What's
New @ Ramsar What's
New @ Ramsar
2
December
2002
Ramsar COP8 is over now, and many Bureau staff members will be back at their desks on Monday, 2 December. More photos of the events will begin appearing here soon, and of course work is now beginning on the COP Proceedings, with the final texts of the Resolutions adopted in the last two days. In the meantime, daily reports and an analytical summary of the whole COP are available from the Earth Negotiations Bulletin, www.iisd.ca.
Ramsar staff members make a subtle statement about the end of the long COP by donning their festive COP8 T-shirts in the corridor of the COP8 offices, late on 26 November.
Who's
where?
Nick Davidson, Deputy Secretary General, is in Montreal, Canada, for a CBD Ramsar workshop on the rapid assessment of inland waters biodiversity; he'll be back in the Bureau on 6 December. [02/12/02]
Who was where? Cumulated record of travels throughout the year.
New
on the Site: Just news from the COP.
News
from the COP. Last two Technical Sessions,
and the signing of a new MOC. Day 5, 22 November, covered the last
two of the five Technical Sessions, a large number of side events, and, as a
bonus, the signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation between the Ramsar Bureau
and the Institute for Inland Water Management and Wastewater Treatment (RIZA)
based in the Netherlands. Some of the
day's photos are available here, and so
is the text of the new MOC. For further details on the day's events,
consult the ENB's daily reports at http://www.iisd.ca.
[23/11/02]
News
from the COP. Two more Technical Sessions
down, and two to go. Day 4, 21 November, began at a very early hour
for a catch-up plenary session for last Tuesday's review of a number of Draft
Resolutions and Recommendations, and then got into Technical Session 2: "Baselines
for sustainable use: wetland inventory and assessment" for the rest of
morning, and spent the afternoon with Technical Session 3: "Global biological
diversity and sustence of human life: the Ramsar List of International Importance".
Both Tech Sessions, in their regional break-out meetings, made further progress
in negotiating amendments to the Draft Resolutions under study. The side events,
which were many and varied, included a presentation on lake biodiversity conservation
and Ramsar linkages by LakeNet, an IUCN discussion on NEPAD water and environment
programmes, Wetlands International's introduction to the Asian Wetland Inventory,
presentations on shrimp aquaculture by the Industrial Shrimp Action Network
and the Mangrove Action Project, an introduction to the new database system
by the UNEP/Global Environment Facility Coordination, and a Ramsar and UNCTAD
BIOTRADE presentation on sustainable trade in wetland products, among many others.
Here are some photos of the festivities
-- for details on the issues, consult the ENB's daily reports at http://www.iisd.ca.
[22/11/02]
News
from the COP. Tech Session I and the side event
with the dates. Day 3, 21 November, was devoted to regional meetings
in the morning, which allow the Parties with like geographical problems and
perspectives to share their own experiences in implementing the Convention,
and, in the afternoon, to the first of the five Technical Sessions: "Major
challenges and emerging opportunities for wetlands, water and sustainability".
Following five presentations by invited experts, covering the texts and guidance
in Draft Resolutions, the plenary broke into four regional groupings to discuss
the drafts further, eventually to conflate their regional perspectives into
common amendments to the draft texts in the coming days. In addition, there
was the usual rich array of side events, almost frustratingly too many for the
participants to choose among, and the exhibit hall continued to attract large
numbers of astonished gawkers. Algeria's side event on the Ouled Said Oasis
drew a good crowd to hear the discussion and
mainly to eat up all the dates.
Here's a representative sampling of
photos from the whole day. [21/11/02]
News
from the COP. Already a bit behind schedule.
Day 2, 20 November, continued the fun of the opening day but left administrative
details behind in favor of the substantial business of the meetings. Following
the morning's Report of the Secretary General on implementation of the
Convention, filled with what he called 'challenges for the Parties' in the next
triennium, an extraordinary number of CPs offered reports of their own efforts
in support of the Convention's objectives, in many cases pledging specific further
actions over the next triennium. Introductions were made to the draft Strategic
Plan 2003-2008 and Work Plan 2003-2005, so that further contact group negotiations
could be got underway over the course of the week, and the Standing Committee
gave a financial report for the past year and offered a budget proposal for
the next triennium. In the final business of the plenary's work, first considerations
were made of a large number of the draft Resolutions and Recommendations that
will be further discussed in the coming days.
The plenary session also heard an address by Dr Angela Cropper on the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and its relevance to the Convention, and Ms Inés González Doncell, Director General of Nature Conservation in the Ministry of Environment of Spain, made a special presentation on wetland conservation in Spain, which included the announcement of 11 new Ramsar sites, bring the COP host's total Ramsar area to 173,000 ha. The many many side events included presentations on the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the launch of the 7th Directory of Wetlands of International Importance by Wetlands International, a presentation on the restoration of Chilika Lake in India, the launch of the 3rd Waterbird Population Estimates, also by Wetlands International, discussion of coral reef conservation with WWF International, and many others. Some photos are available here. [20/11/02]
News
from COP8. Opening
ceremonies and first day's business. The
first official day of Ramsar COP8 passed eventfully on 18 November, with a great
deal of administrative business to get out of the way, well mixed with ceremonial
occasions and welcoming speeches, along with an artistic performance on the
water outside the venue and a lively reception in the Museum. Here
are a few photo highlights of the day -- for a thorough report and analysis
of the day's work, please consult the Web pages of the IISD's Earth Negotiations
Bulletin, http://www.iisd.ca. In addition,
here is the text of the address of Dr Claude Martin of WWF International
on behalf of the Convention's four International Organization Partners (BirdLife,
IUCN, Wetlands International, and WWF) in English
and Español. [19/11/02].
News
from COP8.
Ramsar COP8 gets underway in Valencia. The past
few days have gone by in a frenzy in Valencia, as the city's enormous and impressive
Museum of Sciences has been converted into a convention centre virtually overnight.
Sunday, 17 November, saw registration for most delegates and observers, some
1,200 people. We've also had a successful 27th meeting of the Standing Committee,
as it transformed itself into the Conference Committee and ironed out the COP's
programme, as well as a very successful meeting on a draft action plan for Africa's
wetlands under the framework of the New Partnership for Africa's Development
-- and the pre-COP Global Biodiversity Forum drew to a close in its third day,
including the Ramsar workshop on communications, education, and public awareness.
Today, 18 November, will see the Opening Ceremonies, featuring greetings from
local and regional officials, Spain's Minister of Environment, and HRH Prince
Felipe of Spain, a noted conservationist in his own right. Other speakers later
today include HE Philippe Roch, Secretary of State for the Environment, Forests
and Landscape of the Bureau's host country, Switzerland, and Dr Claude Martin,
Director General of WWF International, speaking on behalf of the Convention's
four International Organization Partners (BirdLife, IUCN, Wetlands International,
and WWF). At the end of the day, after some basic COP housekeeping agenda items,
the Government of the Autonomous Community of Valencia will host a welcoming
reception for all the participants, and on Tuesday the 19th the real work begins.
A few photos of the set-up can be seen
here. [18/11/02]
Headline
story. Earth
Negotiations Bulletin reporting from COP8. The Earth Negotiations
Bulletin team is producing daily reports from COP8, as well as photos and Real
Audio recordings of key speeches. A report of each day's events is prepared
overnight, and a summary report and analysis of the entire COP will be available
48 hours after the end of the last day. Whilst the Ramsar Bureau will be posting
news at the end of each day as well, the expert ENB reporting team is capable
of providing much more detail and much much more candor. To catch up with the
latest news throughout the Conference of the Parties, visit
http://www.iisd.ca/ramsar/cop8.[18/11/02]
From
the Ramsar Forum. WWF stresses importance of
Ramsar COP8. In a posting to the Ramsar Forum as well as to the Opinion
Editorial pages of WWF's
Panda Web site, Mr Jamie Pittock,
Director of WWF International's Living Waters Programme, outlines his organization's
views on the importance and relevance of the Ramsar Convention, especially in
the follow-up to the World Summit on Sustainable Development, and emphasizes
the importance of COP8 (Valencia, 18-26 November 2002) for the continued growth
and evolution. Here is a reprint of Jamie's
editorial. [14/11/02]
World
Wetlands Day looming just over the horizon. Over the past six years,
World Wetlands Day has been celebrated by government agencies, NGOs, and local
groups on or about 2 February annually, and the Bureau has been able to report
on a growing number of activities each year, as accounts and 
photos
have been submitted to us, in some 70 countries at last count. For WWD2003,
the Standing Committee has suggested a theme of "No
wetlands - No water!", in honor of the UN's
International Year of Freshwater, and friends of wetlands who take
up this theme in February can count themselves as part of the first IYF-related
activities of the year. Ramsar staff have been a bit preoccupied this year with
preparations for COP8 in Valencia, but nonetheless, through the indefatigable
efforts of Sandra Hails, Delmar Blasco, and Publicitron S.A., and with financial
support from the Ramsar Evian Project of the Danone Groupe, this year we are
offering an informative new poster on freshwater issues (with additional
info sheets to accompany it) and a new brochure on the meaning and importance
of Ramsar sites for wetland sustainable use, both in English, French, and
Spanish. There is also a new video on Ramsar and freshwater issues, produced
in the same languages by TVE, ready in early December, but because of its cost
this is intended only for large group and multiple showings and thus will be
less widely available. We also have stock remaining of some of the World Wetlands
Day posters and information packs from the past few years, and these can be
requested at the same time. Our Web pages on WWD2003 are only partially built
at this point, but you can get a sense of what's on offer and read some semi-eloquent
prose in the meantime, including the Inspiring
Letter [E, F, S].
Naturally, if you choose to order your World Wetlands Day materials straightaway
(at ramsar@ramsar.org), you will nod in benign understanding if they do not
arrive on your doorstep immediately -- most of our staff will be returning from
Spain in early December. Here is the
semi-finished WWD2003 index page. [13/11/02]
Values
and Functions fact sheets available in Thai. Mr
Asae Sayaka writes from Prince of Songkla University that the
Wetlands International Thailand Programme has produced Wetland Education
Kits aimed at elementary schools in Thailand, comprising learning modules and
teachers' notes, exercises, a board game, and posters on the fish and biodiversity
of Thale Noi, amongst other things. In addition to the kit, WI has published
a Thai language version of the Ramsar Values and Functions of Wetlands
information pack (left), based upon the Bureau's World Wetlands Day 2001 publication
but amended somewhat to provide more examples and photographs from the Thailand
experience. The development of the kits and info pack was carried out with financial
support from the British Embassy in Bangkok. More information can be gained
from Asae Sayaka, sasae@ratree.psu.ac.th.
(The Ramsar Bureau makes available the original Values and Functions files in
QuarkXpress to those who wish to adapt them to their own languages and situations.)
[12/11/02]
India's
Chilika Lake removed from the Montreux Record. In June 1993 the Ministry
of Environment and Forests (the Ramsar Administrative Authority in India) requested
that Chilika Lake be placed on the Montreux Record of Ramsar sites undergoing
adverse changes in ecological character and identified a number of factors contributing
to that unhappy situation. Following some years of innovative and exemplary
remedial efforts by the Chilika Development Authority
(CDA) with significant national support, a request to remove Chilika
from the Montreux Record was submitted tothe Ramsar Bureau on 30 April 2001.
The request was accompanied by formal submission of the Montreux Record Questionnaire,
which outlined the management actions that had been taken to resolve the threats
to the ecological character of the lake, to the reasons for which it had been
listed as internationally important, and to its ability to provide for the well-being
of the surrounding communities. In response to this formal request, a Ramsar
Advisory Mission (comprising Ramsar's Najam Khurshid,
consultant Max Finlayson, and Siddharth Kaul of India) visited Chilika Lake
to review the management actions undertaken and the reported improvements and
to prepare a report as a basis for consideration of removal of the site from
the Montreux Record. RAM no. 50 was carried out 9-13 December 2001 and concluded
that, given a commitment to future actions on a number of points, the site should
be removed from the Record and that India's course of action should be promoted
by the Convention as a best-practice case study. The
RAM Mission report is now available on this Web site. Accordingly, Chilika
Lake has been removed from the MR
as of today, 11 November 2002. As a result of its comprehensive technical and
socio-economic efforts, with impressive community and stakeholder involvement,
the Chilika Development Authority is one of the winners of the Ramsar
Wetland Conservation Award, which will be presented to its executive director
A. K. Pattnaik (right) at Ramsar COP8 on
18 November 2002 in Valencia. That
story, with photos, is available here. [11/11/02]
Comunicado
de prensa. En el marco de Convenio de Cooperación entre el CED
y el Liceo Padre Alberto Hurtado de Pica. 
En
Iquique y Pica se inicia programa de educación ambiental para la conservación
de la biodiversidad del Salar del Huasco.
Now
available. Agenda and documents for the Ramsar / UNEP workshop on
African wetland management under NEPAD. One
of the most important Pre-COP8 events will be the 
Ramsar
- UNEP co-sponsored workshop on 17 November on "Developing further
the Plan of Action to implement Africa's wetland management strategy under the
Environmental Initiative of NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development)",
and here we have the workshop agenda, with a summary paper succinctly entitled
"Twelve
important issues to be considered for developing further the Plan of Action
to Implement Africa's Wetland Management Strategy under the Environmental Initiative
of NEPAD", and with a large background document entitled "Thematic
paper on management of Africa's wetlands", and of course with the draft
Plan of Action itsownself. Participants are explicitly asked to be familiar
with these papers before showing up at the meeting, and to show up early because
of security arrangements at the venue. Here's
the agenda and links to the papers (English, Français).
[08-12/11/02]
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]
Now
available. Statistical overviews of the National Reports for COP8.
Carlos Villalba, seconded to the Ramsar
Bureau by the Government of Spain, has been in charge of developing a database
of National Report information, and now he has produced statistical overviews
of all of the NRs globally and by region, complete with tables and very colorful
pie charts all over the page. These are provisional at this point and will later
be updated with any further information emerging from the 8th meeting of the
Conference of the Parties, due to begin in fewer than two weeks, alas. Here's
an index to the available summaries. [08/11/02]
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]
"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]
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]
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.