What's
New @ Ramsar What's
New @ Ramsar
Headline
story. Costa Rica names two new sites. Just days before the opening of COP7 in San José, Costa
Rica sanctified the occasion by designating two new Wetlands of International Importance,
effective 6 May 1999. The first is "Manglar de Potrero Grande" (130 hectares) in
the northwest of the country on the Pacific Coast, on the peninsula of Santa Elena in
Guanacaste province; it’s listed as mainly an Intertidal Forested Wetland in the
Ramsar Classification System, but includes Intertidal Marshes, Shallow Marine Waters, and
Estuarine Waters. It has been selected under nearly all of the available criteria so
there’s no use listing them here. The second new site is "Laguna
Respringue" (75 hectares) in the same region, listed as a Coastal Freshwater Lagoon
and qualified under Criteria 1a, 1c, 1d, and 2c. Costa Rica’s efforts here deserve
applause, and its hospitality throughout the COP itself (all ca.1000 delegates will agree)
beggars mere gratitude.
This brings the total number of Ramsar sites to 982, so all those Contracting Parties presently striving to prepare the designation of the landmark "Ramsar Site 1000" (‘R1K’) need to calibrate their efforts very closely now. (Hint to the betting fraternity: The smart money is still on Sweden, but the field is gaining fast.) [3/6/99]
Headline
story. Lebanon signs on to the
Convention. The Bureau has
been informed by UNESCO that, on 16 April 1999, Lebanon deposited its instrument of
accession, and the Convention on Wetlands will come into force for Lebanon on 16 August
1999. Three wetlands have been designated as its first Ramsar sites. 1) Ammiq
Wetland (280 ha?) "is the last remaining significant wetland in the country,
a remnant of much more extensive marshes and lakes that once existed in the Bekaa
Valley". 2) Deir el Nouriyeh cliffs of Ras Chekaa is part of a
coastal limestone promontory just north of Beirut, "a mosaic of woodland and olive
groves" amid the highly developed narrow coastal plain between Beirut and Tripoli. 3)
Tyre Beach (380 ha) around Ras el Ain, part of the best preserved stretch
of sandy coastline in southern Lebanon, is remarkable for its biodiversity but threatened
by its proximity to the city of Tyre and the Rachidieh refugee camp. The Convention
heartily welcomes Lebanon as its 115th Contracting Party. [1/6/99]
Headline
story.MOU with the World Heritage
Convention. Right in the
middle of the COP deliberations, 14 May 1999, the secretariat of UNESCO's World
Heritage Convention took time out to celebrate the signing in San José of a
Memorandum of Understanding
with the Ramsar Convention, and here is the text for your consideration
and opinion, if necessary. [1/6/99]
Headline story. Ramsar's
COP7 a great success. COP7 drew to a close on 18 May, in San José,
Costa Rica, having discussed and finally approved more than 30 resolutions and
recommendations, some with important guidelines attached. After a suitable rest,
Bureau staff will be finalizing the results of the meetings and posting them here as soon
as they're ready. In the meantime, daily reports of the COP sessions and a summary
were provided by Earth Negotiations Bulletin and can be viewed at http://www.iisd.ca/ramsar/cop7
. [28/5/99]
Coming Soon to this Web site. The 30 Resolutions and 4 Recommendations propelled into
history by the Conference of the Parties just concluded, and the Conference Report as
well, and other stuff, including some amusing pix. And a special synoptic article written
especially for this site. Just be patient, we have a lot of catching up to do. [1/6/99]
Who's Where?
Everybody's here, back in the Bureau, after some very weird adventures
trying to get out of Costa Rica via Miami, USA, with an assortment of visas, on some
fairly unfriendly airlines, and lightning on the Miami radar tower (or so they say!).
And after the COP in San José, the rest of the year seems like an anticlimax.
[1/6/99]
Mongolia
designates two new Ramsar sites. Mongolia
joined the Convention on Wetlands in December 1997 and named Mongol Daguur (210,000
hectares) as its first Wetland of International Importance. Not long thereafter,
on 6 July 1998, Mongolia designated three more Ramsar sites - Ogii Nuur, Terhiyn
Tsagaan Nuur, and Valley of Lakes - to bring its total to 264,220 hectares.
Here's how to learn more about the two new sites: 1) telephone Mongolia or 2)
read this brief description by Rebecca
D'Cruz of the Bureau, based upon the Ramsar Information Sheets
submitted with the designations. Mongolia’s 6 sites now cover an estimable
630,580 ha. and bring the Convention’s 977 sites to 71,029,948 ha. [29/4/99]
Ramsar info pack in
Chinese. Li Lukang
(li.lk@263.net) writes that "in mid-April 1999, a
Chinese version of the Ramsar Information Pack was printed and published by Wetlands
International-China Programme. Mr. Chen Kelin, the Director of the
Programme, wrote a foreword for this publication: 'In order to widely disseminate and
publicize the knowledge of Ramsar and improve the awareness of government agencies and
public citizens on the importance of wetlands conservation and wise use in China, the
Wetlands International-China Programme is authorized to carry out the translation and
production of the Ramsar Information Pack with the financial support from the Ramsar
Convention Bureau. Now WI- China Programme has distributed the information package to
government agencies, research institutes, universities, nature reserves, NGOs and other
institutions relevant to wetlands. Due to limited number of printed copies, the
Information Pack will be distributed to those who made their written request on the
first-come-first-serve basis. The receivers have to pay mailing charges.'"
Financial support for this effort came from the Evian Project. [22/4/99]
Tribute
to Cyril de Klemm. "Cyril
was a man of talent and passion", says Delmar Blasco,
Ramsar’s present Secretary General. "Cyril was especially remarkable
in that he could bridge the very wide gap between science and law," says
Daniel Navid, the Convention's first Secretary General. "He
had a passion for the natural world along with an incredibly creative mind.
His vision led to the adoption of a huge array of new legal approaches for environmental
management. Cyril was also a kind and gentle man, and he will be greatly missed".
Cyril de Klemm, certainly, among many other things, the world's
foremost legal authority on the Ramsar treaty, passed away on 1 April 1999,
and here is a too-brief tribute to his
many contributions to the Convention. [13/4/99]
Announcement. Position
vacancy at the Ramsar Bureau. The
Bureau invites applications, until 31 May 1999, for the post of Regional
Coordinator for Europe. [6/4/99] [This position has been filled.]
Half-hour
BBC show on Ramsar and the wise use concept. The newly completed BBC TV show "Still
Waters", which is devoted to explaining and illustrating wetland
functions and benefits and the wise use concept, and which highlights the role of
the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, will be aired on BBC World television’s
Earth Report series several times early in the coming week. The schedule is as follows,
all times Greenwich Mean Time: Monday, 12 April, 19:30 GMT, and Tuesday, 13 April
1999, at 5:30, 8:30, and 12:30 GMT. In the show, interview spots with Delmar
Blasco and Rebecca D’Cruz of the Bureau, Mike Moser (until recently of Wetlands
International), and the heads of IUCN, the World Bank, and the World Commission on Dams
complement a very attractive and educational overview of wetland conservation and wise use
and the urgent human issues that are involved, as well as the contributions being made by
the Ramsar Convention towards international cooperation and national action in this
regard. [10/4/99] [
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 . . . . . . . ? . . . . . . ?? Oooh, I
must have dropped it.
2
June 1999