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08/01/2009

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Reporting on a survey of Canada's 37 Ramsar Site managers (18/12/08)

Dear Everyone:

You may well remember a message sent out on the list in early 2007 that presented the findings of a study carried out in the USA on the importance of Ramsar Sites from a site manager’s point of view. Following this, a similar study was carried out in Canada and the report on this was presented at a side event at COP10 in November of this year. The report Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar Sites) in Canada discusses the results of a survey from Canada’s 37 Ramsar site managers and is now available here http://www.ramsar.org/wurc/wurc_canada_survey_2007.pdf.

Roy Gardner, Professor of Law at Stetson University College of Law, was instrumental in the development of the US survey with the US national Ramsar Committee and was moderator of the COP side event on the Canadian report. In his recent message to the Ramsar Forum on the Canadian survey, he notesI very much recommend your perusing this interesting document.  Among the key findings: 

    • Managers of 25 (67.6%) of the Ramsar sites think that the designation helps to maintain the ecological character of the site.
    • The two most valuable benefits of site designation are “protection of the site and surrounding area” and “public awareness of the wetland.

But there is much more, including a comparative analysis of the findings from the survey of U.S. Ramsar sites.  The report on U.S. sites, published in the Environmental Law Reporter, is available at http://www.ramsar.org/wurc/wurc_gardner_elr2007.pdf.

Several people have expressed interest in conducting similar surveys in their own countries.  Please keep us informed about your progress and let us know if we may be of any assistance.

Roy Gardner is closely involved with the work of the Convention through the US National Ramsar Committee and his membership of the Convention’s Scientific and Technical Review Panel. You can contact him here GARDNER@law.stetson.edu.

With best wishes, Sandra Hails, Ramsar Secretariat

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Sandra Hails, CEPA Programme Officer
Ramsar Convention Secretariat
Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 999 0176; Fax: +41 22 999 0169
E-mail: hails@ramsar.org
Web Site: http://ramsar.org
CEPA mini-Web site: http://ramsar.org/outreach_index.htm

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Number of » Contracting Parties: 167 Sites designated for the
» List of Wetlands of
International Importance
2,122 Total surface area of designated sites (hectares): 205,366,160

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