What's
New @ Ramsar What's
New @ Ramsar
2
December 1998
Headline
Story:
First Oceania Regional Meeting opens in Hamilton, New Zealand: On
1 December, following a colorful opening ceremony (a "powhiri") presided
over by a Maori queen, Dame Te Atairangikaahu, and a welcoming
address from the Hon. Marie Hasler, Associate Minister for the Environment,
the meeting set off upon a
full agenda which will keep the participants grinning desperately
through to Friday. Some 60 participants made the trip -- and for some
of them, it was a pretty serious trip, in teensy weensy airplane seats for about
a hundred hours -- and they represent the three Ramsar Parties in the region
(Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea) as well as the Cook Islands,
Fiji, Wallis and Futuna (French territory), Niue, Palau, the Federated States
of Micronesia, the Republic of Kiribati, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Guam (US
territory), the Kingdom of Tonga, Tuvalu, the Northern Mariana Islands (US territory),
and Vanuatu. Organizations attending, with bells on, include BirdLife
International, the secretariat of the Convention on Migratory Species (Bonn
Convention), the Society of Wetland Scientists, Wetlands International, and
WWF, as well as Ducks Unlimited NZ, Fish and Game NZ, the University of Waikato,
the Miranda Conservation Board, the Federation of Commercial Eel Fishers, NZ
Federated Farmers, and a number of Maori Trust Boards. The Deputy Secretary
General, Bill Phillips, and the Regional Coordinator for Asia,
Rebecca D'Cruz, are stirring the pot on the Bureau's behalf,
and more results will soon appear here. [2/12/98]
Another
Headline Story:
CCD's 2nd Conference of the Parties gets off to a good start. The
Convention to Combat Desertification opened its 2nd COP on Monday, 30 November,
and will keep its collective nose to the grindstone until the 11th of December.
Ramsar's Secretary General, Delmar Blasco, and our Regional
Coordinator for Africa, Anada Tiéga, are participating in the
festivities, and Mr Blasco addressed the plenary session on 1 December -- you
can read his statement here at no extra charge. The daily
goings on can be followed on the Earth Negotiations Bulletin through the International
Institute for Sustainable Development's site, http://www.iisd.ca/desert/cop2/index.html.
[2/12/98]
New
on the Site:
Brief summary, with pix,
of Anada Tiéga's whirlwind mission
through Botswana, Kenya, Senegal, and Niger; National Reports: South
Africa [1/12/98]
Who's Where . . . . . . .
The Secretary General, Delmar Blasco, and the Regional Coordinator for Africa, Anada Tiéga, are in Dakar for the 2nd COP of the Convention to Combat Desertification. The SG's address to the opening plenary will be posted here tomorrow. Delmar's due back in the Bureau on Monday, the 7th of December, which is a memorial day in the USA but not in Switzerland.
Web Site
Reorganization [or Reorganisation]: That's
right, we've set up a new index page for the
7th meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties, which includes indexes to the
documentation for the COP, the National Reports submitted by the Parties, hotel + travel
information, background skinny, the whole schmear. You are specially privileged to
view it, though as yet it's in its infancy for a little while. [30/11/98]
New
Ramsar logo announced. Just
when you thought you knew where you stood, the Ramsar Convention announces a
new "graphic identity", intended to indicate more convincingly the
Convention's new roles in the broad issues of sustainable use of wetlands and
water resources. Enacted by Decision 21.4 of the recent Standing Committee,
the new logo will be launched on 1 January 1999, and even now, you
can read all about it here. [27/11/98]
MKI
Travel, Inc., posts hotel and travel stuff for COP7.
Calme-toi, all of you who've behaving in an agitated manner in the
absence of firm information about hotel costs and options in San José, Costa
Rica, for the gala 7th Conference of the Parties set to be visited upon that
city in May 1999. 
The
Bureau is still creeping towards mailing out invitations to Contracting Parties,
potential observer states, and international NGOs, including all of this information,
but now you must ask yourself: WHY WAIT?
MKI Travel Inc., of Ottawa, who are handling travel and hotel arrangements for
COP7, have set up a brilliant Web site with all the hotel options, maps of the
locations, background info (about the currency, tap water, etc.), booking forms,
you name it, and you will thrill to see those classy navigation bars.
Check it out: http://www.mkitravel.com/conference/ramsarcop799/index.html
[27/11/98]
Standing
Committee Minutes. Finally,
at long last, they've been vetted by everyone who needs to vet them, and compacted
and rotated and turned inside out and here they are, the Minutes of the 21st
Meeting of the Ramsar Standing Committee -- the meeting which set all
the vital parameters for the COP in May 1999. The documents approved
by SC21 for discussion at COP7 will begin appearing on this Web site over the
next month or so. Here
are the SC21 Minutes in English, the texts
of the decisions only, crossreferenced to the minutes for explanations,
and the list of participants--
soon to follow, the minutes and summaries in French and Spanish and, of
course, THE PIX. [26/11/98]
Africa
sends a message to the world: "wetlands cannot be protected if they are
of no value to people". The
2nd International Conference on Wetlands and Development concluded last Saturday
in Dakar, Senegal, with the nearly 600 participants reaffirming the vital roles
of wetlands in maintaining ecosystems and providing fundamental life support
systems. The meeting included workshop sessions that studied Wise Use and participatory
approaches to management, integrated water resource management, the status of
wetland inventories, migratory waterbird conservation, and financing mechanisms.
Each of the workshops provided clear outputs which can be extremely helpful
to the evolving Ramsar agenda. Bill Phillips was invited
by the final plenary to interpret the Conference results vis-à-vis the Ramsar
COP7 in May 1999, and he did so gladly. In his concluding remarks, the
Deputy Secretary General (Bill) also urged the 13 non-Ramsar
Parties represented at the meeting to join the Convention as a matter of priority,
so that the "voice of Africa" can be heard loud and clear at COP7
in May 1999. You and you and you
can all, simultaneously if need be, read his remarks, and view a few nice photos
of the Ramsar Legion deployed in Dakar, right here. And, in case Bog Forbid
you'd forgotten -- here again is the DSG's
milestone Dakar reinterpretation of the Ramsar mission in terms of bringing
Ramsar values of wise use into the mainstream of national agendas [agendae?
Latinists, please reply as a matter of
priority]. [18/11/98]
Serious
oil spill in the Waddensee.
There has been a serious spillage of fuel oil from a cargo ship which ran aground,
after an on-board fire which killed one person, in the German sector of the
Wadden Sea (a vast intertidal wetland complex shared by Denmark, Germany and
The Netherlands, covering some 1,000,000 hectares). Most of the Wadden Sea is
included in eight Ramsar sites designated by the three Contracting Parties concerned.
The Bahamas- registered transporter ran aground on the edge of a National Park
and the Ramsar site known as 'Schleswig-Holsteinisches Wattenmeer' (i.e. the
part of the Wadden Sea which is within the German Land, or province, of Schleswig-Holstein).
The Bureau is in contact with the Administrative Authority in Germany, and in
the meantime here is a press release
and additional background provided
by WWF. Status reports are being provided by the Common Wadden Sea Secretariat
at http://cwss.www.de/news/MS-Pallas/2oil-info.html. [18/11/98]
Announcement:
Sydney Conference begins
today. The Water and Wetlands
Management Conference begins in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, today and
tomorrow, 20-21 November 1998; if you're presently here in Europe and planning
to attend, you've probably already missed it, since tomorrow may already be
yesterday there. The ambitious programme looks at water reforms in NSW
from both the technical and the socio-cultural points of view, and a special
module on Ramsar and water considers implementation of the Convention in NSW
in particular and Australia in general. Here's
some more information on it. [20/11/98]
Announcement: BirdLife
International position announced.
BirdLife International is seeking a European Conservation Manager for its new
office in Wageningen, the Netherlands. [18/11/98] [This
position has been filled.]
New
intern joins the Bureau. Ms Parastu
Mirabzadeh is of Iranian nationality, presently a resident of Canada, and has
earned a BSc in Botany in India and an MSc degree in Environmental Sciences in the Islamic
Republic of Iran. Whilst employed in the Department of Environment in Iran, she had
responsibility for development of Environmental Impact Assessment practices in Iran and
prepared a large number of reports and publications. She has also been a project
researcher on EIA issues with the University of Putra Malaysia, and served as a Programme
Officer in Tehran for the United Nations Development Programme. She succeeds Jamshed
Kazi of Bangladesh and arrives in the Bureau just in time to disappear under the
paperwork involved in preparing the Pan-Asian Regional Meeting for February. [17/11/98]
Pan-Asian
Regional Meeting. The
Ramsar Bureau is pleased to announce that the Government of the Philippines
has kindly agreed to provide the venue for the Pan-Asian Regional Meeting of
the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971). The meeting will take place
from 22 - 24 February 1999 in Manila, the Philippines. It is expected that at
the meeting there will be consideration of the key topics scheduled for discussion
at COP7. These will include such issues as Ramsar and Water, mechanisms to enhance
regional and transboundary cooperation, how Ramsar can work more effectively
in partnership with the other international conventions, such as the Convention
on Biological Diversity (CBD); capacity building for wetland management; and
mobilising development assistance.For further information, please contact: Rebecca
D’Cruz, Regional Coordinator for Asia rdc@ramsar.org. [13/11/98]
Mainstreaming
Wetland Conservation . . . .
On 11 November, at the Board of Members' Meeting of Wetlands International,
in Dakar, Senegal, the Deputy Secretary General Bill Phillips
presented the keynote paper, entitled "The mainstreaming of wetland
conservation and sustainable (wise) use. The Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar,
Iran, 1971): a tool for mainstreaming"-- an important interpretation
of the Convention's activities and priorities, phrased in terms of the Strategic
Plan 1997-2002, as a key part of global efforts to bring the importance of wetland
conservation and sustainable use to the forefront of national agendas.
And you and all your friends and relations can read
it right here, with a neat introductory statement by the Secretary
General. [13/11/98]
Extension
of UK ratification. The Ramsar
Bureau has been notified by UNESCO that the UK's ratification of the Convention (as
amended by the Paris Protocol and Regina Amendments) has been extended to cover the
Bailiwick of Guernsey and the British Indian Ocean Territory. This extension will enter
into force on 9 January 1999. Both the Bailiwick of Guernsey (part of the 'Channel
Islands' group, a few kilometres from the French coast) and the British Indian Ocean
Territory (the Chagos archipelago, which lies between five and ten degrees south of the
equator in the middle of the Indian Ocean) have coastal habitats which fall within the
Ramsar definition of 'wetlands' and sites which reportedly meet the criteria for Ramsar
designation. All Overseas Territories of the UK are now covered by the Convention, with
the exception of British Antarctic Territory, which is covered by the Antarctic Treaty and
its 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection. [12/11/98]
Management
Guidance Procedure to Italy. Five of
Italy's 46 Ramsar sites are currently included in the Montreux Record, indicating a need
for priority conservation action. Discussions earlier this year between the Ramsar Bureau
and the Ministry of Environment, the Convention's Administrative Authority in Italy,
determined that three sites (Laguna di Orbetello, Palude della Diaccia Botrona, and Torre
Guaceto) could be considered for removal from the Montreux Record as a result of positive
management measures. Consequently, a Ramsar mission, in the framework of the Management
Guidance Procedure [MGP 40], has been taking place this week in Rome and the two Italian
regions concerned, Toscana and Puglia. The Ramsar Bureau's former Senior Policy Advisor, Mike
Smart, has been charged with undertaking the mission, as a consultant to the
Bureau. Mike's report, including an evaluation of the conservation measures taken, and a
series of conclusions and recommendations, will be submitted to the Italian Government and
the Ramsar Bureau before the end of November. [7/11/98]
IUCN Gets
a New DG. At the 50th
anniversary conflagrations in Fontainebleau, the IUCN Council announced the selection of
the new Director General of IUCN: Yolanda Kakabadse says that on behalf of the Council of
IUCN, "it is my great pleasure to announce that Dr. Maritta Koch-Weser
has been appointed as the next Director General of IUCN. Council welcomed her appointment
unanimously, following a world-wide search in which many other very well-qualified
individuals were carefully considered for this position. She will take up her office on 1
March 1999, following a careful transition which she and David McDowell are arranging. We
welcome Maritta to IUCN with enthusiasm. Her curriculum vitae will be sent to you shortly
via email." IUCN houses and provides adminstrative services for the Ramsar
Bureau, so this is important. [7/11/98]
Reading
Alert: French
fishponds! The latest
issue of the newsletter Zones Humides Infos, published
by the wetland expert group set up by the French Ministry of Land-use Planning
and Environment, is dedicated to the conservation management of fish pond complexes
in France. Find out a little more about
it here, then go read the mag. [4/11/98]
Wetland
Conservation Award winners announced.
After long deliberations, the 21st meeting of the Ramsar Standing Committee
succeeded in selecting winners for the Ramsar Wetland Conservation Award, out
of an impressive host of nominations. In the three categories of awards
(individuals, NGOs, and governmental organizations], five
winners were chosen -- that's how tough the competition was. In the individuals
category, Vitaly G. Krivenko of the Russian Federation
shares the Award with Victor Pulido of Peru. In the NGOs
category, Lake Naivasha Riparian Association of
Kenya shares the prize with Society for the Protection of Prespa
in Greece, and in the strange category of Government/Non-governmental
Coalitions, the winner is the Pacific Estuary Conservation Program of
Canada. The formal announcements, with interviews, photos, videos, testimonials,
whatever else may be appropriate, will take place on World Wetlands Day, 2 February
1999, and the actual Awards will be bestowed in the opening ceremonies of the
7th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties, in May 1999 in San
José, Costa Rica -- in the meantime, here
is an advance briefing on the five winners. [2/11/98] [français,
español]
EU's
Water Framework Directive.
Approximately 50 people representing national and European NGOs met in Brussels on 22
& 23 October to discuss progress with the European Union's proposed Water Framework
Directive. Participants heard detailed presentations from the officials responsible in the
European Commission, from a speaker on behalf of the Council of Ministers, and from a
number of NGO and water industry representatives. The Directive, currently in draft form,
was generally thought by those present to provide a useful framework for addressing water
problems in Europe. In particular, the focus on river basin management, and the
development of effective and enforceable strategies to secure progressive improvement in
the biological and chemical quality of surface water, ground water, and coastal waters,
were all welcomed. However, the draft Directive was also criticised as being too weak in
relation to some of the goals, targets and timetables it proposes for improvement. Further
information about the seminar can be obtained from WWF's European Freshwater Officer, Ms
Jane Madgwick (j.madgwick@wwf.dk). [4/11/98]
United
Kingdom names two new sites on south coast.
"Dorset Heathlands" and "Solent and Southampton Water" have
been added to UK's list of 118 Ramsar sites, with eight more already announced
and awaiting completion of the paperwork. Here's
a brief description of the new ones. The Convention now covers some
70,429,156 hectares in 957 sites in 113 Contracting Parties. [français,
español] [30/10/98]
Madagascar
joins the Convention, names first Resolution VI.5 Ramsar site.
The Bureau is delighted to announce that
as of 25 September 1998, Madagascar has become the 113th
Contracting Party to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, so that the treaty will
come into force for Madagascar on 25 January 1999. Two sites were named
as initial Wetlands of International Importance, Complexe des lacs de Manambolomaty
and Lac Tsimanampetsotsa, the latter of which is the first Ramsar site to be
named under the new type added to the Ramsar Classificiation System by Resolution
VI.5 (Brisbane COP6, 1996), "Subterranean karst and cave hydrological systems".
Read more about them both, right here.
[27/10/98] [français]
Wrong! Scott Frazier corrects us by pointing out that the designation of Lake Kutubu in Papua New Guinea, announced here a few weeks ago, was actually the first subterranean karst designation, and we didn't notice! Well . . . [29/10/98]
Announcements:.
International
Environmental Law and Policy, text
and reference book, has just been published by the Center for International
Environmental Law. Here are
a description, brief reviews, and the table of contents. [29/10/98]
INFO-COAST
'99 1st European Symposium
on Knowledge and Information for the Coastal Zone set for Noordwijkerhout, The
Netherlands, 11-13 Feb, 1999 -- Details and
Registration Form now available! [27/10/98]
2nd
International Conference on Wetlands and Development.
Simon Nash provides a last-minute
teaser on the Dakar conference. [28/10/98]
Tidal
Wetlands Impacts Data Home Page
launched in the State of Virginia, USA; here's
the announcement to the Ramsar Forum. [29/10/98]
Asian
Anatidae Atlas Project -- call for information. Here's
your chance to get in on the Asian Anatidae action, perhaps. Read
this now! [28/10/98]
International
Conference on Shallow Tropical Waters and Humans, 11-16
April 1999, Naivasha, Kenya. Here's
the skinny. [28/10/98]
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.
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 . . . . . . . ? . . . . . . ??