30th Meeting of the Ramsar Standing Committee -- Photos -- Cameos

Memorable Portraits of the Participants Caught Unawares

The Swiss delegation learns that its car is being towed, out in the parking lot

Uganda and the Islamic Republic of Iran exchanging glances

Japan in conference; Spain in a pensive and meditative mood

Ghana (Yaw Ofori-Frimpong) and Japan (Mayumi Suzuki) intervening

Iran smiling --
Javad Amin Mansour, Ms Yasaman Rajabkhah, Masoud Bagherzadeh Karimi

Armenia (Karen Jenderedjian) and Morocco (Mohammed Haffane)

The Deputy Secretary General preparing to wax eloquent. Any moment now.

Milton Camacho Bonilla checking the bus schedule	Peter Bridgewater doing Cat's Cradle without the string

Dr Finlayson explaining Australia, with not much success; Nassima explaining Algeria, with better luck

Japan's delegation

Doug Taylor (Wetlands International) and Peter Bridgewater (Ramsar) reaching agreement on a number of conservation issues

Left: Eva Pizano Cejka (Mexico) and Andrea Repetti (Argentina); Right: Navu Kwapena (Papua New Guinea)

Spyros checking the e-mail to see if the kids have had any birthdays recently

Ramsar "Senior Advisors" (left); USA - Canada transboundary discussions (right)

Nassima and friend

Nicaragua and Bahamas joining Ramsar in a ceremonial occasion

A fruitful discussion you can be glad you missed

Andreas Wurzer (WWF) and Günter Liebel (Austria) straighten matters out; Annette Keller (Ramsar) and Mohammed Haffane (Morocco).

The Chairs of the STRP and the Standing Committee planning the agenda for tomorrow's plenary sessions

Sebastià Semene (Ramsar), Jan Kadlecik (Slovak Republic), Libuse Vlasakova (Czech Republic)

(Left) Günter Liebel and Gerhard Sigmund, the Austrian delegation; (Right) Denis Landenbergue (WWF Living Waters) and Wendy Strahm (IUCN Species Survival), extremely good friends

The delegate from the Government of Australia
The Chair of the Scientific and Technical Review Panel
The President of Wetlands International

(Left) Tobias Salathé, wondering why; (right) Jean-Yves Pirot, explaining why

Grinning contest. Estelle Gironnet, Spyros Kouvelis, Nassima Aghanim contending. No winner - it's a draw.

Adriána Klindová and Gerhard Sigmund (Slovak Republic and Austria respectively); Wolfgang Pelikan (Austria) wielding an hors-d'oeuvre

The Secretary General refusing an unwelcome FedEx parcel in the middle of the gala festivities