World Wetlands Day 2009 -- Australia -- Tasmania

Dear Ramsar Secretariat,

Please find Environment Tasmania's promotional flyer for a seminar we organised to celebrate World Wetland Day.

The flyer provides a brief outline of the format of the seminar.

The key outcomes of the seminar, with particular reference to the current 'state' of Tasmania's wetlands, includes:

• there needs to be a reconciliation of existing data and published papers to inform and integrate into future decision making as apposed to relying solely on modelling;
• the Federal Government are offering grants through their 'Caring for our Country' program for on-ground works;
• there is limited baseline data on Estuarine Wetlands in Tasmania, however, Natural Resource Management organisations have started to collect data;
• many shorebird species are in serious decline and under numerous and expanding threats;
• State Government inaction is a serious impediment to improving the 'state' of Tasmania's Wetlands; and
  
• there needs to be systematic and strategic planning for Wetland conservation in Tasmania.