The Ramsar Archives
The Ramsar Archives
6
July 1998
Headline
Story: Mongolia
names three new sites.
Despite the fact that Mongolia joined the Convention only a few months ago,
the Ministry of Nature and the Environment has already submitted three additional
nominations to the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance, bringing
the total number of Ramsar sites in Mongolia to four (264,220 hectares) and
the number of Ramsar sites in all the 110 Contracting Parties to 927 (68,203,343
ha). Here's a brief description of the
new designations. [6/7/98]
Another Headline Story: Legal
frameworks workshop. On 3-4 July the
Bureau hosted a gathering of experts to help develop Guidelines for the review of law and
institutions relevant to wetlands. This project, which will report its findings at COP7
next May, is being undertaken by the IUCN Environmental Law Centre on behalf of the Ramsar
Convention. Legislative and institutional review is a key part of the Ramsar Wise Use
Guidelines, which was further promoted in the Strategic Plan. At the workshop there were
experts in wetland law, policy, and Ramsar implementation from Australia, Cameroon,
Canada, Costa Rica, Denmark, India, Peru, Slovenia, Uganda, and the UK, the USA. The
exchange of ideas and experiences, many of which are being documented as case studies for
the project, was very dynamic and should make for a detailed consideration of these issues
next May. [6/7/98]
Another Headline Story: International
Course on Wetland Management, 1999.
The brochure and application form for the 6th 'International Course on Wetland
Management', held annually at the Wetland Advisory and Training Centre in Lelystad, The
Netherlands, is now available. The course, which has gained a high international
reputation during its first five years, will run from 2 September to 13 October 1999.
There are 20 places, open to individuals from throughout the world who meet the following
criteria:
- at least three years of experience in wetland management or environment conservation (if the latter, must plan to specialize in wetlands in future);
- competence in English;
- B.Sc. (or similar) academic degree, or equivalent work experience.
Copies of the brochure and application form may be obtained from: Wetland Advisory & Training Centre Secretariat of the International Course on Wetland Management PO Box 17 8200 AA Lelystad (fax: +31-320-29.83.39, e-mail: watc@riza.rws.minvenw.nl ). The closing date for applications is 1 February 1999.
Announcement:
3rd Pan-African Regional
Meeting begins NOW in Kampala.
From 6 to 10 July, representatives of the Ramsar Contracting Parties and observer
states in Africa, partner organizations, the donor community, and the other
biodiversity-related conventions, will gather in Kampala, Uganda, to coordinate
experiences within the region and develop a consensus on regional views in preparation
for Ramsar's 7th Conference of the Parties slated for May 1999. Here's
the provisional programme of discussions
[version française], and a report
will follow afterward.
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 1998 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 (higgins@ramsar.org)
[9/6/98]
Who's Where:
Anada Tiéga, Regional Coordinator for Africa; Delmar Blasco, Secretary General; Ahoua Traore, Intern for Africa, and Finance Officer Paulette Kennedy are in Kampala, Uganda, for the Ramsar Pan-African Regional Meeting, 6-10 July 1998. [6/7/98]
New
on the Site: Updated lists
of Ramsar sites and Contracting Parties; Results
of the Riga meeting; a new section in the Photo Gallery: pix
of all the Bureau staff, youpee!; from the Ramsar Forum -- conservation
alert in Mexico, search for
guidelines [25/6/98]
‘Graphical
Profiles’ from the Ramsar Database.
Scott Frazier, the Ramsar/Wetland Sites Officer at Wetlands
International - Africa, Europe, and Middle East, has announced the inauguration
of a new Web-based service of the Ramsar Database: a "graphical profiles"
section which includes maps, pie charts, all kinds of things – exactly
the sort of colorful graphics he has been providing for Ramsar meetings for
quite a while now. The site has already got the products that Scott and Edith
Hubert produced for the Ramsar Pan-European meeting earlier this month,
and the output created for the Pan-American and Pan-African meetings will be
up soon. View their handiwork on the Wetlands International Web site (http://www.wetlands.org)
in the Ramsar Database section, and read Scott’s
description of the project posted recently on the Ramsar Forum. [30/6/98]
The 2d
edition of the guide 'Financial
instruments for the Natura 2000 Network and nature conservation' has just been published by the TERRA environmental
policy center in Madrid. The publication was funded by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture,
Nature Management & Fisheries, and DGXI of the European Commission. It will be useful
for anyone wishing to gain a working knowledge of European Union financial mechanisms in
favour of nature conservation. Available in English and Spanish, the guide provides
a concise and readable introduction to the LIFE instrument, to the Structural Funds, the
Cohesion Fund and the CAP accompanying measures, together with examples of field
implementation. The guide is in approximately A5 format and runs to 157 pages, ISBN:
84-923776-1-5. For further information, contact: terra@quercus.es
[1/7/98].
Announcement: . The Bureau has streamlined this Web site's URL -- you can now reach us just by dialing up "ramsar.org" (or www.ramsar.org, if you prefer; both will work). This ought to be much, much easier to remember. Our old rather cumbersome address, http://iucn.org/themes/ramsar, will continue to work forever or until the lights go out at last.
Gorillas
born in the Congo. The
Environmental News Network reported on 17 June that the International Gorilla
Conservation Program (a coalition of the African Wildlife Foundation, Fauna
and Flora International, and WWF) has developed a ranger-based monitoring programme
in Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda, despite the civil unrest in the region. In Congo,
with support from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and WWF-Netherlands,
IGCP has implemented an emergency program for the conservation and rehabilitation
of the southern sector of the Virunga National Park, a Ramsar and World Heritage
site, where the endangered mountain gorilla is found. The births of 10 gorillas
have recently been documented. See http://www.enn.com/enn-news-archive/1998/06/061798/gorilla.asp.
Ramsar
internship secondment from the US EPA.
The Bureau is delighted to announce that we will be joined in early August 1998, for a
three month period, by Matthew K. Little of the United States. Matthew has a recent BA in
Environmental Biology from Dartmouth College and Master of Public Administration degree
from Syracuse University in New York State. He will be taking up a special internship
position in the Ramsar Bureau on secondment from his post as Environmental Protection
Specialist in the Wetlands Division of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which
is covering the costs of his sojourn here in the secretariat. It is presently envisaged
that he will be assisting in filling out Ramsar’s Web-based Wise Use Resource Centre,
which was launched on World Wetlands Day but has so far been growing only very slowly.
[25/6/98]
Austria-Kenya
twinning project.
The Austrian National Ramsar Committee meeting this week saw progress in organizing
the White Stork Twinning Programme with Kenya, and here
is a brief report on it. [24/6/98]
AEWA
Newsletter now available.
The Bureau has received English and French copies of the fourth newsletter of
the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement, which includes, along with
news about the Agreement and related activities, a nice article about the Ramsar
Small Grants Fund on page 6. Copies can be had from the AEWA Interim Secretariat
in the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries in The Hague
(care of Bert Lenten, the Interim Secretary, b.lenten@n.agro.nl) or, while our
supply lasts, from the Ramsar Bureau. [25/6/98]
Doñana
Conference completed. The
International Conference "Humedales de importancia para las aves acuáticas: Doñana
– una necesidad de actuación" (Wetlands of Importance as Waterfowl Habitat:
Doñana, a need to act) was held in Madrid 25-26 June 1998. Following keynote
addresses by Delmar Blasco on the Ramsar Convention and Thymio Papayannis on the MedWet
Strategy, presentations and discussions focused on preventive and corrective actions for
Doñana and the protection of wetlands in Spain in general. [26/6/98]
Turkey
names four new sites. The
Republic of Turkey has designated four new sites, effective 15 April 1998, and
significantly expanded the boundaries of two more. The four new sites are Akyatan
Lagoon (14,700 hectares) on the Mediterranean coast not far from Adana; the Gediz Delta
(14,900 ha) in the Gulf of Izmir on the Aegean coast; the Kizilirmak Delta (21,700 ha) on
the Black Sea coast, and Lake Uluabat (19,900 ha), a large lake just south of the Sea of
Marmara. Lake Kus (Manyas), also just south of Marmara, has been a Ramsar site since 1994,
but its area has now been doubled in size to 20,400 ha, and Lake Burdur, north of Antalya
and east of Pamukkale, has been extended from 12,600 to 24,800 ha. Turkey now has 9
Wetlands of International Importance, totaling some 159,300 hectares. A series of
attractive pamphlets has been published for all of Turkey's Ramsar sites by the Ministry
of Environment, General Directorate of Environmental Protection, Eskisehir Yolu 8km,
TR-06530 Ankara (fax +90 312 286 2271). [22/6/98]
Raquel
Sigüenza de Micheo, Ramsar's first
Intern for the Neotropical Region, has completed her year's tenure with the
Bureau, and will be joining a mangrove project implemented by the Instituto
Nacional de Bosques (Ministerio de Agricultura, Ganadería y Alimentación, Guatemala),
funded by the European Union through IUCN - The World Conservation Union.
She expects to be reachable at proy.manglares@starnet.net.gt .
Riga
results now ready. The 3rd Ramsar Pan-European
Regional Meeting, held in Riga, Latvia, is history. More than 100 participants
from European Contracting Parties and international organizations wrestled with
the big issues and came up with a series of "conclusions and recommendations"
on 1) Transboundary Cooperation; 2) National and Regional Wetland Policies;
3) Wetland Restoration and Rehabilitation; 4) Building financial and technical
capacity for wetland conservation. Here's
a brief report, with links to the Conclusions and Recommendations in the
three Ramsar languages. [16/6/98]
"Creating
a sea change". The new joint marine policy of WWF and IUCN, Creating a Sea Change, has been
published, and the text of the attractive brochure which describes it and lists its main
objectives has been reprinted here on this Web site,
mainly in order to bring to the attention of the Ramsar community the objectives that
involve the Convention on Wetlands. The full text of the policy is available from WWF and
IUCN. [16/6/98]
IMCG
Workshop coming up. The International Mire Conservation Group
Workshop, "Mires of the Baltic Region", is slated for Riga, Latvia,
29 June to 7 July. Organized by IMCG, the University of Latvia Dept. of
Botany and Ecology, and the Latvian Fund for Nature, the workshop will include
lectures and posters on 1) Diversity of mire vegetation and 2) Mire management
and conservation value. Richard Lindsay is the symposium
chairman, and more information is available from the scientific organizer, Mara
Pakalne, Dept of Botany and Ecology, Univ. Latvia, Kronvalda Blvd 4,
LV-1586 Riga, Latvia, e-mail mara@lanet.lv [16/6/98].
2nd
International Conference on Wetlands and Development -- brochure available.
The conference slated for Dakar, Senegal, in November is gathering steam,
and a new brochure tells all, in French and English. Read
it about here. [17/6/98]
Mr Hirofumi wins Goldman Prize. Richard Forrest, National Wildlife Foundation ( forrest@nwf.org ), reports that "in April, Mr.
Yamashita Hirofumi, coordinator of the Japan Wetlands Action Network (JAWAN), was awarded
the Goldman Environmental Prize, the world's most prestigious environmental award--often
referred to as the 'Nobel Prize for the Environment.' Mr. Yamashita was recognized for his
campaign attempting to stop the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture's Isahaya Bay Reclamation
Project, which in 1997 destroyed Japan's largest and most important tidal flat wetland.
Due to Mr. Yamashita's efforts, the original development plan was scaled back, and the
Japanese public has been educated about the importance of protection and restoration of
wetlands. " [22/6/98]
Wetlands
International - South Asia address change. Dr C. L. Trisal,
WISA Coordinator and Ramsar STRP alternate member reports this change of address: Wetlands
International - South Asia, A-127 (2nd floor), Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024, India
(tel. +91 11 4629906 and soon, +91 11 4691294).
Arctic
to Tropical Peatland Symposium. At
the annual meeting of the Society of Wetland Scientists, Anchorage, Alaska,
USA, 8-12 June 1998, the full-day "Arctic to Tropical Peatland Symposium"
(9 June) considered, among other topics, the IUCN draft guidelines for sustainable
management of tropical peatlands and the role of international conventions and
other policy instruments. Mr Delmar Blasco, Secretary
General of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, contributed a statement to the
participants, which was conveyed to the meeting by Prof. Ed Maltby
of the Royal Holloway Institute for Environmental Research, co-chair of the
SWS symposium and Director of the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management. Here's
the text of his statement. [9/6/98]
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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