The Ramsar Bulletin Board, 6 July 1998

Headline Story:Mongolia names three new sites. Despite the fact that Mongolia joined the Convention only a few months ago, the Ministry of Nature and the Environment has already submitted three additional nominations to the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance, bringing the total number of Ramsar sites in Mongolia to four (264,220 hectares) and the number of Ramsar sites in all the 110 Contracting Parties to 927 (68,203,343 ha). Here's a brief description of the new designations. [6/7/98]

Another Headline Story:Legal frameworks workshop. On 3-4 July the Bureau hosted a gathering of experts to help develop Guidelines for the review of law and institutions relevant to wetlands. This project, which will report its findings at COP7 next May, is being undertaken by the IUCN Environmental Law Centre on behalf of the Ramsar Convention. Legislative and institutional review is a key part of the Ramsar Wise Use Guidelines, which was further promoted in the Strategic Plan. At the workshop there were experts in wetland law, policy, and Ramsar implementation from Australia, Cameroon, Canada, Costa Rica, Denmark, India, Peru, Slovenia, Uganda, and the UK, the USA. The exchange of ideas and experiences, many of which are being documented as case studies for the project, was very dynamic and should make for a detailed consideration of these issues next May. [6/7/98]

Another Headline Story:International Course on Wetland Management, 1999. The brochure and application form for the 6th 'International Course on Wetland Management', held annually at the Wetland Advisory and Training Centre in Lelystad, The Netherlands, is now available. The course, which has gained a high international reputation during its first five years, will run from 2 September to 13 October 1999. There are 20 places, open to individuals from throughout the world who meet the following criteria:

• at least three years of experience in wetland management or environment conservation (if the latter, must plan to specialize in wetlands in future);
• competence in English;
• B.Sc. (or similar) academic degree, or equivalent work experience.

Copies of the brochure and application form may be obtained from: Wetland Advisory & Training Centre Secretariat of the International Course on Wetland Management PO Box 17 8200 AA Lelystad (fax: +31-320-29.83.39, e-mail: watc@riza.rws.minvenw.nl ). The closing date for applications is 1 February 1999.

Important Deadline Approaching.  The Wetland Conservation Award.  The Ramsar Conservation Award was established in order to recognize and honor the contributions of individuals, organizations, and governments around the world in promoting the conservation and wise use of wetlands.   In October 1998 the Standing Committee will select three winners from among the nominees, and the awards, each accompanied by US$ 10,000 courtesy of the Danone Group as part of the Evian Project, will be conferred at COP7 in Costa Rica in May 1999.  The deadline for nominations is 31 July 1998, so if you have a special person or group in mind for one of these awards, now is the time to get focused.  Replicas of the Award nomination forms are available here in English, French, and Spanish, and you can get a nice paper brochure from the Bureau by sending a note to Valerie Higgins (higgins@ramsar.org) [9/6/98]

Who's Where:

Anada Tiéga, Regional Coordinator for Africa; Delmar Blasco, Secretary General; Ahoua Traore, Intern for Africa, and Finance Officer Paulette Kennedy are in Kampala, Uganda,  for the Ramsar Pan-African Regional Meeting, 6-10 July 1998. [6/7/98]

New on the Site: Updated lists of Ramsar sites and Contracting Parties; Results of the Riga meeting; a new section in the Photo Gallery: pix of all the Bureau staff, youpee!; from the Ramsar Forum -- conservation alert in Mexico, search for guidelines [25/6/98]

‘Graphical Profiles’ from the Ramsar Database.Scott Frazier, the Ramsar/Wetland Sites Officer at Wetlands International - Africa, Europe, and Middle East, has announced the inauguration of a new Web-based service of the Ramsar Database: a "graphical profiles" section which includes maps, pie charts, all kinds of things – exactly the sort of colorful graphics he has been providing for Ramsar meetings for quite a while now. The site has already got the products that Scott and Edith Hubert produced for the Ramsar Pan-European meeting earlier this month, and the output created for the Pan-American and Pan-African meetings will be up soon. View their handiwork on the Wetlands International Web site (http://www.wetlands.org) in the Ramsar Database section, and read Scott’s description of the project posted recently on the Ramsar Forum. [30/6/98]

The 2d edition of the guide 'Financial instruments for the Natura 2000 Network and nature conservation' has just been published by the TERRA environmental policy center in Madrid. The publication was funded by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management & Fisheries, and DGXI of the European Commission. It will be useful for anyone wishing to gain a working knowledge of European Union financial mechanisms in favour of nature conservation.  Available in English and Spanish, the guide provides a concise and readable introduction to the LIFE instrument, to the Structural Funds, the Cohesion Fund and the CAP accompanying measures, together with examples of field implementation. The guide is in approximately A5 format and runs to 157 pages, ISBN: 84-923776-1-5. For further information, contact: terra@quercus.es [1/7/98].

Announcement: Ramsar.org.  The Bureau has streamlined this Web site's URL -- you can now reach us just by dialing up "ramsar.org" (or www.ramsar.org, if you prefer; both will work).   This ought to be much, much easier to remember. Our old rather cumbersome address, http://iucn.org/themes/ramsar, will continue to work forever or until the lights go out at last.

Gorillas born in the Congo. The Environmental News Network reported on 17 June that the International Gorilla Conservation Program (a coalition of the African Wildlife Foundation, Fauna and Flora International, and WWF) has developed a ranger-based monitoring programme in Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda, despite the civil unrest in the region. In Congo, with support from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and WWF-Netherlands, IGCP has implemented an emergency program for the conservation and rehabilitation of the southern sector of the Virunga National Park, a Ramsar and World Heritage site, where the endangered mountain gorilla is found. The births of 10 gorillas have recently been documented. See http://www.enn.com/enn-news-archive/1998/06/061798/gorilla.asp.

Ramsar internship secondment from the US EPA. The Bureau is delighted to announce that we will be joined in early August 1998, for a three month period, by Matthew K. Little of the United States. Matthew has a recent BA in Environmental Biology from Dartmouth College and Master of Public Administration degree from Syracuse University in New York State. He will be taking up a special internship position in the Ramsar Bureau on secondment from his post as Environmental Protection Specialist in the Wetlands Division of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is covering the costs of his sojourn here in the secretariat. It is presently envisaged that he will be assisting in filling out Ramsar’s Web-based Wise Use Resource Centre, which was launched on World Wetlands Day but has so far been growing only very slowly. [25/6/98]

Austria-Kenya twinning project.  The Austrian National Ramsar Committee meeting this week saw progress in organizing the White Stork Twinning Programme with Kenya, and here is a brief report on it. [24/6/98]

AEWA Newsletter now available.  The Bureau has received English and French copies of the fourth newsletter of the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement, which includes, along with news about the Agreement and related activities, a nice article about the Ramsar Small Grants Fund on page 6.  Copies can be had from the AEWA Interim Secretariat in the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries in The Hague (care of Bert Lenten, the Interim Secretary, b.lenten@n.agro.nl) or, while our supply lasts, from the Ramsar Bureau. [25/6/98]

Doñana Conference completed. The International Conference "Humedales de importancia para las aves acuáticas: Doñana – una necesidad de actuación" (Wetlands of Importance as Waterfowl Habitat: Doñana, a need to act) was held in Madrid 25-26 June 1998.  Following keynote addresses by Delmar Blasco on the Ramsar Convention and Thymio Papayannis on the MedWet Strategy, presentations and discussions focused on preventive and corrective actions for Doñana and the protection of wetlands in Spain in general. [26/6/98]

Turkey names four new sites.  The Republic of Turkey has designated four new sites, effective 15 April 1998, and significantly expanded the boundaries of two more.  The four new sites are Akyatan Lagoon (14,700 hectares) on the Mediterranean coast not far from Adana; the Gediz Delta (14,900 ha) in the Gulf of Izmir on the Aegean coast; the Kizilirmak Delta (21,700 ha) on the Black Sea coast, and Lake Uluabat (19,900 ha), a large lake just south of the Sea of Marmara. Lake Kus (Manyas), also just south of Marmara, has been a Ramsar site since 1994, but its area has now been doubled in size to 20,400 ha, and Lake Burdur, north of Antalya and east of  Pamukkale, has been extended from 12,600 to 24,800 ha. Turkey now has 9 Wetlands of International Importance, totaling some 159,300 hectares. A series of attractive pamphlets has been published for all of Turkey's Ramsar sites by the Ministry of Environment, General Directorate of Environmental Protection, Eskisehir Yolu 8km, TR-06530 Ankara (fax +90 312 286 2271). [22/6/98]

Raquel Sigüenza de Micheo, Ramsar's first Intern for the Neotropical Region, has completed her year's tenure with the Bureau, and  will be joining a mangrove project implemented by the Instituto Nacional de Bosques (Ministerio de Agricultura, Ganadería y Alimentación, Guatemala), funded by the European Union through IUCN - The World Conservation Union.  She expects to be reachable at proy.manglares@starnet.net.gt .

Riga results now ready.  The 3rd Ramsar Pan-European Regional Meeting, held in Riga, Latvia, is history.  More than 100 participants from European Contracting Parties and international organizations wrestled with the big issues and came up with a series of  "conclusions and recommendations" on 1) Transboundary Cooperation; 2) National and Regional Wetland Policies; 3) Wetland Restoration and Rehabilitation; 4) Building financial and technical capacity for wetland conservation.   Here's a brief report, with links to the Conclusions and Recommendations in the three Ramsar languages. [16/6/98]

 "Creating a sea change".  The new joint marine policy of WWF and IUCN, Creating a Sea Change, has been published, and the text of the attractive brochure which describes it and lists its main objectives has been reprinted here on this Web site, mainly in order to bring to the attention of the Ramsar community the objectives that involve the Convention on Wetlands. The full text of the policy is available from WWF and IUCN.  [16/6/98]

IMCG Workshop coming up. The International Mire Conservation Group Workshop, "Mires of the Baltic Region", is slated for Riga, Latvia, 29 June to 7 July.  Organized by IMCG, the University of Latvia Dept. of Botany and Ecology, and the Latvian Fund for Nature, the workshop will include lectures and posters on 1) Diversity of mire vegetation and 2) Mire management and conservation value.  Richard Lindsay is the symposium chairman, and more information is available from the scientific organizer, Mara Pakalne, Dept of Botany and Ecology, Univ. Latvia, Kronvalda Blvd 4, LV-1586 Riga, Latvia, e-mail mara@lanet.lv [16/6/98].

2nd International Conference on Wetlands and Development -- brochure available.   The conference slated for Dakar, Senegal, in November is gathering steam, and a new brochure tells all, in French and English.  Read it about here. [17/6/98]

Mr Hirofumi wins Goldman Prize.  Richard Forrest, National Wildlife Foundation ( forrest@nwf.org ), reports that "in April, Mr. Yamashita Hirofumi, coordinator of the Japan Wetlands Action Network (JAWAN), was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize, the world's most prestigious environmental award--often referred to as the 'Nobel Prize for the Environment.' Mr. Yamashita was recognized for his campaign attempting to stop the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture's Isahaya Bay Reclamation Project, which in 1997 destroyed Japan's largest and most important tidal flat wetland. Due to Mr. Yamashita's efforts, the original development plan was scaled back, and the Japanese public has been educated about the importance of protection and restoration of wetlands. " [22/6/98]

Wetlands International - South Asia address change.  Dr C. L. Trisal, WISA Coordinator and Ramsar STRP alternate member reports this change of address: Wetlands International - South Asia, A-127 (2nd floor), Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024, India (tel. +91 11 4629906 and soon, +91 11 4691294).

Arctic to Tropical Peatland Symposium. At the annual meeting of the Society of Wetland Scientists, Anchorage, Alaska, USA, 8-12 June 1998, the full-day "Arctic to Tropical Peatland Symposium"  (9 June) considered, among other topics, the IUCN draft guidelines for sustainable management of tropical peatlands and the role of international conventions and other policy instruments.  Mr Delmar Blasco, Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, contributed a statement to the participants, which was conveyed to the meeting by Prof. Ed Maltby of the Royal Holloway Institute for Environmental Research, co-chair of the SWS symposium and Director of the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management. Here's the text of his statement. [9/6/98]

More to follow. Watch this space. Feedback and suggestions to: the Ramsar Convention Bureau, Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland (tel +41 22 999 0170, fax +41 22 999 0169, e-mail ). Updated regularly by Dwight Peck, Ramsar.