The Ramsar Bulletin Board, 5 November 1998
One more National Report this evening, once again in Asia: Bangladesh. [5/11/98]
United Kingdom names two new sites on south coast. "Dorset Heathlands" and "Solent and Southampton Water" have been added to UK's list of 118 Ramsar sites, with eight more already announced and awaiting completion of the paperwork. Here's a brief description of the new ones. The Convention now covers some 70,429,156 hectares in 957 sites in 113 Contracting Parties. [30/10/98]
Madagascar joins the Convention, names first Resolution VI.5 Ramsar site. The Bureau is delighted to announce that as of 25 September 1998, Madagascar has become the 113th Contracting Party to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, so that the treaty will come into force for Madagascar on 25 January 1999. Two sites were named as initial Wetlands of International Importance, Complexe des lacs de Manambolomaty and Lac Tsimanampetsotsa, the latter of which is the first Ramsar site to be named under the new type added to the Ramsar Classificiation System by Resolution VI.5 (Brisbane COP6, 1996), "Subterranean karst and cave hydrological systems". Read more about them both, right here. [27/10/98]
The designation of Lake Kutubu in Papua New Guinea, announced here a few weeks ago, was actually the first subterranean karst designation.[29/10/98]
Ukraine completes designation process for 22 Ramsar sites. Ukraine set some sort of record for wholesale designations when paperwork was completed on 22 Ramsar sites, included in a decree of the Cabinet of Ministers dated 23 November 1995, covering a surface area of 716,250 hectares. Four Ramsar sites in the territory of Ukraine that were originally designated by the former Soviet Union (11 October 1976) as Kylijske Gyrlo, Karkinitski Bay, Sivash Bay, and Yagorlits & Tendrov Bays have been redesignated as six sites, with modified boundaries, and included amongst these 22 designations. There are too many new sites to describe them individually, but most of the new Wetlands of International Importance fall in the Danube Delta area in the Odeska Oblast, around the mouth of the Dnieper River (Europe's third largest), and along the shores of the Sea of Azov. Many of the sites were designated under the 1% and/or 20,000 waterbird criteria, but some cited the fish and uniqueness criteria as well. The beautiful maps included with the Ramsar Information Sheets are enough to start one thinking along the lines of a study mission in the near-term future. [16/10/98]
Biodiversity-related Conventions move towards info cooperation. A 6-7 October meeting in foggy Bonn, Germany, of technical staff from the five biodiversity-related Conventions was magno-fun for the delegates and may in the end prove helpful for you as well. The participants probed through the recently-completed WCMC study on harmonization of information management amongst the five conventions and ferreted out several good things that can be done soon and cheaply, and did them, or at least got a rolling start. The first product will be a common "Entry Page" to the Web sites of the five Convention secretariats, weblinked to a menu of analagous parts of each, and you can read more about the whole concept --right here -- if you dare. [9/10/98]
Bureau's EPA Workshop reported. The Ramsar Bureau recently hosted a 2-day workshop, 24-25 September, on Education and Public Awareness programmes for wetland conservation and wise use, with financial assistance from the Evian Project. Distressed by the disjunction between global efforts to coordinate EPA efforts and, on the other hand, the wonderful work being done all the time here and there, by government agencies and NGOs all over the world, all the time, the Bureau invited representatives of a number of energetic programmes to stare at one another across our tables and explain to one another what they're doing - and arrange to share and cooperate and liaise and get to know one another better in future. Participants included representatives of GREEN (Global Rivers Environmental Education Network), Water Watch Asia and Waterwatch Australia, the Ghana Wildlife Society, the IUCN Commission on Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, Wetlands International's Specialist Group on E/PA, the Watercourse Program/Project WET in the USA, the People and Conservation Unit of WWF International, Water Planet of Sweden. Here's a brief report on the meeting. [10/10/98]
Ramsar and RIZA visit Armenia. Like most right-thinking citizens, you've learned to yawn promptly at the bureaucracy's long and ubiquitous "trip reports". But Ramsar's trip reports are different. For example, take this report of the Bureau's recent trip to Armenia -- it's got nearly everything you could wish for: succinct background on Armenia's Ramsar history, a quick but penetrating look at both of its Ramsar sites, a synopsis of the problems yet to be faced, a capsule itinerary that will make you wish you'd been there, a lean set of recommendations and action points for follow-up, and some well-chosen scenic and people photos that will bring the whole thing to life for you, or almost. Tim Jones of the Bureau and Frank Alberts, Head of RIZA's Land Use Planning Division, made the trip, 3-11 September of this year, and this is the result. [29/9/98]
Wetlands Conference set for Russian Federation. An important conference on "A Strategy for wetland conservation in the Russian Federation" is scheduled for 24-26 February 1999 in Moscow, Russia. Organized by the State Committee of the Russian Federation on Environmental Protection and the Wetlands International - Russia Programme, the conference is intended to bring together representatives from key government agencies, NGOs, scientific institutions and other stakeholders to review the current state of wetland conservation in Russia, and to develop A National Strategy and Action Plan for Wetland Conservation in the Russian Federation. Here's the announcement. [27/9/98]
