Ramsar Bulletin Board, 2 March 1997
Headline Story: Germany earmarks funds for the SGF. Dr Angela Merkel, Germany's Minister for Environment, Nature Protection, and Reactor Safety, informed the Bureau on 28 February of her ministry's grant of DM 60,000 for use by the Ramsar Small Grants Fund (SGF). She noted that this was prompted particularly by the Australian Environment Minister Sen Robert Hill's 1996 request that governments respond to his country's challenge to pledge financial support to the implementation of the Strategic Plan 1997-2002. This donation, coming so soon after the extraordinary contributions of Sweden and Switzerland, places the SGF in an excellent position as we near the 31 March deadline for the submission of project proposals. [2 March 1997]
Who's Where? The Secretary General, Delmar Blasco, has been in Costa Rica for a week of consultations on the progress of preparations for the 7th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties, and is now in Washington, D.C. for discussions chiefly with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, 3-4 March. Rebecca D'Cruz, the Bureau's Regional Coordinator for Asia, will be attending the "International Workshop on Wetland and Waterbird Conservation in North East Asia", to be held in Beidaihe, China, 2-9 March, where she will present the Strategic Plan, with a focus on issues and needs of relevance to the Northeast Asian region. The Regional Coordinator for Europe, Tim Jones, will be at Wetlands International in Wageningen, 5-7 March, for meetings with the Dutch NGO National Ramsar Committee, discussions on the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy, and consultations on filling data gaps on European sites in the Ramsar Database. [24/2/97]
New on the Site: Full texts of the Recommendations of the 2nd COP, Groningen, 1984, and the Resolutions of the Regina COP, 1987; Update on World Wetland Day activities; Description of Botswana's first Ramsar site, the Okavango Delta System, and a replica of UNESCO's letter on Botswana's accession; The text of Ramsar's Memo of Understanding with the Convention on Migratory Species. [24/2/97]
Coming soon: Recommendations of the 3rd COP in Regina, 1987; some of them have historical value, a few are still operative.
Czech Republic puts Litovelské Pomoraví on the Montreux Record. The Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic has placed Litovelské Pomoraví, a 5,122 hectare site that was designated for the Ramsar List in November 1993, on the Montreux Record of Ramsar sites where changes in ecological character have occurred, are occurring, or are likely to occur as a result of technological development, pollution, or other human interference. Sites on the Montreux Record require positive national and international conservation attention and receive priority in applications of the Management Guidance Procedure, if requested, and assistance from other bodies. Here is the Ministry's notification and Montreux Record Questionnaire outlining the situation at the site. [28/2/97]
Position vacancy at Wetlands International. Dream posting for the right candidate! International Director, based at the headquarters of Wetlands International - Africa, Europe, Middle East in Wageningen, the Netherlands. Applications accepted until 31 March. The vacancy announcement is reproduced on this site. [25/2/97] [The position has since been filled.]
Spain designates its 36th Ramsar site. "Lagunas de Laguardia (Alava): Carralogroño, Carravalseca, Prao de la Paul" -- that's the 50-hectare name for this 42.4 hectare Ramsar site in the País Vasco in the northeast of Spain, three small lakes actually, designated as of 9 December 1996 with the paperwork just completed earlier today, and with Information Sheets for two more Ramsar sites on the way. This designation brings Spain's total sites to 36 covering 157,899 hectares. [25/2/97]
The Convention reaches the 100 milestone. UNESCO has informed the Bureau that, effective 7 February, the Bahamas and Georgia have joined the Ramsar Convention and the treaty will go into effect for both of them on 7 June 1997. Which of them is actually the
may be a point of some debate, but by the Laws of Alphabetism, Georgia gets the nod. According to our telephone conversation with John Donaldson of UNESCO, Bahama ratified the Convention, the Paris Protocol, and the Regina Amendments and named Inagua National Park on Great Inagua Island as its first Ramsar site. Georgia designated two sites, Central Kolkheti (several wetlands in the area) and the Wetlands of Ispani II marshes. We'll report further when we receive the paperwork from UNESCO. [14/2/97]
Ramsar signs MoU with the CMS. Arnulf Müller-Helmbrecht, Coordinator of UNEP's Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS, or the Bonn Convention), today joined our Secretary General, Delmar Blasco, in signing a Memorandum of Understanding between his secretariat and the Bureau of the Ramsar Convention. The MoU outlines a number of "areas of cooperation", including joint promotion; institutional cooperation; joint conservation action; data collection, storage and analysis; and new agreements on migratory species. Here's the text of the MoU. [18/2/97]
African Desk Officers meeting held today. Earlier today, 18 February, African desk officers from a number of organizations and convention secretariats convened at the Bureau in Gland to discuss further coordination of their efforts at wetland conservation and wise use in Africa. Organized by Tom Kabii of the Ramsar Bureau and chaired by Dr Seydina Sylla of Senegal, Africa’s Regional Representative on the Ramsar Standing Committee, the meeting sought "to establish modalities for stronger collaboration" and tried to locate overlaps and gaps in programme coverage. Participating groups included the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement secretariat, the UNEP/CMS Bonn Convention secretariat, the secretariat of the Convention to Combat Desertification; the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries of the Netherlands and the Ministry of Environment and Nature Protection of Senegal; BirdLife International, WWF International, IUCN-The World Conservation Union, Wetlands International, and of course the Ramsar secretariat. A fuller report on the meeting will be posted here in a while. [18/2/97]
New Ramsar Interns chosen. The first round of two Ramsar interns have been chosen and will take up their tools in Gland at the first of May 1997. They are Ms Maryse Mahy of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, for a year's hitch, and Ms Jocelyn Bowden of Environment Australia in Canberra for six months. Ms Mahy is completing her Master of Environmental Studies degree from Dalhousie University, with a thesis on the "Feasibility of Co-Managing a Wetland of International Importance: the Case of the Nariva Swamp, Trinidad," and has done field study at the Danau Sentarum Wildlife Refuge in Indonesia; fluent in French and English, she will be very helpful in the Bureau's work. Ms Bowden will be on leave from the Wetlands, Waterways and Waterbirds Unit of the Environment Australia Biodiversity Group (formerly the Australian Nature Conservation Agency) and is well known to Ramsar staff and Brisbane COP delegates for her friendly and helpful service with the organizing team in Brisbane last March. The Bureau's Internship Programme will eventually support four posts and will be welcoming applications on a continuous basis; refer to the Call for Applications for further information. [13/2/97]
"Impacts of Climate Change to Inland Wetlands: a Canadian Perspective". That’s the title of a symposium slated for 17-19 April at the Oak Hammock Marsh Conservation Centre in Manitoba, Canada, near Winnipeg. "Wetlands are a major part of every ecozone in Canada. Changes in water balances caused by climate change or variability will change regional hydrology. This in turn will affect global biogeochemical cycles, ecology, biodiversity, including waterfowl issues, as well as the economic conditions of many Canadians. This symposium is an attempt to identify how Canada’s wetlands could be at risk, and what possible changes can be expected of the ecological and socio-economic landscape with a changing climate" (from the programme). Papers will be peer-reviewed and published in the journal Climatic Change. Information from http://www.fes.uwaterloo.ca/Research/Wetlands/wetlands.html. [13/2/97]
Meeting on CBD Implementation Targets. A meeting of the Global Biodiversity Forum, entitled "Dialogue on Biodiversity Indicators and Implementation Targets," will be held 3-4 April in the UN headquarters in New York. Organized by IUCN, UNEP, World Resources Institute, the Government of Sweden, BIONET the Biodiversity Action Network, the Center for International Environmental Law, WWF International, and the Worldwatch Institute, the gathering will examine a wide range of options for biodiversity indicators and Convention on Biological Diversity implementation targets and explore possible contributions for national reports of progress on CBD implementation required of all CBD Parties. Information from Sheldon Cohen, BIONET (bionet@igc.apc.org) or John Waugh, IUCN-USA (jwaugh@iucnus.org). [13/2/97]
Society of Wetland Scientists chooses International Fellow Award. SWS has chosen Dr Brij Gopal of Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi for its International Fellow Award, citing his lifetime work in wetland science and management, especially in the international development of wetland science. The award will be conveyed at the SWS annual meeting in Bozeman, Montana, USA, 1-6 June 1997. [13/2/97]
Project Proposal on Involving Indigenous People. In Recommendation 6.3 of the Brisbane COP, the Contracting Parties requested four related NGOs to develop a project for providing guidance on involving local and indigenous people in the management of Ramsar wetlands. The IUCN Social Policy Group, the WWF Wetlands Programme, the Kushiro International Wetlands Centre, and the Caddo Lake Institute have now completed their proposal and requested the Ramsar Bureau's cooperation in locating funding for its implementation. At the Bureau's suggestion, the Government of the United Kingdom took the opportunity of its World Wetlands Day commemoration, 2 February 1997, to announce its pledge of £10,000 in support of this project, and the Bureau solicits further contributions, and suggestions about potential contributions, from Contracting Parties and NGOs worldwide. The proposal's bottom line comes to 261,000 Swiss francs, and that would buy polished written guidelines and case studies suitable for use in the field as well as a Technical Session on the subject at the 7th COP in Costa Rica. Hardcopy versions of the proposal are available upon request, and the text is reproduced here on this web site. [11/2/97]
Encouraging fact of the month. The longest documented journey of any bird in the whole world. The furthest-ever recovery of a ringed bird has just been recorded in an Australian Ramsar site, Gippsland Lakes. An Arctic Tern ringed as a chick in Finland on 30 June 1996 was recovered on 24 January 1997 at Gippsland -- a distance of 26,000 kilometres, if it flew directly. (It probably didn't -- according to Mike Smart, they normally winter in South Africa, and it no doubt got diverted round the Cape of Good Hope, probably having got caught up in severe southern gales.) Experts calculate that its average speed may have neared 200 kilometres a day. The previous record was from the Russian White Sea to Fremantle (1955-56), 22,500 kilometres, also by an Arctic Tern. This will doubtless give other Arctic Terns a mark to shoot for, and inspire many Tern youth to go for the gold. [11/2/97]
The 98th Contracting Party -- UKRAINE. UNESCO has advised the Bureau that Ukraine has formalized its situation vis-a-vis the Convention by depositing its declaration of succession to the former Soviet Union, and has thus become the 98th Contracting Party to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, retroactive to the date of its independence -- which, in the absence of better guidance, we reckon as the date of the referendum of 1 December 1991. The four sites originally designated by the former Soviet Union which lie within the territories of Ukraine allow that nation to become a Contracting Party with immediate effect. Bureau staff have been advised that Ukraine hopes to be able to designate as many as 22 more sites in the near future. [10/2/97]
Australia's new Wetlands Policy. The Commonwealth Government of Australia took the occasion of World Wetlands Day, 2 February, the first day of Australia's Wetlands Week, to announce the launching of the Wetlands Policy of the Commonwealth Government of Australia. The accompanying press release from the office of Senator Robert Hill, Minister for the Environment, is available here, and more details will follow soon. [9/2/97]
Brisbane Proceedings -- Finally!! Suitably, it's nine months later. Most of the people who were present have forgotten that they were present. But, to remind them, the Proceedings of the 6th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties, Brisbane, Australia, March 1996, are finally ready in complete sets. Planned for publication in 12 separate brochures ultimately to be collected in special ringbinders, the first five volumes were distributed in July 1996. The remaining seven volumes have now been published, and complete sets are presently being posted to the embassies and administrative authorities of the Contracting Parties, the Observer States, and the principal NGOs present at the meeting. Follow this link for a fuller description of availability. [29/1/97]
Special Announcement: Small Grants Fund deadline approaching. The deadline for submitting project proposals for the Small Grants Fund for 1997 is coming up fast -- 31 March 1997. The Operational Guidelines for administration of the fund and submission of proposals, as well as replicas of the Request for Funding forms, are available on this web site in English, French, and Spanish under the Key Documents page. Assistance in the preparation of project proposals can be provided or organized by the Bureau's Regional Coordinators for the appropriate geographical regions, so don't hesitate to inquire. [21/1/97]
