Recommendation 5.14: Collaboration for Mediterranean Wetlands

5th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties
Kushiro, Japan
9-16 June 1993

NOTING with interest the MedWet initiative for the conservation of Mediterranean wetlands;

FURTHER NOTING that this initiative is carried out jointly by the Governments of France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, the Commission of the European Communities, the Ramsar Bureau, Fondation de la Tour du Valat, IWRB and WWF-International;

ACKNOWLEDGING that the first 3-year preparatory period of MedWet will be of benefit to all countries around the Mediterranean Basin;

TAKING INTO ACCOUNT the presentation on MedWet made in Workshop D of the present meeting, as well as the very positive meeting on Mediterranean collaboration within the MedWet context held in Kushiro on 14 June 1993, with participants from 13 Mediterranean countries: Albania, Algeria, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Italy, Jordan, Slovenia, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey, from the Commission of the European Communities, from the Ramsar Bureau and from ADAME, IWRB and WWF;

RECALLING Recommendation REC. C.4.5 of the Fourth Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties concerning international collaboration;

THE CONFERENCE OF THE CONTRACTING PARTIES

WELCOMES this regional collaboration activity, and considers it to be a very promising approach to wetland conservation at an international level;

URGES the initial ten MedWet partners to make the utmost efforts for present MedWet activities to include all Mediterranean countries;

ENCOURAGES other Mediterranean Contracting Parties to work closely with the present MedWet partners to achieve MedWet's aims and, in particular, to arrest and reverse the degradation and loss of wetlands around the Basin and ensure their wise use; and

REQUESTS the MedWet partners to present a full report on progress of the MedWet initiative at the Sixth Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties in 1996.