The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

Ramsar COP8 - Brief report and photos: day five

"Wetlands: water, life, and culture" 8th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971) Valencia, Spain, 18-26 November 2002

Day Five of the Ramsar COP

Day 5, 22 November, covered the last two of the five Technical Sessions, a large number of side events, and, as a bonus, the signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation between the Ramsar Bureau and the Institute for Inland Water Management and Wastewater Treatment (RIZA) based in the Netherlands. For further details, consult the ENB's daily reports at http://www.iisd.ca.

Marie-Odile Guth (France), expert speakers Jack Rieley and George Zalidis	Geoff Howard of IUCN EARO
Chaman Lal Trisal	Technical Session 4 on "Managing wetlands for sustainable use and human well-being", chaired by Natalya Kasymova of Uzbekistan (not shown)

Technical Session 5 on "Cultural aspects of wetlands as a tool for their conservation and sustainable use"

Thymio Papayannis, Maria José Viñals, Nick Davidson, Clayton Rubec

Policy huddle: from left, Bill Phillips, former Deputy Secretary General, Nick Davidson, present Deputy Secretary General, Delmar Blasco, Secretary General

The Bureau's incoming Regional Coordinator for Asia, Dr Guangchun Lei of China, reviewing changes in the Draft Resolutions with the Secretary General. Dr Lei has been learning the Ramsar Ropes at the COP and will take up his duties in the Bureau at the first of the new year.

Christophe Lefebvre of the Conservatoire Littoral expressing bemused sympathy with Lisa Hadeed's Living Waters Programme sentiments just outside the venue.

IUCN's Mariano Gimenez-Dixon with WWF's Tania Paschen.

For further information about the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, please contact the Ramsar Convention Bureau, Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland (tel +41 22 999 0170, fax +41 22 999 0169, e-mail ). Posted 23 November 2002, updated 13 March 2003, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.