The Ramsar Bulletin Board, 3 February 2003

Headline story.World Wetlands Day 2003. The 7th annual World Wetlands Day took place officially yesterday, 2 February 2003, and if history is any guide, activities of all kinds were hosted by government agencies, non-governmental organizations, local site managers, friends-groups, and school classes in more than 70 nations around the world -- if not on the Sunday, then at some other day conveniently nearby or even spread out over a week. This year, as in the past, the Ramsar Bureau was pleased to be able to supply (thanks to funds from the Evian project of the Danone Group) a number of helpful materials to help whip the wetland visitors into hysteria and give them something to take away, including a new poster and background paper, a Ramsar sites brochure, a new video, and an inspirational message from the Secretary General -- all of which will have continuing uses long after the Great Day. Alas, because of the unhappily scheduled meeting of the Conference of the Parties in November and the looming Standing Committee meeting at the end of this month, the Bureau was not able to post all of the submitted WWD plans, press releases, agendae, etc., prior to WWD, but there is still some hope that we will be able to continue the tradition by posting your reports of what actually happened in your neighborhoods. World Wetlands Day enthusiasts, please do send us your reports (in electronic formats) of your activities, whether they were joyous clean-up days or solemn seminars, long or short reports, with or without photos, as you wish, and we'll do our best to post either brief summaries or the whole reports on this Web site, as we have done in the past. [03/02/03]

Now available.Ramsar Mission to the Ouse Washes. In October 2000, the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR), the Ramsar Administrative Authority for the United Kingdom (now the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, DEFRA), requested the listing of the Ouse Washes Ramsar site (designated 1976; 2,469 ha; 52º29'N 000º12'E) on the "Montreux Record", the Convention's list of sites requiring priority conservation attention The Ouse Washes were created in the 17th century to store and convey flood waters by a system of sluices, pumps and embankments, but have evolved considerably since then, with a number of negative impacts. A Ramsar Advisory Mission was requested, and the Ramsar Bureau's European Coordinator Tobias Salathé invited a hydrology and river basin planning expert, Dr Roel Posthoorn of the Wetlands Advisory and Training Centre (WATC) in the Dutch Institute for Inland Water Management and Waste Water Treatment (RIZA) and an expert on floodplain and wet grassland ecology, Professor Eckhart Kuijken of the Flemish Institute for Nature Conservation, to join him in the mission. Furthermore, experts of DEFRA, the UK Environment Agency, English Nature, and several non-governmental institutions took part in the mission, which (allowing for hoof-and-mouth delays) was carried out in November 2001. Here, at long last, is the final mission report, which succinctly summarizes the problems encountered and outlines potential solutions. Ramsar Advisory Mission No. 49 report. [31/01/03]

Who's where? 

Delmar Blasco, the Secretary General, is in Nairobi for the UNEP Governing Council meeting. [03/02/03]

Alain Lambert, the Senior Adviser for Environment and Development Cooperation, is in Peru, 25 January to 1 February, on a wetland project preparation mission organized by the Peruvian Environmental Fund PROFONANPE and Pro Natura Peru. From 1 to 7 February he will be in Washington, USA, finalizing the Conservation Finance Guide of the Conservation Finance Alliance, with representatives of Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, the World Bank, WWF-US, and WCS. [28/01/03]

New on the Site: Ramsar Advisory Mission 49: Ouse Washes, UK; finally, the New Guidelines for management planning for Ramsar sites and other wetlands (English version); The Ramsar Strategic Plan 2003-2008. [31/01/03]

Now available.Resolution Collectors, take heart!The English language versions of all the 7,421 (more or less) Resolutions adopted by the 8th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties have now been finalized and are available on this Web site in HTML, Word, and PDF formats -- see the Resolutions index page here. The Spanish versions have been textually finalized and many posted already, and the rest only await posting here, so a few more days may suffice. The French versions are just a wee tiny little bit behind the pace, but should be ready as well in a week or ten days. Print versions of the English and Spanish should also be coming along in a few weeks' time, with French to follow, and when all three are fully suited out and brushed down, with hair combed neatly back and collar buttoned up, a CD-ROM with all three sets of the 46 Resolutions and their annexes can be sent out into the world to make their meagre fortune -- we can hope that we'll be seeing them brightly out the door on a CD within a month or six weeks' time. Then readers can really get down to saving wetlands. [29/01/03]

Kudos.Sarah Higgins wins Animal Action Award. The Lake Naivasha Riparian Associaton of Kenya was one of the winners of the Ramsar Wetland Conservation Award in 1999, and Sarah Higgins, the LNRA secretary, was in San José to receive the Award (with LNRA president Lord Enniskillen, left). Now Sarah has received the Animal Action Award for her work at Naivasha, as follows: "None of us can be unaware of the huge contributions Mike and Sarah Higgins have made to Rhino Ark's water catchment preservation initiatives in the fencing of the Aberdare National Park and Sarah's dedication to her role in helping to conserve Lake Naivasha for future generations of both animals and humans. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) have chosen to recognise Sarah's contributions to animal welfare generally, by their award to her of the Animal Action Award for 2002. The citation states: '(the Award) is for special people who have done something outstanding for animals ... you deserve the Award because of your devotion to animal welfare ranging from your fundraising activities, wildlife rescue missions, educational efforts in Naivasha, and for the role played in a variety of wildlife associations.'" [29/01/03]

Vacancy announcement.BirdLife International seeks Web Editor for Cambridge.Rosina Abudulai, of Ramsar's partner BirdLife International in Cambridge, the UK, is seeking applications for a Web Editor position for the organization headquarters, an editorial and creative position that nonetheless would benefit from some webmaster skills with Dreamweaver and HTML. The position announcement, rather jarringly in the second person, is available right here. [link later removed] [29/01/03]

Update on SAP-Bio. The acronym stands for 'Strategic Action Plan for the conservation of coastal and marine biodiversity in the Mediterranean region'. Spyros Kouvelis, the MedWet Coordinator, participated in the SAP-Bio Advisory Committee meeting in Tunis last week, and here provides a brief update on how this important GEF-funded project is progressing. [28/01/03]

New Ramsar video available for download. The new 22-minute Ramsar video, produced for World Wetlands Day by TVE in English, French, and Spanish versions (and in another without audio text so that Parties can supply their own local translations), is available in VHS formats (Pal/Secam, NTSC, etc.). It offers an introduction to the problems facing wetlands everywhere and then covers promising approaches to their solution, focusing upon case studies of recent successful efforts at Chilika Lake, Azraq Oasis, the Danube River, Banrock Station, Lake Naivasha, and the Amazon Basin. This educational programme is now also available for downloading from the IUCN's servers, and you can have it by right-clicking on one of the links below and waiting a suitable amount of time - each video file is a .MOV file (viewable with the Quicktime plug-in and other media players) that's 115 megabytes in size, so the use of a 56.6kbps modem would not be counselled, but broadband users need not fear. But IMPORTANT - do NOT left-click on the link - if you do, your browser will try to stream the file and bore you silly while it buffers. Instead, RIGHT-CLICK on the link, and then choose "Save Target As" (Microsoft IE) or "Save Link Target As" (Netscape) and save the whole film to your hard disk, then launch it later at your leisure. The image, at best resolution, fills about half an 800x600-resolution computer monitor and thus could be shown to small groups, but when projected onto a screen it remains faithful at almost any image size. The links [have been removed.] [27/01/03]

Celebration for one of the Convention's "Founding Fathers". A special celebration was held in Basle (Switzerland) for Luc Hoffmann's 80th birthday on 23 January 2003. Luc is an initiator of many essential wetland conservation initiatives in Europe and beyond, including the lengthy preparation and final adoption of the Convention on Wetlands in Ramsar in 1971. Ramsar's Tobias Salathé attended the event and provides a brief summary of Luc's enormous contributions to wetland conservation institutions and some of the testimonials. You can read it here.[25/01/03]

Award for Serbian wetland volunteers. The voluntary service Young Researchers of Serbia are active for the conservation of Obedska Bara Ramsar site, a large oxbow lake in the Sava floodplain west of Belgrade in the Vojvodina autonomous region of Serbia (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). This includes research, monitoring, management and wetland restoration work in cooperation with the Institute for the Protection of Nature of Serbia and the Governor of the Obedska Bara Reserve, the public forestry enterprise "Srbijašume". Hundreds of volunteers from Serbia and all over the world have participated in regular work camps at the site over the past ten years. The conservation NGO launched an education and awareness campaign under the title The return of the Ibis, referring to one of the more evocative guests of the Ramsar site, the migratory Glossy Ibis. Jelena Beronja, coordinator of Young Researchers of Serbia's international programme writes to the Ramsar Bureau that their project was awarded an acknowledgment prize by the "OGUT Environmental Award 2002" scheme, run by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry, Environment and Water Management (the Ramsar administrative authority in Austria) and OGUT, the Austrian Society for Environment and Technology. The Ramsar Bureau congratulates "Young Researchers of Serbia" for this international recognition of their efforts and work over many years under difficult circumstances, and wishes them much future success. -- reported by Tobias Salathé, Ramsar. [25/01/03]

Announcement. Wetlands Stewardship conference set for World Wetlands Day, nearly. In association with World Wetlands Day on February 2, a National Conference on Canadian Wetlands Stewardship will be held in Ottawa, February 3-5, 2003. Hosted by the North American Wetlands Conservation Council (Canada) and the Federal Wetlands Forum, the primary objective of this conference is to facilitate consensus and definition of new directions for wetland stewardship and management in Canada over the next decade. The conference agenda focuses on dialogue and joint discussion to chart a policy direction for wetland stewardship. Recommendations will be derived through facilitated sectoral working sessions. The publication "Wise Use of Mires and Peatlands" launched at Ramsar's COP8 will have its Canadian launch at the event on February 4 by the President of the International Peat Society. Detailed conference information is posted on the NAWCC (Canada) and Canada Stewardship Portal web sites: www.wetlandscanada.org and www.stewardshipcanada.ca . --reported by Randy Milton, miltongr@gov.ns.ca. [25/01/03]

Belarus names four new Ramsar sites. The Ramsar Bureau is very pleased to announce, somewhat belatedly, that Belarus has designated four new Wetlands of International Importance as of 21 October 2002, slated for announcement in November but delayed by Ramsar COP8 and its fallout. Belarus first became active in the Convention in 1999 (with its succession to the former Soviet Union, dated August 1991), and quickly added two more large and interesting sites to its obligatory first one. The four new sites bring Belarus' total to seven Ramsar sites covering 276,307 hectares, and they are - Kotra (Grodno Oblast, 10,584 ha, 54°00'N 024°30'E), a transboundary wetland with Lithuania's Cepkeliai Ramsar site; Osveiski (Vitebsk Oblast, 22,600 ha, 56°05'N 028°10'E); Yelnia (Vitebsk Oblast, 23,200 ha, 55°35'N 027°52'E); and Zvanets (Brest Oblast, 15,873 ha, 52°05'N 024°50'E). As with its earlier designations, the assistance of NGOs and academic institutions has been much appreciated by the authorities - for example, for the Yelnia site, Bird Conservation Belarus, the BirdLife International partner, with support from RSPB, carried out studies in 1999 in preparation for Ramsar designation, and its recommendations for stabilizing the hydrological regime of the mire are being carried out with support from Wetlands International and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection. A number of other studies in 2001, financially supported by Oiseaux Migrateurs du Paléarctique Occidental (OMPO), permitted the compilation of the Ramsar Information Sheet and related work by Vitebsk State University and the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. Here are brief descriptions of the four new Ramsar sites prepared by Ramsar's Sergey Dereliev. [22/01/03]

Now available.The Ramsar Strategic Plan 2003-2008 is now ready for public viewing. Ramsar COP8 in Valencia, in November 2002, adopted the long-debated and many-times-vigorously-revised Strategic Plan 2003-2008, and the English version is now ready to spread its wings and soar. Following an introductory section which explains the five General Objectives -- which speak to the areas of 1) The wise use of wetlands, 2) Wetlands of International Importance, 3) International cooperation, 4) Implementation capacity, and 5) Membership -- and presents a slightly restated Mission Statement for the Convention, the document launches off into quite a long series of Operational Objectives and their related Actions, with (in some cases) global implementation targets attached. Here is the Web version of the new Strategic Plan, key_res_viii_25_e.htm, and the Word and Acrobat versions can be obtained by substituting .doc and .pdf in place of .htm. [22/01/03]

The new statement: The Convention's mission is "the conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local, regional and national actions and international cooperation, as a contribution towards achieving sustainable development throughout the world."

Authoritative manual of the wise use of peatlands. During the side event on the "Global Peatland Initiative" on 20 November 2002 at Ramsar's COP8, Jan Sliva, the president of IMCG, and Gerry Hood, the President of IPS, presented the Ramsar Bureau with a first copy of the "Wise Use" book. During three years of consultations and meetings, the International Peat Society and the International Mire Conservation Group developed detailed guidelines that are now published in the manual "Wise Use of Mires and Peatlands: background and principles including a framework for decision-making". The book is based on specialized input from some fifty experts, written and edited by Hans Joosten (Greifswald University, IMCG) and Donal Clarke (Bord na Móna, Ireland, IPS). The term "wise use" was taken from the Ramsar Convention with the intention to convey the idea that there can be a reasonable approach to choose between using peatlands to meet people's needs and conserving them for their scientific and ecological benefits. Ramsar's Dr Tobias Salathé provides more background on the new book and adds in the ordering details. [21/01/03]

Bulgaria names five new Ramsar sites and extends three others. Bulgaria has doubled the number of its Wetlands of International Importance, as of 24 September and 11 November 2002, from five to ten, and extended the boundaries of three more, including Lake Srebarna. Located mostly on and around islands in the River Danube and surroundings and along the southern Bulgarian coast of the Black Sea, particularly around the city of Burgas, these important new designations bring Bulgaria's Ramsar totals to 10 sites covering 20,306 hectares. Ramsar's Sergey Dereliev has provided brief descriptions of the new sites, and the extensions as well, and notes that in addition to their importance as biodiversity "hotspots", some of them have particular cultural importance for their traditional salinas - indeed, the Lake Pomorie site has been one of the four target sites within the All About Salt (ALAS) project in the period 1999-2002, and a museum of the salt works has recently been opened there. In his coverage of these new and extended sites, Sergey draws attention to the continuing work of NGOs in the area, especially for their assistance in developing and helping to implement management plans: the Bulgarian-Swiss Biodiversity Conservation Programme, the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds/BirdLife Bulgaria, Bulgarian Ornithological Centre, the Central Laboratory of General Ecology, Le Balkan, and Green Balkans. Here are the brief descriptions of the new and extended sites. [20/01/03] [espanol]

Hungary joins the AEWA. "The Secretariat of the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) is pleased to announce that Hungary has deposited its instruments of accession at the Depositary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. By doing this Hungary has become the 38th Party to the Agreement. On behalf of the 'AEWA family' I would like to welcome Hungary as a new Party and take this opportunity to thank all policy officers and others who have worked hard over the last few years to convince the Government of the importance of AEWA for the conservation of migratory waterbirds." Best wishes, Bert Lenten, Executive Secretary of AEWA, UNEP/ AEWA Secretariat, UN-Premises, Martin-Luther-King Str. 8, 53175 Bonn, Germany, Tel: (+49) 228 815 2413, fax: (+49) 228 815 2450, E-mail: aewa@unep.de, Website: http://www.unep-wcmc.org/aewa. [17/01/03]

Announcement.Cuba: Taller Internacional Educación Ambiental y Manejo Integrado Costero(International workshop on environmental education and integrated coastal management, with a case study on sustainable tourism in coastal areas, based on the new Ramsar site Humedal Río Máximo-Cagüey). La Unidad de Medio Ambiente del Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología y Medio Ambiente en la Provincia de Matanzas y el Proyecto "Acciones prioritarias para consolidar el cuidado y conservación de la biodiversidad en el ecosistema Sabana-Camaguey" de Cuba, tiene la satisfacción de invitar a investigadores, profesores y especialistas ambientales interesados en la investigación, gestión y educación relacionada con el Manejo Costero Integrado al I Taller Internacional Educación Ambiental y Manejo Integrado Costero que se celebrará en el Balneario de Varadero, provincia de Matanzas, Cuba, del 16 al 22 de abril del 2003. Hispanophones, read more here. [17/01/03]

Announcement. Ramsar Bureau seeks Intern for Europe. The Ramsar Bureau is seeking applications for the position of Intern/Assistant to the Regional Coordinator for Europe. For this internship the applicants must be nationals of countries from Europe. The position requires a full ability to work in English. Fluency in Spanish and/or French would be a clear advantage. Qualified candidates from that region are encouraged to read the general terms of reference for Ramsar Internships and apply by 28 February 2003, to begin on 20 May 2003. [16/01/03]

Another Announcement. Ramsar Bureau seeks Intern for the Americas. The Ramsar Bureau is seeking applications for the position of Intern/Assistant to the Regional Coordinator for the Americas. For this internship the applicants must be nationals of countries from the Americas. The position requires full ability to work in English and a mother-tongue-level of Spanish. Qualified candidates from that region are encouraged to read the general terms of reference for Ramsar Internships and apply by 28 February 2003 to begin on 16 June 2003. [16/01/03]

Still Another Announcement.Ramsar Bureau seeks Intern for Asia. The Ramsar Bureau is seeking applications for the position of Intern/Assistant to the Regional Coordinator for the Asia Region. For this internship the applicants must be nationals of countries from Asia. The position requires a full ability to work in English. Qualified candidates from that region are encouraged to read the general terms of reference for Ramsar Internships and apply by 15 February 2003 , to begin on 22 April 2003. [16/01/03]

New Ramsar Standing Committee, 2002-2005. The 8th meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties elected a new Standing Committee to oversee Convention matters during the next triennium until the next COP set for Uganda in 2005. Later the same day, the inaugural meeting of the new Standing Committee (SC28) elected its Chair and Vice Chair and expressed its gratitude for the work of the previous SC, 1999-2002. The present composition of the Standing Committee reflects the regional proportions mandated by Resolution VII.1 and includes two member states that will take their seats as soon as their regional quotas are achieved. The new SC elected Dr Gordana Beltram (Slovenia) [photo left: ENB] as its Chair and Mr Javad Amin Mansour (Islamic Republic of Iran) as its Vice-Chair for the next triennium. The first full meeting of the new Standing Committee will take place in Gland in late February 2002, and the next one in November 2003. The present composition:

Africa: Botswana, Ghana, Morocco
Asia: Islamic Republic of Iran, Japan (Indonesia to join as from 3 March 2003)
Europe: Armenia, Austria, Romania, Slovenia
Neotropics: Argentina, Nicaragua. (Bahamas will join as soon as the Convention comes into force for the 25th Party from this region.)
North America: Canada
Oceania: Papua New Guinea
COP8 host country: Spain
COP9 host country: Uganda
Permanent observers: Netherlands, Switzerland, BirdLife International, IUCN-The World Conservation Union, Wetlands International, WWF International.

Resolutions of the 8th meeting of the Confererence of the Contracting Parties are presently being posted on this Web site as they are finalized by the secretariat. Administrative Authorities of the Contracting Parties that have a particularly urgent need for one of the Resolutions not yet posted here should contact the Bureau, ramsar@ramsar.org, so that that document can be given a priority over the others still to be completed.  [08/01/03]

Las Resoluciones de la 8va. Reunión de la Conferencia de las Partes se están colgando en el sitio web a medida que la Oficina finaliza el texto definitivo de cada una de ellas. Las Autoridades Administrativas de la Convención que tengan urgencia en contar con el texto de alguna Resolución en particular pueden solicitarlo a ramsar@ramsar.org a fin de que se le dé prioridad en su finalización.

Les Résolutions adoptées par la 8e Session de la Conférence des Parties contractantes sont publiées sur ce site au fur et à mesure que le secrétariat parachève la version définitive. Les Autorités administratives de Parties contractantes qui auraient besoin de toute urgence d'une des Résolutions non encore terminée sont priées de prendre contact avec le Bureau (ramsar@ramsar.org), qui accordera la priorité à la rédaction finale du texte en question.

Now available. Middle East Subregional Meeting report.Surprise! Just when you'd given it up as a dead loss, now we have for you the detailed report of the Ramsar COP Subregional Meeting, held in Beirut 7-9 October 2002, and the list of participants into the bargain. Especially given the under-representation of the subregion in the Ramsar Convention, the national reports from Parties and non-Parties alike make for particularly snappy reading and provide some encouraging news worth dwelling over at breakfast or lunch, tomorrow or later. [14/01/03]

Ecuador names 10th Ramsar site. The Bureau is very pleased to announce that Ecuador has designated its 10th Ramsar site, "Parque Nacional Cajas" (29,477 hectares, 02º50'N, 079º14'W) - Ramsar's Julio Montes reports: "A mountainous system of exceptional characteristics, the Cajas National Park includes over 300 bodies of water. In the Lagunas del Cajas area, this sui generis type of high-Andean wetland is found at the closest point between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. The site is distinguished because of its unparalleled scenic beauty, its archaeological remains of ancient Andean cultures, and its highly vulnerable endemic flora. Additionally, it has been identified as a key bird conservation area within Ecuador, as well as an important transit point for migratory species. Notable vulnerable species in the site include spectacled (Andean) bears (Tramarctos ornatus), Andean condors (Vultur gryphus), as well as threatened plant species Podocarpus spucey and Polylepis sp. Administrative authority of the National Park has been transferred from the Ministry of Environment to the local municipality in a process of de-centralization that will attempt to strengthen the management of this one of a kind ecosystem." Ecuador's Ministry of Environment particularly wishes to acknowledge the help of the Illustrious Municipality of Cuenca, through the ETAPA (Empresa Publica Municipal de Telecomunicaciones, Agua Potable, Alcantarillado y Saneamiento de Cuenca) company in this successful new Ramsar designation. [11/01/03]

USA names California coastal site to the Ramsar List. The Bureau is very pleased indeed to announce that the United States of America has designated its 19th Wetland of International Importance (as of 30 September 2002) - Tomales Bay (2,850 ha, 38º09'N, 123º23'W) in the state of California, just 50 km north of the city of San Francisco near Point Reyes protected area. (Nearby Bolinas Lagoon has also been a Ramsar site since 1998.) Tomales Bay is a marine-coastal wetland consisting of geomorphologically dynamic estuaries, eelgrass beds (Zostera marina), sand dune systems, and restored emergent tidal marshes which floods the northern 20 km of the San Andreas Fault-generated Olema Valley on the central California coast. The site fulfills all eight Ramsar Criteria. Approximately 90% of the bay's 28.5 km2 area is subtidal with a much greater area of open water at low tide than most other Pacific coast estuaries, thus becoming a suitable waterbird habitat through the tidal cycle. Because the 58,000 ha. watershed is non-industrial and has a low human population density, the bay is relatively pristine. The site supports several endangered or threatened plant and animal species, and is an important waterbird migratory stopover site and over-wintering ground along the Pacific flyway - it regularly hosts over 20,000 individuals in the winter months, most notably of surf scoter (Melanitta pespicillata), bufflehead (Bucephala albeola), and greater scaup (Aythya mariloides). In the past, the site has been affected by industrial and agricultural activities, which have since been terminated or mitigated. Local authorities and private and non-governmental organizations have conducted a number of watershed protection measures and conservation and restoration projects over the past 40 years in the area. -- site description: Julio Montes. [09/01/03]

From the Ramsar Forum.Information sought on cooperative management agreements for Ramsar sites. "Dear Forum members - I am interested to hear about, and get copies of any examples of MoUs or similar relating to, cooperative management agreements for Ramsar sites. In particular, my interest is in situations where some form of agreement is in place between the government and private landholders (be they business sector, NGOs, mining, ecotourism, fishing, farming, etc.) for the ongoing management of a listed area. I would appreciate any information Forum members can offer. Regards, Bill Phillips" (Dr Bill Phillips, Director, MainStream Environmental Consulting, Bill.Phillips@bigpond.com, Web site: www.mainstream.com.au).[10/01/03]

Wetlands International names new Programme Manager for North America.Wetlands International announces that Melanie Steinkamp will be joining the organization from 1 January 2003 as North American Programme Manager. Melanie will be hosted by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and based out of the Office of International Affairs in Arlington (near Washington D.C.), Virginia, USA. Here's the brief text and photo from Wetlands International's announcement. [09/01/03]

Cuba names five new Ramsar sites. The Bureau of the Ramsar Convention is delighted to announce that the Government of Cuba has designated five extraordinarily valuable wetlands for the List of Wetlands of International Importance, bringing that country's total surface area under the Ramsar umbrella to 1,188,411 hectares. These five sites include an impressive array of coastal wetland types and provide support for many species of flora and fauna, some of them rare or endangered. The very commendable efforts by Cuban authorities to designate these new sites have been materially assisted by WWF's Living Waters Programme. The new Ramsar sites are 1) Buenavista (313,500 ha) in Villa Clara and Sancti Spiritus provinces, 2) Ciénaga de Lanier y Sur de la Isla de la Juventud (126,200 ha) on the Isla de la Juventud, 3) Gran Humedal del Norte de Ciego de Avila (226,875 ha) in Ciego de Avila province, 4) Humedal Delta del Cauto (47,836 ha) in Granma and Las Tunas provinces, and 5) Humedal Río Máxima-Cagüey (22,000 ha) in Camagüey province. Here are brief site descriptions prepared by Ramsar's Julio Montes de Oca. [07/01/03] [français, español]

La Oficina de la Convención de Ramsar tiene el gusto de anunciar que el Gobierno de Cuba ha designado cinco extraordinariamente valiosos humedales para la Lista de Humedales de Importancia Internacional, aumentando a 1,188,411 hectáreas el area total cubierta por Ramsar en el país. Estos cinco sitios incluyen un impresionante variedad de tipos de Humedales costeros, y mantienen numerosas especies de flora y fauna, algunas de ellas raras o en peligro. Los muy encomiables esfuerzos de las autoridades Cubanas para designer estos sitios fueron asistidos materialmente por el programa “Living Waters” de WWF. Los nuebos sitios Ramsar son: 1) Buenavista (313,500 ha) en las provincias de Villa Clara y Sancti Spiritus, 2) Ciénaga de Lanier y Sur de la Isla de la Juventud (126,200 ha) en la Isla de la Juventud, 3) Gran Humedal del Norte de Ciego de Avila (226,875 ha) en la provincia Ciego de Avila, 4) Humedal Delta del Cauto (47,836 ha) en las provincias de Granma y Las Tunas, y, 5) Humedal Río Máxima-Cagüey (22,000 ha) en la provincial de Camagüey. Encuentre aquí una breve descripción de los sitios, preparada por Julio Montes de Oca, de la Oficina Ramsar. [07/01/03]

Ramsar wishes well to Veit Koester in retirement. "Those who were at the recent Ramsar COP8 will surely remember the Danish Head of Delegation, who was also speaking on behalf of the European Union and its Member States: Veit Koester. I was sad and moved on 27 December when I received a message from him announcing that that was to be his last day in the Ministry of Environment, since he was going into retirement." Ramsar's Secretary General provides a brief memorial to Veit Koester's long history of contributions to the Convention, right here. [07/01/03]

MedWetCoast Regional Coordinator sought by UNDP and UNOPS. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) are searching for a Regional Coordinator/Project Manager for a regional project entitled ' Conservation of Wetland and Coastal Ecosystems in the Mediterranean Region (MedWetCoast)'. The project is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) with co-funding from French FEM. It aims at conserving threatened coastal and wetland biodiversity in 15 key sites in six countries/authority (Albania, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestinian Authority and Tunisia). The wetland components of this programme build on the achievements of the Mediterranean Wetlands Initiative (MedWet) and in many ways the programme is linked to this Initiative and operates within the MedWet Network. Here are some more details [sincere removed]. [24/12/02]

Belatedly available. Interviews with the winners of the Ramsar Wetland Conservation Award and Recognitions of Excellence. With, in some cases, new photos. These insightful background pieces were meant to be posted at the time of the conferring of the Awards at Ramsar COP8 in November, but there wasn't time. So here they are now -- Interviews with Tony Sharley, manager of Banrock Station Wines; Miroslava Cierna of DAPHNE; Ajit Pattnaik of the Chilika Development Authority; and Monique Coulet of France; and a background newspaper article on Max Finlayson. Go to the main Awards 2002 page and look for the interviews. [22/12/02]

Australian NGO-private sector team wins conservation award. Bill Phillips, former Ramsar DSG, forwards the news that "BHP Billiton mining company and Conservation Volunteers Australia are delighted to announce that the Revive Our Wetlands program has won the National Large Business category of the Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Community Business Partnerships. Revive was the only environmental program to win out of the six Award categories. This success is a testament to the increased prominence of wetland conservation. Since its inception two years ago, Revive has achieved significant outcomes on 100 of Australia's most important wetlands. These include: Greater community involvement in wetland conservation; 150,000 stems (meaning small trees etc) planted; 600 hectares of weed control; 50 kilometers of fencing; 30 kilometers of walking tracks; 85 flora and fauna surveys. BHP Billiton and Conservation Volunteers Australia would like to say thank you and congratulations to all our 100 project partners and the thousands of Revive volunteers. This has been a fantastic effort and we look forward to more wetland conservation in 2003. For more information visit www.reviveourwetlands.net." Best wishes, Phil Harrison, Director Corporate and Government Affairs, Conservation Volunteers Australia; Melinda Buckland, Group Manager Community Programs, BHP Billiton.Conservation Volunteers Australia, PO Box 423, Ballarat Vic 3355, 03 5333 1483 Visit us at www.conservationvolunteers.com.au." [21/12/02]

India names eleven new Ramsar sites. The Bureau is very pleased to announce the designation by the Government of India of 11 new Wetlands of International Importance, bringing the Party's total to 19 Ramsar sites covering 648,507 hectares (these new sites were, in fact, added to the Ramsar List in early November 2001, but because of Ramsar COP8 it has taken us this long to prepare the brief site descriptions). These extremely interesting new sites range geographically all over the country, from three sites in Kerala in the southwest and another in Tamil Nadu in the southeast to another at 4,595m (15,075 feet) altitude in the Himalaya. They include coastal estuaries, dammed reservoirs, and lots of mangroves, and they include the famous East Calcutta wetlands, the traditionally developed natural urban waste water treatment system that is also enormously productive in fish and other commodities - and Bhoj wetlands at Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, about which wefeatured a photo essay by Dr Madhu Verma about a year ago. Many of the sites qualify on hydrological grounds, many for their birds and some for their sea turtles, others for their support for fisheries, and a few are considered to be sacred in one way or another. It's well worth mentioning that WWF-India has been instrumental in the preparation of the site data for all of these new designations, as part of a project supported by WWF's Living Waters Programme; indeed, many of the government's 'Ramsar Information Sheets', the site datasheets, contain valuable detailed recommendations for government and community actions for future management of the sites. Peruse brief descriptions of the new sites here. [20/12/02]

7th Goose Specialist Group meeting, Doñana.Ramsar's Sergey Dereliev participated in the 7th meeting of Wetlands International's Goose Specialist Group, hosted this year by the Doñana Biological Station in Spain, and do you think he could trouble himself to take the time to report on it for you? Eh? Well, you're wrong, obviously you don't know Sergey. He did take the time, and here's his one-page report on what happened there, and where it's supposed to happen next year, with some Doñana lore thrown in. View his brief synopsis here.[20/12/02]

Another Ramsar addition.Ramsar's Ibrahim Shaame is pleased to announce that he and Rehema Nyange are newly the parents of Farida Ibrahim, born in Zanzibar on 15 December at 3.3kg, both mother and the younger one doing very well. [20/12/02]

Bureau welcomes new intern for Africa. The Bureau is very pleased to welcome the new intern and Assistant to the Regional Coordinator for Africa, Ms Nassima AGHANIM of Algeria -- she will be replacing Simon RAFANOMEZANTSOA of Madagascar, whose internship will come to an end on 2 January 2003. Nassima is both arabophone and francophone, with a very good knowledge of English. She graduated in biology and oceanology from the University of Algiers in 1997 and in management of coastal areas from the European University Institute of the Sea, in Brest, France, in 2001. Whilst in Brest she also did a four-month traineeship, from June to September 2001, at the Station Biologique de la Tour du Valat in France, within the MedWetCoast project. She is presently enrolled at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, France, for the 2002/2003 course on "Environment: habitats, techniques, societies", which she hopes to complete whilst doing her internship with Ramsar. In 1998, Nassima participated in the conference "Year of the Ocean" in Algiers, and she became acquainted with the work of the Ramsar Bureau by participating in the Ramsar subregional meeting for North and Central Africa, held in Algiers in March 2002. Moreover, she contributed to the census of cultural values of MedWetCoast sites which was presented at Ramsar COP8 in Valencia, Spain. [19/12/02]

More to follow. Watch this space. Feedback and suggestions are welcome 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 Bureau.