Ramsar in Österreich

The Lebensministerium of Austria and the provincial environmental authorities have produced a fine little 40-page brochure on Ramsar Sites in that beautiful country, both the eleven previous sites designated over the years since Austria joined the Convention in 1983 and the five most recent peatland and karst sites designated for the Ramsar List on World Wetlands Day 2004. Edited by Michaela Bodner, Wolfgang Pelikan, Gerhard Sigmund, Gert Michael Steiner and their colleagues, the leaflet discusses Austria's Ramsar and wetland conservation progress in general and then devotes a page-spread to each of the Ramsar Sites, mostly in the German language, naturally, but with a cameo overview in English for each of them. A fold-out map of Ramsar Sites comes at the end, and there's a contacts list showing Austrian addresses for government agencies, BirdLife, WWF Austria, Distelverein, Ramsar OEG Schrems, and other national and local points of wetland interest. The Ramsar Secretariat has been blessed with about 50 copies of this booklet and we'd be pleased to send you one free of charge if you'd like to have it and will promise to show it to your friends as well. Just write to Valerie Higgins (higgins@ramsar.org) and give her your postal address.