Call for comments on Draft Code of Conduct on mangroves

(posted to the Ramsar Forum, 17 August 2003)

Workshop on Biodiversity Conservation and Management of Mangrove Ecosystems: September 2003

From: Alfredo Quarto [mangroveap@olympus.net]

Dear Friends at Ramsar,

I am writing in hopes that you will wish to comment on the draft Code of Conduct for Mangrove Ecosystems - we have placed this 1.7megabyte PDF file on the Ramsar Web server for your download, at http://ramsar.org/mangrove_draftcode1.pdf [removed following the meeting]. The Mangrove Action Project has been invited to attend the workshop in Washington, D.C., to discuss this draft plan on September 16th-17th, but I hope to have other inputs to this process, so that you also will have the chance to have a voice in this important workshop if you are not yourselves attending. We need to ensure that more NGOs and academics with strong concerns on these matters are involved in these kinds of decision-making efforts. This will better ensure that such documents when finalized may reflect a broader range of viewpoints from among a more diverse set of stakeholders.

And, somehow, we must ensure that the coastal local and indigenous communities can have a voice in this process as well. This is another reason that I think your help in reviewing and commenting on this draft Code of Conduct is vital, because many of you have relevant links to those same coastal peoples whose views and local needs should be incorporated within such a Code.

I hope to hear from you soon on this. Again, I would like to ensure that those meeting in Washington hear from more of us than will have this chance to participate in person. Also, please let me know if you also will be attending this workshop, or would wish to attend, and we can strategize on a unified approach to those issues we wish to raise. Your comments can also be sent directly to Ron Zweig of the World Bank, rzweig@worldbank.org, or to both of us, as you wish.

Ciao,
Alfredo Quarto,
Mangrove Action Project
(mangroveap@olympus.net)

Available prior to the September workshop at http://ramsar.org/mangrove_draftcode1.pdf: [since removed]

World Bank, ISME, cenTER Aarhus (2003). Draft Code of Conduct for the Sustainable Management of Mangrove Ecosystems.

Prepared by:
Professor Donald J. Macintosh
Centre for Tropical Ecosystems Research (cenTER Aarhus)
E-mail: don.macintosh@biology.au.dk
and
Dr. Elizabeth C. Ashton
Centre for Tropical Ecosystems Research (cenTER Aarhus)
E-mail: e.c.ashton@stir.ac.uk

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