A collection of travel news about Ramsar Secretariat staff, in reverse chronological order, drawn from the Who's Where? feature of the Ramsar Bulletin Board.

For more old Ramsar Secretariat travel news, see also 'Who Was Where', 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

Alexia Dufour, Regional Affairs Officer is attending the 4th Standing Committee meeting of the MEA IKM initiative in Montreux from 4-6 June. [06/06/2013]

Maria Rivera, Senior Regional Advisor for the Americas and Sara Casallas, Assistant for the Americas are in Paramaribo, Suriname from 20-24 May to attend the meeting of the Caribbean regional initiative lead by Jamaica and Cuba. From 25 to 29 May they will be in Guyana, a non-Contracting Party to the Convention to make an introduction about the Ramsar Convention. [21/05/13]

Lew Young, Senior Regional Advisor for Asia-Oceania will be attending the 25th Session of the International Co-ordinating Council (ICC) of the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme in Paris, from 27 to 30 May 2013. He will be looking for possible synergies between the Ramsar Convention and the MAB programme. [27/05/2013]

Tobias Salathé, Senior Regional Advisor for Europe will be at the Unesco World Heritage Centre, Paris for the planning meeting of the Ramsar Culture Network steering group (to follow-up on DOC. SC46-10) on 13 May. He will then participate in the inaugural meeting of the new Finnish Ramsar Committee in Oulu, Finland, from 20-22 May. [08/05/13]

Sandra Hails, CEPA Programme Officer, is attending a workshop at the Park of Birds, Kaluga Region, Russia from 14-15 May to establish a network of educational wetland centres in European Russia and develop a CEPA (Communication, Education, Participation and Awareness) plan for the network. [14/05/13]

SG Anada Tiega is in Oman and UAE to enhance involvement of Arab countries in Ramsar and wetland conservation & wise use from 25 April to 3 May. He will then be in the Republic of Korea to attend the National Wetland Week. He will also discuss the concept of city accreditation to set the ground for further discussions. On 12 May, he will travel to Egypt to provide input on wetland issues at Senghor University. On this occasion, an MOU will be signed. He will be back on 15 May with a stopover in Paris to meet with the organizers of the PlanetWorkshops. Back in the office on 17 May. [29/04/13]

Paul Ouedraogo, Senior Regional Advisor for Africa is in Burkina Faso from 27 April to 14 May 2013 to train Ramsar Sites Managers (training of trainers: 15 Sites Managers), and assist the Government to develop the Management Plan of Ramsar Site Lake Dem (Site N°1882). He will also facilitate a one-day workshop with Members of Parliament and Mayors on Wetlands Issues and help selection of new Ramsar Sites. [29/04/13]

Lew Young, Senior Regional Advisor for Asia-Oceania, is in South Korea from 17 to 25 April to discuss the designation of future Ramsar Sites and to attend a meeting of Wetland Link International – Asia in Suncheon Bay. He will then be travelling to Oman and the United Arab Emirates with Anada Tiega (Ramsar Secretary-General) and Nessrine Zahlawi (Assistant Advisor for Asia-Oceania) from 27 April to 2 May. In Oman, the delegation will be discussing the accession of the country to the Convention and in the UAE, they will be meeting with the relevant authorities responsible for wetland conservation and to visit a number of Ramsar Sites. [15/04/13]

Tobias Salathé, Senior Regional Advisor for Europe, is taking part in the “30 years of Ramsar in Austria” ceremony at Güssing and a visit of the new Ramsar-Centre (to formally open on 26 May) in the Ramsar city of Purbach. It was also the occasion to hand over the diploma on Austria’s 21st Ramsar Site (Güssing fishponds). On 20 April, he was in a visit at the southern shores of lake Neuchâtel RS in Switzerland. From 23-25 April, he took part in a side event on Carpathian wetlands and the board meeting of the Carpathian Wetland Initiative taking place during the conference on Carpathian Protected Areas in Tatranska Javorina, on the Slovak side of the High Tatra mountains. [27/04/13]

The team in charge of the Americas at the Ramsar Secretariat is attending the third meeting of the regional initiative for the conservation and wise use of mangroves and coral reefs in Montelimar, Nicaragua from 22 to 27 of April. [22/04/13]

Maria Rivera, Senior Regional Advisor for the Americas is in Panama from 25-27 March attending workshops with the Administrative Authority and other institutional authorities that will present the study of the current status of Panama Bay Ramsar Site and discuss mechanisms for its wise use as a follow up to the RAM conducted on the site in 2008 and national discussions for its conservation. [26/03/13]

SG Anada Tiéga is attending the Post-2015 Development Framework from 21-22 March 2013, in The Hague, The Netherlands. [22/03/13]

DSG Nick Davidson is at Stetson University College of Law from 20-23 March judging the International Environmental Law Student Moot. [20/03/13]

Lew Young, Senior Regional Advisor for Asia - Oceania will be in Manila, Philippines from 11-15 March to attend the Asian Development Bank’s Asia Water Week and to meet with the Ramsar Administrative Authority in the Philippines as well as with representatives from the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity. He will then be in Trondheim, Norway from 19 – 22 March as part of the Norwegian sponsored wetland and biodiversity bilateral project in Myanmar, to attend a meeting between both sides of the project to discuss its details and implementation. [06/03/13]

Paul Ouédraogo, Senior Regional Advisor for Africa is attending a workshop on the role of biodiversity in national drought management policies (10 March, 2013), organised by UN-CBD and UN-CCD, and the High-level Meeting on National Drought Policy (HMNDP) organised by WMO in Geneva from 11 to 15 March. [11/03/13]

SG Anada Tiéga is in Bangkok (8-13 March) to attend part of the CITES COP16. He will then meet with the Administrative Authority and IUCN regional office. He will then be in Manila, Philippines from 14 -16 March to take part in the Asia Water Week, led by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). [07/03/13]

Tobias Salathé, Senior Regional Advisor for Europe, will participate in the 8th Pow-wow for tourism professionals on the theme “earth’s wetlands and geoparks – celebrating earth heritage, sustaining local communities” from 5 to 7 March. He will then be at EAWAG, the Swiss water research institute, to provide a short lecture on Ramsar’s work to researchers and students, and as one of the referees of a Ph.D. thesis on the subject “integrative analysis of habitats as a tool for sustainable ecosystem management” focusing on the Amazon piedmont, European river islands and islands-like relicts in the Mato Grosso, on 14 and 15 March. [04/03/13]

SG Anada Tiéga is in Nairobi to attend the 27th Session of UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum among other meetings from 17 to 26 February. He will then take part in the ‘water for nature, nature for water’ segment of the Post-2015 consultations, a meeting convened by IUCN from 27 to 28 February. [20/02/13]

Tobias Salathé, Senior Regional Advisor for Europe, is at the biennial meeting of the Arctic Council working group on Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF), in Yakutsk, Republic of Sakha, Russian Federation from 10-15 February. He will then be at UNOV, Vienna, Austria, at a preparatory meeting for the European River Prize on 22 February. [11/02/13]

Paul Ouédraogo, Senior Regional Advisor for Africa will be in Burundi and Rwanda from 30 January to 8 February 2013. In Burundi, he will be attending the World Wetlands Day celebrations and a launch of an Atlas of Burundi’s Ramsar Sites. In Rwanda, he will be meeting with the Ramsar Administrative Authority and other partners to update them on the preparations for the Forum on "Wetlands: Wise Use, Smart Plans" that will take place in Kigali, 8-12 July 2013.

Maria Rivera, Senior Regional Advisor for the Americas is attending the Western Hemisphere Migratory Species Steering Committee Meeting from 28-30 of January and will be then in Beni, Bolivia from the 1-6 February to participate in the celebration of World Wetlands Day organised by the Ministry of Environment of Bolivia. She will also visit three wetlands soon to be designated as Ramsar Sites: Matos, Blanco and Yata. [28/01/13]

Lew Young, Senior Regional Advisor for Asia – Oceania will be travelling to Thailand (23 to 26 January) and Myanmar (27 to 31 January) to attend various meetings before going onto Sri Lanka to celebrate World Wetland Day with the Ramsar Administrative Authority and then visiting a number of the Ramsar Sites in the country. [28/01/13]

Ako Charlotte Eyong, Assistant Advisor for Africa is in Guinea-Bissau visiting the Ramsar Small Grant Funded project “Protection and valorisation of wetlands of the Cufada Lagoon Ramsar Site in Guinea-Bissau” and shall join in the World Wetlands Day celebrations in Guinea-Bissau from 27 January to 4 February 2013. [25/01/13]

SG Anada Tiéga is in Bonn, Germany, from 19 to 26 January 2013 to represent the Ramsar Secretariat in the First meeting of the Plenary of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES-1). [21/01/2013]

Deputy Secretary General Nick Davidson is in Montreal 14-18 January working with the CBD Secretariat to follow-up joint actions arising from decisions taken by Ramsar and CBD COP11s. [14/01/13]