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Report on the 2nd Wetland Forum in Xixi National Wetland Park, China (31/10/06)

Good afternoon everyone:

Thanks to the support of the State Forestry Administration of China (China's Ramsar Administrative Authority), I was able to attend the 2nd Wetland Forum held in Hangzhou, China, from 20-22 October. The focus was on wetland parks, their creation, utilisation and management, and it was an excellent opportunity to meet and exchange information and ideas with many people in the Asian region (and a number from other regions) involved with wetland parks and wetland education centres. I was fortunate to be able to make a presentation at the opening ceremony on Ramsar’s CEPA programme and the role it sees for wetland centres and wetland parks.

I attended the meeting with Lei Guangchun, Ramsar’s Senior Advisor for Asia, and we have posted a report on the meeting along with some pictures from a visit by participants to Xixi, China’s first National Wetland Park, situated just outside Hangzhou city. The report is available here: http://www.ramsar.org/mtg/mtg_china_cepa_centres.htm.

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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