From the Ramsar Forum

Symposium on Neotropical wetlands set for Millenium Event

(posted to the Ramsar Forum, 17 August 1999)

Dear Friends

We, together with the Brazilian Society of Limnology, intend to organise a one-day symposium during the 2000 SWS INTECOL Meeting in Quebec (Canada) http://www.sws.org   (see attached file) on Neotropical Wetlands and would like to gather potential speakers with some work in the area.

All we need right now is an e-mail indicating your willingness to take part in this, provided we can provide a budget (ca.$1,500 stipend per person) in the real case you need some support.

We also need from you a proposed title of your talk. Remember, the talk needs to present a synthesis of your research rather than a presentation on a particular study. Having the potential speakers we will make a preliminary selection on the basis of diversity of ecosystems and regions tackled by speakers.

Yours Sincerely

Eduardo M. da Silva

 Neotropical Wetlands: Building links among wetland scientists

A symposium proposal for the SWS & INTECOL VI Conferences, Millenium Wetland Event, August 6-12, 2000, Quebec, Canada,

Objectives

Bring together scientists working in neotropical systems to share knowledge about the ecological features, function, wise use and sustainable development strategies, and other relevant matters.

Establish a stronger link between scientists from the northern and southern hemispheres to share experience, discuss and foster cooperation in the subject of wetlands.

Introduce regular activities (symposia, sessions, workshops) during the SWS Meetings dealing with tropical wetlands.

The importance of wetlands as buffering ecosystems with thriving and unique biodiversity is indisputable. Conservation of wetlands is also a very important subject and the worldwide recognition of it is the growing number of parties integrating the Ramsar Convention, as well as the increasing number in protected wetlands around the world.

Nevertheless, in the tropics the recognition of wetland importance is not at all well established. These ecosystems are considered as nuisance, vector-diseases and unusable land. Their value as ecosystems are even forgotten by South American scientists, from which not much is known in international literature.

On the other hand, the Society of Wetland Scientists, as an emerging society of surmountable importance, must be able to explicitly show the contradiction between the ecological status of wetlands in the northern and southern hemispheres, bringing researchers together to discuss this matter.

In response, we are proposing, together with the Brazilian Society of Limnology, a special one-day symposium during the XXI Meeting of the Society of Wetland Scientists in Quebec, Canada. This symposium will bring together scientists working in neotropical systems to share knowledge about the ecological features, function, wise use and sustainable development strategies, and other relevant matters and establish a regular discussion forum during the SWS yearly meetings.

This one-day symposium would have presentations related to Neotropical wetlands, in the same format as in the SWS meeting. Additionally, the symposium intends to be a turnpoint for scientists dealing with the question of wetlands in the neotropics helping to create a formal group of study to exchange information and improve scientific cooperation.

Depending on the results of the symposium the material could be gathered and published as an edited book.

Coordinators

Eduardo M. da Silva
Instituto de Biologia da UFBA
Campus de Ondina
40210-170 Salvador - BA, Brazil
E-Mail: dasilva@ufba.br

Johan F. Gottgens
Department of Biology
College of Arts and Sciences
The University of Toledo
Toledo, Ohio, 43606-3390
USA
E-Mail: jgottge@utoledo.edu

Ronald Fortney
Department of Bioscience
223 W Main Street
Salem-Teikyo University, WV 26426
USA
E-Mail: fortney@stunix.salem-teikyo.wvnet.edu

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To join the Ramsar Forum, send this message: <join ramsar-forum>, without the < >, to ramsar-mgr@ndaba.iucn.org. For more information on 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-maill ). Posted 18 August 1999, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.