Photos from the 7th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties -- The crazy parties

"People and Wetlands: The Vital Link"
7^th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties
Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971)
San José, Costa Rica, 10-18 May 1999

Social life at the Ramsar COP (such as it was)

The post-COP party for staff

    The Linguists' Table: Danièle Devitre, Juan Carlos Valdovinos (making a rude gesture), Annette Keller Pavlic, and Eltima Morales, the logistics organizer on the Costa Rica side

The party's host Delmar Blasco (left), then Sandra Hails, the rapporteur, evidently in her own world, and Bill Phillips gazing doubtfully at Ron Millette, head of MKI Travel

Louise Lakos (right), chair of the Standing Committee, making the rounds in search of leftovers

Musonda Mumba, Valerie Higgins, and Anett Zellei of the Bureau

Maryse Mahy, former Ramsar intern, the Documentation Assistant for the COP

Two well-known Regional Coordinators, T. Jones and R. D'Cruz, using up valuable party time to discuss their Regional Overview PowerPoints.

Some of the interpreters

Marta Prats (right), Spanish translator, whooping it up with her Costa Rican helpers

Ricardo Pochtar and Montserrat Riera forcing their Costa Rican colleague to write down all the recipes for the strange hors d'oeuvres

The Daft Resolution

Past and present Ramsar Interns read out their post-COP Resolution 10.000,001 (Rev. 99,999,999) on "Interns and the Convention on Wetlands"

Parastu Mirabzadeh, Raquel Siguënza, Carmen Padilla Velasco, Musonda Mumba, Maryse Mahy, Anett Zellei

The After-Party Party

(l-r.) Anett Zellei, Dwight Peck, Annette Keller, Montse Riera, Juan Carlos Valdovinos

Montserrat Riera, Juan Carlos Valdovinos

Rebecca D'Cruz

Bill Phillips (the host, fading fast), Maryse Mahy, Anett Zellei

-- photos by Dwight Peck and Tim Jones