral, in the context of the Ramsar Evian Project financed since
1998 by the private-sector Groupe Danone and its Evian Waters subsidiary
and the government of France. Please
find here more details on the project and the inauguration, and quite a few
low-res photos. [11/10/02]
Announcement.
Wetlands
International posts two vacancy notices. Wetlands International is
presently a Wetlands and Poverty Alleviation Programme Officer, a 3-year
position to be based in Wageningen, The Netherlands, and a Capacity Building
Programme Officer, to be based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The vacancy announcements
are reprinted here. [link later removed] [10/10/02]
Danube
expert group meeting. On 9-10 September the 5th meeting of the Ecological
Expert Group, set up by the International 
Commission
for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR), took place at Orth,
a small historical town hosting the headquarters of Austria's Danube Floodplain
National Park (Nationalpark Donau-Auen). The Expert Group shows how synergies
between multilateral agreements and other institutions can work. The main policy
instrument guiding the Experts' work, besides the Danube and Ramsar Conventions,
is the European Union Water Framework Directive that introduces the river basin
approach for integrated water management and requires EU member and accession
states to make comprehensive assessments and inventories of wetland ecosystems
in river floodplains, mainly in view of their water purification, flood retention
and biodiversity preservation capacities. Ramsar's Tobias Salathé here
supplies a brief report on the meeting
and a number of photos of the workgang at their labors. [09/10/02]
Ramsar
Subregional Meeting for the Middle East is under way. Huddling virtually
under the eaves of the looming COP8 in November, the last of the preparatory
regional and subregional meetings is presently under way in Beirut, Lebanon.
Here is the Secretary General's welcoming
address to the meeting, and here is a menu
of the outputs of all the other regional and subregional Ramsar meetings
that have led us to the present state of intense and anticipatory readiness
for the COP. [08/10/02]
Headline
story. Ramsar and WWF contribution to GEF International Waters Conference.
The 2nd GEF International Waters Conference (IWC) was held in Dalian, China,
from 25th to 29th September 2002. A total of 186 participants attended the meeting,
representing 55 different GEF-IW projects. The Dalian Conference was the follow-up
to the 1st GEF International Waters Conference, held in Budapest in 2000 and
attended by Mr. Alain Lambert from the Ramsar Bureau. Anada Tiéga
of the Ramsar Bureau and Denis Landenbergue of WWF's Living Waters Programme
report on the Global Environment Facility's IW:LEARN programme and briefly summarize
their own participation in the sessions on "Freshwater Basin Management",
joining Mr M. S. Adamu, Executive Secretary of the Lake Chad Basin Commission
in briefing the participants on the ongoing LCBC-GEF (World Bank/UNDP) Ramsar
and WWF collaborative work over the past two and half years. More
detail here. [03/10/02]
Announcement.
Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment Fellowship Program. Habiba
Gitay writes that the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) Fellowship
Program provides an exciting and challenging opportunity for recently graduated
scientists to become part of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment effort. The
Fellowship Program is designed to increase the number of early career scientists
with background in biophysical and social sciences (including economics) involved
as authors in the MA reports due to be completed in late 2004. The Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment reports are being written by teams of leading scientists
from a range of disciplines and from many parts of the world; the selected MA
Fellows will work and interact as full members of these teams. Here are all
the details, with a description of the MA itself, and the application form as
well. [link later removed] [02/10/02]
Announcement.
Potential Ramsar sites in Mexico published. To
the Ramsar Forum: "Hello, By suggestion of Montserrat Carbonell
I am placing on the Forum the abstract of the following publication: Pérez-Arteaga,
a., K.J. Gaston & M. Kershaw. 2002. Undesignated sites in Mexico qualifying
as wetlands of international importance. Biological Conservation 107:47-57.
Those sites designated under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International
Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat constitute the most important wetland
conservation network at a global level, with more than 1000 sites of international
importance. With only seven designated sites, waterfowl and wetlands in Mexico
are evidently under-represented in the list. We identify 34 currently undesignated
sites in Mexico that qualify as wetlands of international importance, based
on waterfowl count data from 1991-1997, using the Ramsar Convention criteria
based on waterfowl. Using a complementarity approach implemented by linear integer
programming, the sites were prioritised into two categories on the basis of
their importance for designation. Twelve sites were categorised as Priority
1 (higher), and 22 sites as Priority 2 (lower). The Priority 1 set has held
a waterfowl count average of 1.2 million individuals, and between 1% (ruddy
duck, Oxyura j. jamaicensis) and 51% (black brant, Branta bernicla nigricans)
of the populations of 10 species of waterfowl, and includes sites from eight
biogeographic regions. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.The
paper is also available electronically (online or as a .pdf file) if your library
has an active online subscription, or please feel free to contact me for a copy.
Regards, Alejandro Perez-Arteaga, Biodiversity and Macroecology Group, Department of Animal & Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield, S10 2TN, United Kingdom, a.perez-arteaga@sheffield.ac.uk, Web Page: http://www.shef.ac.uk/~bmg/ [26/09/02]
Ramsar
contributes to GEF International Waters Conference. Anada
Tiéga, Ramsar Regional Coordinator for Africa, is in China,
23-30 September 2002, invited along with Denis Landenbergue
(WWF), Mr Muhamad Sani Adamu, Executive Secretary of the Lake Chad Basin Commission
(LCBC), and Mr Muhammad Bello Tuga, Executive Secretary of the Niger Basin Authority
(ABN) by the Global Environment Facility and its Implementing Agencies (UNDP,
UNEP, and the World Bank) to participate in the second
GEF Biennial International Waters Conference, to be held September
25-29, 2002 in Dalian, China. In particular, in the session on transboundary
freshwater management, these participants will make a joint presentation on
their collaborative work on the Lake Chad Basin to explain how river /lake basin
organizations (Lake Chad and Niger River), GEF implementing agencies (World
Bank and UNDP), an international NGO (WWF), and a Convention Secretariat (the
Ramsar Convention Bureau) are working together to promote the integration of
wetland conservation and wise use into river basin management. More
detail here. [24/09/02]
Announcement.
New book on wetland cooperation in northeast Asia.
The proceedings have appeared of the international workshop on Wetland
Conservation and Need for International Cooperation in Northeast Asia,
held on 24-25 May 2002 at Pusan National University in Busan, Korea. The symposium,
organized by Ramsar Center Japan, Pusan National University, Seoul National
University, and the Korean Environmental Sciences Society, and sponsored by
the Korea Research Foundation, began with addresses by Reiko Nakamura,
Secretary General of Ramsar Center Japan, and Yoshihiko Miyabayashi of
Wetlands International Japan, and included nine scientific and case study papers
by a number of speakers, including Chen Kelin of Wetlands International
China. More information about the softcover 120-page book is available from
the Dept. of Biology, Pusan National University, gjjoo@pusan.ac.kr.
[24/09/02]
 |
 |
CBD and Ramsar seek case studies on wetland and river basin management. The River Basin Initiative is a key element of the Joint Work Plan between the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971), which was endorsed through decision V/2 of the fifth meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). CBD's SBSTTA was requested by its COP "to compile case studies on watershed, catchment and river basin management experiences and practices, to synthesize the lessons emerging from these studies, and to disseminate that information through the clearing-house and other appropriate mechanisms". Now, as part of that process, Hamdallah Zedan, Executive Secretary of the CBD, and Delmar Blasco, Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention, have written to national focal points of both conventions: "the Secretariats of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention on Wetlands are pleased to invite your Government / Organization to submit case studies on topics listed in the attached form, at your earliest convenience but no later than 20 October 2002 to the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity." Here's their notification, and here's the form. [23/09/02]
Australia
reviews incentive measures for conserving freshwater ecosystems.
In a recently completed study Australia has done a comprehensive stock-taking
of 27 incentive measures operating, or which could be introduced, to promote
the conservation and wise use of freshwater ecosystems by private landholders.
Many of these measures are currently available in Australia, whilst others are
in use in other countries but only now beginning to be considered there. Each
incentive measure is considered against the criteria of ecological efficiency,
economic efficiency, social impact, flexibility, accountability and potential
for community involvement, and for each incentive option recommendations have
been formulated that are designed to offer guidance to policymakers at all levels
of government for making these measures more affective. The project was undertaken
by three leading environmental economists and WWF personnel and was coordinated
by Dr Bill Phillips (former DSG of the Ramsar Convention), and the report
can be found at http://www.ea.gov.au/water/policy/incentive/index.html.
As a companion to this policy paper, which targets national and jurisdictional governments, the authors developed a series of fact sheets as an Information Kit called "Wetland management assistance for private landholders". These are being prepared for Web publication at present and should be available shortly. [20/09/02]
Reminder.
Exhibition
space at COP8. Please
remember that the deadline for reserving free and paid exhibition space at Ramsar
COP8 in Valencia is 30 September. The details
of what can be reserved are [no longer]
available at http://ramsar.org/cop8_reg_4exhibit_e.htm (_f and _s for
French and Spanish). [20/09/02]
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.