What's
New @ Ramsar What's
New @ Ramsar
3
August 1999
Headline
Story. Penang Statement on Tropical Peatlands.
The "International Conference
and Workshop on Tropical Peat Swamps" was held in Penang, Malaysia, from
27 to 29 July 1999 and was jointly organized by the School of Biological Sciences,
Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), and the International Peat Swamp Research Group.
It was attended by more than 140 technical experts and representatives from
government agencies and international organizations from more than 10 countries
mainly in the Southeast Asia region. The meeting urged governments, research
institutions, NGOs, private sector and other organizations to achieve the following
goal: "To minimize, stop or reverse the
loss and degradation of Peat Swamp Forest Resources in Southeast Asia",
and recommended ten actions to be undertaken. Here is the text of the
"Penang Statement on Tropical
Peatlands". [3/8/99]
Ex-Headline
Story. Costa Rica launches
National Wetlands Programme.
At a special ceremony at the Presidential House, the President of Costa Rica
and the Minister of Environment and Energy will sign today, 27 July, a Presidential
Decree establishing the National Wetlands Programme within that Ministry. The
Decree states that Costa Rica, having recently hosted the Conference of the
Parties to the Ramsar Convention, now has the moral obligation "to provide
testimony to the world of the seriousness of our initiatives in favor of the
conservation of these important ecosystems [referring to wetlands]".
Here are some more details. [27/7/99]
.Announcements.
Reviewers sought for limnology
series. Reviewers are
sought to describe the state of research and training in aquatic resources in
various developing countries for the series Limnology in Developing Countries.
Dr Brij Gopal gives more details
here. [30/7/99]
Position opening for Deputy Secretary General in the Ramsar Bureau -- terms of reference and application. [3/7/99] [This position has been filled.]
Deadline extended. Internship for Africa still open till 31 August. Because Ms. Musonda Mumba, the present intern, will be staying on for a while to complete some pending projects, the deadline for applications for her replacement has been extended till 31 August 1999. [18/6/99]
New
on the site. The
first of the French-language
versions of the Resolutions and Recommendations of COP7. [24/7/99]
Who's Where?
Anada Tiéga, Regional Coordinator for Africa, will be in Benin, 29-31 July, to talk with the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Rural Development, view some potential Ramsar sites in the coastal zone, and provide assistance for designation of that nation's first Ramsar site upon accession. From 2 to 5 August Mr Tiéga and Denis Landenbergue of WWF International's Living Waters Campaign will be working with the Federal Environmental Protection Agency of Nigeria and viewing a proposed first Ramsar site in that country. [28/7/99]
New Ramsar Intern for Asia. Taeko Takahashi of
Saitama, Japan, has accepted the Bureau's offer to spend a year in Gland as the next
intern for Asia, replacing Ms Parastu Mirabzadeh of Iran. Ms Takahashi has a postgraduate
degree in International Environmental Policy from the Monterey Institute of International
Studies, and spent time working at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Nautilus Institute
for Security and Sustainable Development in the United States, before returning to Japan a
month ago. Most recently, Ms Takahashi has been researching the destructive impacts of
shrimp farming on mangrove ecosystems and the impact of foreign direct investment on
environmental standards. She spent a summer working with WWF-Japan, researching the impact
of global climate change in national parks and protected areas, and has worked as a
volunteer with CARE Japan. She speaks Japanese and English, with knowledge of
Spanish and Russian. Taeko will take up her Ramsar duties on 15 November. [26/7/99]
UK
names five new Ramsar sites. Great
Britain has designated five new Wetlands of International Importance, bringing
its total number of Ramsar sites to 148, covering 753,844 hectares.
All five have also been classified as Special Protection Areas under the EC
Wild Birds Directive. They are: Cromarty Firth (4197 hectares),
20km north of Inverness, Scotland; Inner Moray Firth (2339
ha); Muir of Dinnet (158 ha); North Uist Machair and
Islands Phase 1 (1560 ha), on the west and north coasts of North Uist
in the Outer Hebrides, Western Isles of Scotland; Poole Harbour (2439
ha), on the south coast of England between the town of Poole and the Isle of
Purbeck. Read more about them here.
[24/7/99]
Two excellent new books available.
A superb new book has been published by the MedWet
Initiative and the Station Biologique de la Tour du Valat, with financial support from the
Ramsar Bureau and the WWF International Mediterranean Programme: Mediterranean Wetlands at the
Dawn of the 21st Century (138
pages), by Thymio Papayannis (presently Ramsar's MedWet Coordinator) and Tobias Salathé
(Ramsar's new Regional Coordinator for Europe), covers a wide range of issues and includes
contributions by Gordana Beltram, Simone Borelli, Erik Carp, Antonio Fernández de Tejada,
Luc Hoffmann, Tim Jones, Mike Moser, Christian Perennou, Jean-Yves Pirot, Jamie Skinner,
Mike Smart and many others. With excellent production values and many fine photographs,
the book is a must read and a major reference on the MedWet Initiative and much more.
Inquire with Tour du Valat, secretariat@tour-du-valat.com.
Inventario de Humedales del Ecuador, 1: Humedales
Lénticos de la Provincias de Esmeraldas y Manabí, by Ernesto E.
Briones and others, has been published in Quito by EcoCiencia, INEFAN, and the Convención
de Ramsar, with the support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Detailed
maps and solid scientific data make the work indispensable for students of Ecuador's
natural heritage. [22/7/99]
Ramsar
Convention celebrates its 1000th Ramsar site. The
Government of Honduras
has designated the world’s 1000th Wetland of International Importance,
as of 10 July 1999. The new Ramsar site, "Sistema
de Humedales de la Zona Sur de Honduras" (Wetlands system
of the southern region of Honduras), is a complex of seven coastal areas totaling
69,711 hectares along the Honduran portion of the Golfo de Fonseca: Bahía
de Chismuyo, Bahía de San Lorenzo, Los Delgaditos, Las Iguanas y Punta Condega,
Jicarito, San Bernardo and La Berbería, along the Corredor Biológico Mesoamericano
Pacífico de Honduras. More detail
is available here. [12/7/99]
Cambodia
becomes the 116th Contracting Party.
UNESCO has informed the Ramsar Bureau that on 23 June 1999, Cambodia
completed the necessary formalities for its accession to the Convention, as
amended by the Paris Protocol of 1982 and the amendments to Articles 6 and 7
(the "Regina Amendments", 1987). Cambodia thus becomes the 116th
Party to the Convention, and the treaty will come into force for Cambodia on
23 October 1999. Three Wetlands of International Importance were designated
at the time of accession: "Boeng Chhmar and Associated River System and
Floodplain" (28,000 hectares), "Koh Kapik and Associated Islets"
(12,000 ha), and "Middle Stretches of the Mekong River North of Stoeng
Treng" (14,600 ha), which are briefly
described in this accompanying article. Cambodia’s new designations,
totalling 54,600 ha, are the 997th, 998th, and 999th
Wetlands of International Importance in the Ramsar List and bring the worldwide
total of designated area to 71,220,794 hectares. [8/7/99]
Japan names the 996th
Ramsar site. In a ceremony held during the Ramsar Conference of the
Parties in San José, the Government of Japan formally designated its 11th
Wetland of International Importance: Manko (58 hectares), near the
prefectural capital of Naha City in the southern part of the main island of Okinawa. Manko
is a brackish tidal flat, covering an extensive area at low tide, and an important transit
point for shorebirds whose migration route brings them along the Nansei Islands.
Approximately 1% of the world population of the endangered Black-faced Spoonbill Platalea
minor regularly visit the site; thus Manko qualifies for the Ramsar List under old
Criterion 3(c) [new Criterion 6], and is also listed under 1(d) since the tidal flats are
located in an urban area.
Japan chose the same occasion to expand the limits of the existing Ramsar site Kushiro-shitsugen, well known to readers who attended Ramsar’s COP5 in Kushiro City in Hokkaido in 1993, from 7726 to 7863 hectares. Japan thus now has 11 Ramsar sites totalling 83,725 hectares. [8/7/99]
Senior position opening at the
Ramsar Bureau. With the departure of
Dr. Bill Phillips, the Ramsar Bureau's second-in-command, who's
planning to return to Australia in January 2000 for family reasons, the
secretariat is going to need a new Deputy Secretary General. It's
not an easy job by any means, but on the other hand, there's all the prestige! Here
is the Secretary General's announcement of Bill's lamented leaving and, attached to that,
a job application form for readers who still aspire to greatness. [3/7/99] [This position has been filled.]
New Regional Coordinator for
Europe signs up for the Ramsar Bureau. The hunt for a worthy successor for Tim Jones, who between his
time with IWRB (now Wetlands International) and 5 years with the Bureau has pumped more
than 10 years of hard labor into the Ramsar cause, is now over. Dr Tobias
Salathé is the lucky victim, pardon, candidate, and he too has long been closely
involved with Ramsar issues. A Swiss national from Bâle, he took his MSc. and PhD
from Basle University and has worked with ICBP (now BirdLife International) and DG XI of
the European Commission, among other posts, and is now with the Station Biologique de la
Tour du Valat in Arles, France, which has long been a Ramsar partner and is presently one
of the three secretariat units for the MedWet/Com administered by the Ramsar Bureau. Dr
Salathé speaks and writes all of the Ramsar languages and a couple more into the bargain
(hopefully including Schweizerdeutsch! but Hochdeutsch anyway) and sports a bibliography
of research reports and other publications that rivals the production of feminist studies
of Shakespeare's plays for two or more years.
As to His Timship, Mr Jones is hanging out his own shingle as an environmental consultant, under the imaginative name of "TJ Environmental", and can be reached at tje@iprolink.ch [5/7/99]
Executive Director sought. Wetlands International Africa, Europe, Middle East is
seeking to fill a senior vacancy for an Executive Director who, under authority of the
governing body (Regional Council), will be responsible for development and coordination of
Wetlands International's programme in the Africa, Europe, Middle East region. The post
will be based at the regional headquarters in Wageningen, The Netherlands. For an
information pack please contact: Nicole Thewessen, Executive Assistant, Wetlands
International - AEME, P.O. Box 7002, 700 CA Wageningen, The Netherlands (Fax: +31 317
478885, E-mail: thewessen@wetlands.agro.nl
). Closing date for applications: Friday 10 September 1999 [2/7/99] [This position has been filled.]
MOC
signed with the Society of Wetland Scientists.
Dr Janet Keough, President of the 1998-1999 Executive Board
of Directors of the Society of Wetland Scientists, and Mr. Delmar Blasco,
Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention, have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation
the stated aim of which is the "cooperation for the knowledgeable management,
conservation, and wise use of wetlands". Resolution VII.2 of the
San José COP called for the STRP in particular to develop cooperative relationships
with the SWS among other bodies, and Article 1.6 of the new MOC identifies the
SWS focal point for Ramsar cooperation as the Chair of the SWS International
Committee, presently Dr William Streever of the US Army Engineers Research and
Development Center in Vicksburg, USA. The text
of the MOC is available here. [1/7/99]
East
Asian Anatidae Site Network launched.
On 14 May in San José, Environment Agency of Japan and Wetlands International
launched the East Asian Anatidae Site Network, which includes 14 sites in Japan,
6 in Russia, 2 in Mongolia, and 1 each in P.R. China, Korea, and Philippines.
Here is the original press release,
with an photo. There is an excellent Web site for the Network hosted in English
and Japanese by the Japanese Association for Wild Geese Protection: http://www.jawgp/org/anet/
[8/7/99] [This link is now out of date.]
Ramsar delivers on the Joint Work Plan with CBD. Dr Bill Phillips, the Deputy Secretary
General, reports from Montreal that at the opening of the 4th meeting of the
CBD’s Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical, and Technological Advice (SBSTTA-4),
21 May 1999, Ramsar officially delivered the first products of the Joint Work Plan between
the two conventions. Many of the guidelines recently adopted by Ramsar’s COP7 speak
directly to issues covered in the JWP’s programme, and several countries, including
Canada, Japan, Malawi, the Netherlands, and the USA, spoke in support of the JWP’s
progress, urging the CBD to make good use of the new Ramsar "tools". The
Ramsar-CBD Joint Work Plan is recognized as a model for international conventions working
in partnership. [24/6/99]
The daily progress of SBSTTA-4 is being reported by Earth Negotiations Bulletin at http://www.iisd.ca/biodiv/sbstta4/ .
New Ramsar Intern for the Neotropical region. Ms Flor de María Salvador Perez of Lima,
Peru, will be joining the Ramsar Bureau on 1 August 1999 as the new Intern for the
Neotropics, replacing Carmen Elena Padilla Velasco of Honduras, whose
one-year posting is drawing to a close. Ms Salvador has a bachelor of science degree in
Botanical Science from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima, and is
currently in progress on her Master’s degree in Tropical Botany in the same
university. She is also presently a collaborator in the university’s Laboratorio de
Dicotiledóneas, Departamento de Botánica, Museo de Historia Natural. Ms Salvador will be
assisting Ms Margarita Astrálaga, the secretariat’s new Regional
Coordinator for the Americas, who will also be taking up her duties on 1 August. [22/6/99]
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.
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