Asia-Pacific Wetland Managers Training Program

(posted to the Ramsar Forum, 27 June 2001)

Asia-Pacific Wetland Managers Training Program

Ramsar's Wise Use 'toolkit' put through its paces

At the 6th Ramsar COP in Brisbane, Australia, the host Government announced as part of its 25th anniversary pledge to the Convention that it would establish an Asia-Pacific Wetland Managers Training Program - and so it did!

The program has now been under way for nearly two years operating out of the Northern Territory University in Darwin and has supported training programs both in Darwin and 'on-site' in several countries of the region.

The most recent course was held from 3-10 June 2001 in Darwin and had the title "Successfully integrating wetlands into multiple land-use planning frameworks". Participants came from Bangladesh, China, India, Cambodia, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, East Timor and Fiji.

I had the pleasure to be involved and would commend the course to anyone from the Asia-Pacific region, and also to those organizations looking for worthy causes to sponsor or support. While the program has guaranteed funding for another year, beyond that its future is less clear - although it is hoped that the Australian Government will recognize the valuable role the program is playing in increasing the capacity of wetland managers and policy makers and facilitating the flow of knowledge and experiences.

From my involvement in the course I can commend the Ramsar Wise Use 'toolkit' as a teaching aid for such programs. We referred to elements of all of the nine Handbooks during the four sessions I organized and the participants were clearly pleased to have such a resource to take home and share with others in their home countries.

If you would like to know more about this program contact - Dr Michael Douglas at the Northern Territory University - his email is michael.douglas@ntu.edu.au

Best regards,

Dr Bill Phillips,
MainStream Environmental Consulting (and former Deputy Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands).

MainStream Environmental Consulting Director: Dr Bill Phillips 8 Huon Place, Lyons, ACT, 2606 Australia Telephone: + 61 (0)2 62 817470 Mobile telephone: 04 38 817470 Email: Bill.Phillips@bigpond.com

Bill Phillips, former Ramsar Deputy Secretary General, addressing wetland managers from the Asia-Pacific region, Darwin, Australia, June 2001

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