The
Ramsar Archives 
3 June 1998
Headline
Story: Thailand joins the
Convention. The Bureau
is delighted to announce the accession of Thailand as the Convention’s
110th Contracting Party. Thailand joined the Convention as of 13
May 1998 and so the treaty will come into force on 13 September. The new Party’s
first Wetland of International Importance is "Kuan Ki Sian of the Thale
Noi Non-Hunting Area Wetlands" (493.6 hectares) -- more
information here. [29/5/98]
Another Headline Story: 3rd
Pan-European Regional Meeting. Ramsar's
3rd Pan-European Regional Meeting gets underway today in Riga, Latvia, on Wednesday 3
June, hosted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development. More
than 100 participants, representing almost all of the 40 European Contracting Parties and
many international organizations, are registered to attend. The programme focuses on four
key technical themes of special importance to implementation of the Convention in Europe:
1) Transboundary Cooperation; 2) National and Regional Wetland Policies; 3) Wetland
Restoration and Rehabilitation; 4) Building financial and technical capacity for wetland
conservation. Each theme will be introduced by a key-note speaker and developed through
case-study-led discussion.
There will also be two plenary sessions devoted to an overview of the current status of the Convention in Europe and preparations for the 7th COP in Costa Rica. Special attention will be given to briefing delegates on the preparation of National Reports, the deadline for submission of which is only 3 months away. Here is the programme (and speakers) for the meeting. [3/6/98]
Yesterday's
Headline Story: Canada names
a new Ramsar site. Canada
has designated Lac Saint-Pierre,
an 11,952-hectare area of delta and shoreline along the St. Lawrence River in
Québec, as its 36th Ramsar site. The area includes a chain of some 100
islands, a group of wide bays, and very wide spaces of open water. The
letter from the Minister of the Environment, Christine S. Stewart, notes that
"the nomination of this site is firmly supported through the efforts of
the Ministère de l'Environnement et de la Faune, federal agencies, local municipalities
and conservation organizations, as well as private landowners. It truly
represents a local partnership interested in the recognition and protection
of these wetlands, vitally important to waterfowl and a wide range of biodiversity."
The Lac Saint-Pierre site qualifies for the Ramsar List under Criteria 1(c)
on representativeness and 2(a), 2(b), and 2(c) concerning biodiversity of plants
and animals. [29/5/98]
Another
Yesterday's
Headline Story:
Ramsar Pan-American Regional Meeting draws near.
With the regional meeting coming up in San José, Costa Rica, 17-20 June, approximately
100 participants are registered so far, with official delegates from all 21
Contracting Parties in the region as well as from at least 6 observer states.
All four Partner Organizations are registered, and so too are a number of observer
organizations, such as the World Bank, OAS, US-AID, CCAD, and several national
NGOs. Simultaneous English/Spanish interpretation will be provided, and
the documentation being prepared for the delegates will probably fill several
planeloads. Here is the meeting programme in English
and Spanish. [28/5/98]
Still Another Yesterday's Headline Story: United Kingdom adds ten new Ramsar sites. Delays in the paperwork have been set right for
ten new sites in the UK, the designations of some of which had been announced in the UK
some time ago. Eight more announced designations are still in the pipeline.
The ten new sites added to the Ramsar List today are: Avon Valley, England, 1,385
hectares; Caithness Lochs, Scotland, 241 ha; Corsydd Mon a Llyn (Anglesey & Llyn
Fens), Wales, 625 ha; Dornoch Firth & Loch Fleet, Northern Ireland, 7,836 ha; Larne
Lough, Northern Ireland, 396 ha; Midland Meres & Mosses (phase 2), England/Wales,
1,588 ha; Moray & Nairn Coast, Scotland, 2,410 ha; Pettigoe Plateau, Northern Ireland,
1,264 ha; River Spey-Insh Marshes, Scotland, 1,176 ha; and Upper Lough Erne, Northern
Ireland, 5,818 ha. [28/5/98]
A
few days ago Headline Story:
Syria joins the Convention. The paperwork
has now been completed for the accession of Syria to the Ramsar Convention on
Wetlands, with Lac de Sebkha al-Djabbul designated as its first Ramsar site.
The Bureau does not yet have a Ramsar Information Sheet for this site. Because
Syria's instrument of ratification reached UNESCO on 5 March 1998, it actually
becomes the 107th Contracting Party, with the more recent Luxembourg and Belize
as the 108th and 109th respectively. Syria is warmly welcomed into the Ramsar
community. [26/5/98]
New
on the Site: Canada's
National Wetland Policy (Australia's follows tomorrow);
French
version of the STRP7 summary; "Advance
unedited texts" of four decisions of the CBD's COP4; Minutes
of the 7th meeting of the STRP, and a summary
of the minutes in English (French and Spanish to follow), with
photos. [3/6/98]
Who's Where?
This week, 2-7 June, Delmar Blasco, the Secretary General, Bill Phillips, the Deputy Secretary General; Tim Jones, Regional Coordinator for Europe, and other Bureau staff will be in Riga, Latvia, for the Ramsar Pan-European Regional Meeting. [3/6/98]
Announcements:
Position
open at Wetlands International - Asia Pacific: Executive Director. Here is the announcement.
[28/5/98] [This position has been filled.]
Ramsar
Pan-American Regional Meeting set for June. See the brief
description in Spanish and English. [24/5/98]
Audubon Society alert on
Cheyenne Bottoms. The National Audubon Society (USA)
has issued an alert concerning impending threats to the Cheyenne Bottoms Ramsar site in
the state of Kansas, USA. Readers of the Audubon Web site are urged to contact the
Governor of the Kansas, Bill Graves, with expressions of concern. See
http://www.audubon.org/bird/iba/alert9805.html. [23/5/98]
[This link is out of date.]
RSPB Habitats
action packs. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds'
Education Resources programme announces the publication of the Habitats action packs for
schools, four A1 full-color posters of Wetland, Heathland, Farmland, and Hills and
Mountains -- brilliantly executed scenes illustrating good and bad ecosystem management
principles -- with a 28-page photocopiable activity pack. £10 plus postage from
RSPB Education, the Lodge, Sandy, Beds. SG19 2DL, United Kingdom. [23/5/98]
New Web site for Coorong &
Lower Lakes. Newsletter no. 5 of The Wetlands Voice,
"the newsletter for the Coorong and Lower Lakes Ramsar Management Plan" in
Australia, announces the inauguration of their superb new Web site. It's a model of
an informative and entertaining site with lots to interest both general and local, and old
and young, audiences. It's at http://www.dehaa.sa.gov.au/herit_biodiv/ramsar. [23/5/98]
Wetland Bird Survey for the UK.
The British Trust for Ornithology, the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, the Royal Society
for the Protection of Birds, and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee have published
The Wetland Bird Survey 1995-96: Wildfowl and Wader Counts, based on a new WeBS database
developed by the BTO. Introductory summaries cover recent developments, including
the results of the Ramsar COP in Brisbane, and many graphs and maps highlight the data.
The 166-page book is available for £10 plus postage from the Natural History Book
Service, 2-3 Wills Road, Totnes, Devon TQ9 5XN, UK (tel. +44 1803 865913). [23/5/98]
The Mangrove Action Project
announces that its weekly electronic newsletter is now available on a
temporary Web site address. If you wish to access this, you can find it at: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/4999/latefriday.html
[20/5/98]
WIWO
reports announced. The Working Group on International
Waterbird & Wetland Research, based in Zeist, The Netherlands, announces
the publications of six new reports. See
the list of titles here. [14/5/98]
This
is Homebush Bay!!!! Homebush Bay is part
of Sydney Harbor, and thus part of the venue of the Sydney Summer Olympics in
Australia in 2000, and also the venue of the planned Virtual Ramsar
Site. Here, for the joy and delectation of our regular readers,
is an "advance unedited map"
of the area, to give you something to hook your imaginations to as you await
further details. [27/5/98]
Secretary
General summarizes CBD COP4 for Ramsar. Mr
Delmar Blasco offers a very brief summary of the significance of the 4th Conference
of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity for the Ramsar community,
especially in regard to the COP4 decision on the Financial Mechanism.
You can read it here. [26/5/98]
Ramsar News from the CBD's COP4.
The 4th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity
has concluded in Bratislava, Slovak Republic, with (thanks to excellent support from
Ramsar Contracting Parties and Partner NGOs) extremely positive results for the Ramsar
Convention's plans for increased cooperation between the two Conventions. Decisions
of COP4 endorsed the Proposed Joint Work Plan and called for cooperation with Ramsar in
working for the biodiversity of both inland water ecosystems and marine and coastal
zones. The CBD secretariat has already posted "advance unedited texts" of
all the decisions, and the four decisions mostly closely involving
the Ramsar Convention have been reprinted on this Web site. [22/5/98]
SIDSnet
well under way. On 24 April, during the 6th meeting
of the Commission on Sustainable Development, the Alliance of Small Island States
and UNDP's Sustainable Development Networking Programme hosted a demonstration
of the new SIDSnet, a Web site dedicated to "building virtual global communities
on island issues from the Barbados Plan of Action." Visit the Web
site at http://chacmool.sdnp.undp.org/
and read over this reprint of the background sheet
that was distributed at the time. [20/5/98]
Belize
becomes the 108th Contracting Party. Belize has
deposited its instrument of accession as the 108th Party to the Ramsar Convention,
as of 22 April, and the Convention will come into force for that country on
22 August 1998. The first Wetlands of International Importance designated by
Belize for the Ramsar List are "Crooked Tree Lagoon Area" and "Mexico
and Jones Lagoon Area", about which the Bureau does not yet have much information.
Details will follow when the Bureau receives the Ramsar Information Sheets on
these sites. [8/5/98]
Watersheds of the World: ecological value and vulnerability,
a new book with data and maps (including Ramsar sites) on nearly 150 of the
world's great watersheds, has just been published jointly by the World Resources
Institute and the Worldwatch Institute. Read
about it here. [12/5/98]
Luxembourg
joins the Convention. UNESCO has informed the
Bureau that on 15 April 1998 Luxembourg completed the formalities to become
the Ramsar Convention's 107th Contracting Party, so that the Convention will
come into force for Luxembourg on 15 August. All 15 EU countries are now
part of the Convention. Haff Réimech has been named as
the new Party's first Wetland of International Importance, a 313-hectare former
quarry on the left bank of the river Moselle. The wetland types listed
for the site, based on the Ramsar Classification Scheme, are permanent freshwater
marshes/pools, permanent freshwater lakes, seasonal/intermittent freshwater
marshes/pools, and shrub-dominated wetlands. Criteria cited are 1(d) [rare
or unusual type of wetland for the region], 2(b) [special value for genetic
and ecological diversity of the region], 3(b) [substantial numbers of individuals
from particular groups of waterfowl], and 4(a) [indigenous fish species]. [7/5/98]
Important
Deadline Approaching. The
Wetland Conservation Award. The Ramsar Conservation Award
was established in order to recognize and honor the contributions
of individuals, organizations, and governments around the world in promoting
the conservation and wise use of wetlands. In October 1997 the Standing
Committee will select three winners from among the nominees, and the awards,
each accompanied by US$ 10,000 courtesy of the Danone Group as part of the Evian
Project, will be conferred at COP7 in Costa Rica in May 1999. The deadline
for nominations is 31 July 1998, so if you have a special person or group in
mind for one of these awards, now is the time to get focused. Replicas
of the Award nomination forms are available here in English,
French, and
Spanish, and you can get a nice paper brochure from the Bureau by sending
a note to Valerie Higgins [4/5/98]
Wetlands
International AEME moves into a new building. After 11 May the new
address will be Wetlands International - Africa, Europe, Middle East, Droevendaalsesteeg
3A, P. O. Box 7002, 6700 CA Wageningen, The Netherlands (tel. +31 317 478884, fax +31 317
478885, e-mail post@wetlands.agro.nl, Web
http://www.wetlands.agro.nl/)
Asian Waterfowl Census is ready.
The Asian Waterfowl Census 1994-1996: Results of the
Coordinated Waterbird Census and an Overview of the Status of Wetlands in Asia,
edited by Alvin Lopez and Taej Mundkur, has been published by Wetlands International, with
financial support from the Ramsar Convention and the Convention on the Conservation of
Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), and is available from Wetlands International -
Asia Pacific in Kuala Lumpur wiap@wiap.nasionet.net.
The AWC is a coordinated international scheme for the collection and dissemination of
information on waterbirds and wetlands; it forms part of the International Waterfowl
Census, a global effort coordinated by Wetlands International and conducted once a year,
during January. Some 1,994 sites were covered at least once, including 75 wetlands
which proved to meet the Ramsar criteria though only six of those are presently on the
Ramsar List. The editors, in their executive summary, call for particular attention
to these sites in future, in order to identify their true potential for Ramsar nomination
under Criterion 3(a). [30/4/98]
Costa
Rica designates Isla del Coco as its 7th site. The
Government of Costa Rica has designated a new wetland of international importance:
Isla del Coco National Park, 535 km off the coast from Puntarenas on the
mainland, with a total surface of 99,623 hectares. Details
are available. [28/4/98]
More to follow. Watch this space.
Feedback and suggestions to: the Ramsar Convention Bureau, Rue Mauverney
28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland (tel +41 22 999 0170, fax +41 22 999 0169, e-mail
). Updated
regularly by Dwight Peck, Ramsar.
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