What's New @ Ramsar

2 June 2009

Headline story. Ramsar Web site hibernating for a while. Some of you may be aware that the Ramsar Web site is being redesigned and based on a different technology, a project financed by the Danone Group, and we are hoping that the result will be more attractive and user-friendly. Today the design company is beginning the content migration of the present Ramsar Web site, and it’s estimated that the migration and the editorial relinking and clean-up should take us about one month – if all goes reasonably well, we’re hoping to “go live” with the new site in early July 2009.

In the meantime, we will not be adding any new material to the Web site – it will essentially be “frozen” until the new site is ready. We’re grateful for your understanding, and we’ll be back soon. [02/06/09]

Headline story. Mexico names 113th Ramsar site. The government of Mexico has designated Humedales de Bahía Adair (42,430 hectares, 31º35’N 113º53’W) in Sonora state, effective last World Wetlands Day, 2 February 2009, as its 113th Wetland of International Importance. As summarized by Ramsar’s Nadia Castro, the site is composed of three types of habitats, including estuaries, artesian wells, and salt marshes, and is located in the Gran Desierto de Altar, one of the most arid and extreme deserts of North America. The site supports 12 fauna species found under special protection in Mexican law, such as the endangered Desert Pupfish (Cyprinodon macularius) endemic to the region, and species listed in CITES such as the marine turtles Caretta caretta, Chelonia agassizi, Chelonia mydas, Dermochelys coriacea and Lepidochelys olivacea. Three fish species, Gillichthys seta, Anchoa mundeoloides and Leuresthes sardina, are endemic to the northern Gulf of California, as well as two endemic flora species: Distichlis palmeri and Suaeda puertopenascoa. The main hydrological value of these wetlands is the presence of the Sonoyta-Puerto Peñasco Aquifer of prehistoric formation. The main land uses include tourism and real estate in the coastal zone, conservation, salt extraction, scientific research, environmental education, subsistence fishing, oyster culture and ecotourism. [29/05/09]

Headline story. Raising awareness about Turkish Ramsar Sites. The General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks within the Ministry of Environment and Forestry has recently published a full-colour, glossy brochure showing all 12 of Turkey’s Ramsar Sites which cover over 179,000 hectares in total. The fold-out, eight-page leaflet includes beautiful photographs of each site as well as key information concerning coordinates, elevation, area, and designation date. Text on each site highlights the wetland type as well as the important species to be found there and also includes other significant facts, such as ongoing implementation of a management plan, interesting archaeological remains, artisanal use, and key threats. A map of Turkey identifies the location of each site. Here is a low-res PDF of the leaflet. For further information, contact Serhan Çagirankaya (c.serhan@gmail.com). [02/06/09]

Who's Where?

Nathalie Rizzotti, Programme Officer, is in Nepal 26 May - 3 June to evaluate the Ecole de protection de l'eau project and support the NGO for the project management. She will also be meeting with the Ramsar Administrative Authority in that country. [01/06/09]

For more old Ramsar Secretariat travel news, see also 'Who Was Where', 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009

Uzbekistan hosts 15th meeting of the ISDC. The 15th Meeting of the Interstate Sustainable Development Committee (ISDC) was held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on 26 May 2009, attended by the Ministers of Environment from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, as well as representatives from a range of regional stakeholders, e.g. Central Asia Youth Environmental Network, Ramsar Secretariat, UNEP, UNDP and WWF. Ramsar's Lew Young prepared this brief report on the meeting's conclusions. [29/05/09]

Award nomination for Petit Loango film. The documentary film on oil exploration in Petit Loango National Park in Gabon, commissioned by GRASP and the Ramsar Convention, was nominated for a ROSCAR Award at the 2009 Wild Talk Africa Film Festival in Durban. The film was screened on 22 April 2009 at the festival, followed by a discussion with GRASP Chief Consultant and Year of the Gorilla Ambassador, Ian Redmond. Although the film did not bring home the award, the nomination was certainly a great achievement in itself given the number of entries. A preview of the movie is available on the GRASP website at http://www.unep.org/grasp. [28/05/09]

Now available. Meeting reports. The official report of the 40th meeting of the Standing Committee (11-15 May 2009) is available here, with links to Word and PDF versions -- the decisions of the meeting are here in English and will be available soon in French and Spanish. The report of the 15th meeting of the Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP) is available here, and the STRP Work Plan 2009-2012, approved by SC40, is here. [26/05/09]

From the Ramsar Forum. "No net loss" of wetlands. “Dear colleagues, I am seeking information about “no net loss” of wetlands policies.  If you are aware of a jurisdiction (other than the US, Canada, and Hong Kong) that has adopted a “no net loss” policy, I would appreciate it if you could provide a citation or link to the pertinent law, regulation, or policy. On a related note, I am also seeking examples of Ramsar sites that have a connection to wetland mitigation projects.  In the US, for example, Izembek National Wildlife Refuge is the beneficiary of an in-lieu fee mitigation program that purchases in-holdings (privately-owned land within the refuge).  Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, which the US recently designated, includes about 2,880 of former mitigation bank lands.  If you know of other cases of Ramsar sites with connections to mitigation projects, I would be grateful for that information. My email is gardner@law.stetson.edu. Thanks, Roy”. -- Royal C. Gardner, Professor of Law and Director, Stetson University College of Law, Gulfport, Florida. [25/05/09]

International Day for Biological Diversity. "On behalf of the Ramsar community, I send my best wishes on the occasion of the International Day for Biological Diversity, 22 May 2009. This year’s theme, ‘Invasive Alien Species’, is an especially appropriate one for the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands: as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment wetland synthesis report has indicated, invasive species are considered one of the main direct drivers of the degradation of wetlands alongside habitat change, climate change, over-exploitation, and pollution." Here is a message from the Secretary General, Anada Tiéga, on the relevance of this day to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. [22/05/09]

Atlas of wader birds published. "More than half the populations of waders in Europe, West Asia and Africa are declining at an accelerating rate." That is the conclusion of the Wetlands International’s Wader Atlas, the first comprehensive overview of key site networks for waders in Europe, West-Asia and Africa, launched in London 20 May 2009 at a conference in London called “Global Biodiversity Mechanisms”, hosted by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC). The Wader Atlas (An Atlas of Wader Populations in Africa and Western Eurasia) identifies 876 key sites – such as lakes, coastal areas, floodplains - for 59 of the 90 wader species in those countries covered by the UN African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA). Amongst these, the book identifies 68 sites at which more than five wader species occur in internationally important numbers (using the Ramsar criterion of more than 1% of global population). There are 112 sites where more than 40,000 waders have been counted. Ramsar STRP member David Stroud served as one of the editors of the new work, and Nick Davidson, Deputy Secretary General, was one of the assistant editors. See press releases from JNCC and Wetlands International for more information. [21/05/09]

Argentina designates high altitude Ramsar site. Argentina has named a new Ramsar site, effective World Wetlands Day 2009 –  Lagunas Altoandinas y Puneñas de Catamarca (1,228,175 hectares, 26º52’S 067º56’W) – that lies between 3,010m and 6,885m a.s.l. and is part of the Laguna Blanca MAB Biosphere Reserve. As summarized by Ramsar’s Nadia Castro, it includes a complex of high Andean endorheic river basins representative of the Central Dry Puna: shallow meso- and hypersaline lakes, shallow and deep brackish lakes, and deep hypersaline lakes. 19,000 individuals of Puna flamingo (Phoenicoparrus jamesi) and 2,100 of Andean flamingo (P. andinus) gather in this site, which represents 18% and 6% of the worldwide population of these species, respectively. The site also hosts several endemic species of the High Andean Puna, such as the Giant Coot (Fulica gigantean), Andean Avocet (Recurvirostra andina), Crested Duck (Anas specularioides alticola), Vicuña (Vicugna vicugna), Andean Fox (Pseudalopex culpaeus) and a frog species endemic to the Catamarca region (Telmatobius hauthali). In addition, IUCN Red List threatened species Andean cat (Leopardus jacobita) and short-tailed chinchilla (Chinchilla brevicaudata) occur in the area, as well as 14 migratory species (e.g. Calidris melanotos, C. bairdii, and Tringa flavipes). This High Andean wetland is a highly vulnerable and fragile ecosystem and is threatened by overgrazing, unregulated tourism, mining prospecting, and flamingo egg collection.

The area is one of the 14 priority sites of the Wetland Network of Importance for Conservation of High-Andes Flamingos in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru. Preparations for the Ramsar site designation were assisted by WWF International’s Freshwater Programme, the Danone Fund for Ramsar, and the Fundación Yuchán. [20/05/09]

Kazakhstan names two important lake systems. The government of Kazakhstan has designated two new Wetlands of International Importance, effective 7 May 2009 -- Koibagar-Tyuntyugur Lake System (58,000 hectares, 52°39’N 065°45’E) and Kulykol-Taldykol Lake System (8,300 hectares, 51°23’N 061°52’E) -- bringing that country's Ramsar sites total to four sites covering 531,141 hectares. Both are lake complexes in the Kostanay oblast in the northern part of the country. Both have also been designated in the Western/Central Asian Site Network for Siberian Cranes and Other Globally Endangered Wetland Bird Species in the framework of the Convention on Migratory Species and, for both of them, RIS site information has been developed with the assistance of the UNEP/GEF Siberian Crane Wetlands Project. Ramsar's Assistant Advisor for Asia/Oceania, Ann Aldersey, has provided these brief site descriptions based on the RIS information. [20/05/09]

40th Standing Committee meeting. The Ramsar Standing Committee has completed its 40th meeting, its first full meeting with the new membership elected by COP10. The 76 members and observers settled all of the necessary administrative matters – establishing a Subgroup on COP11, clarifying the role of the Management Working Group, approving budget audits and the Work Plans of the Secretariat and the Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP) – and then worked their way through the process of approving proposals and in some cases allocating funding for Regional Initiatives operating under the framework of the Convention. There were also a number of lively discussions of how best to promote the Changwon Declaration, World Wetlands Day, and other activities, and preparations were got under way for the next meeting of the COP, set for Bucharest, Romania, in 2012. [18/05/09]

Now available. From Standing Committee 40 . . . The PowerPoint presentations and the Opening Statements (the Report of the meeting to follow soon). [18/05/09]

Also now available: The documents and reports of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Administrative Reform, including the Co-Chairs' letters to the Executive Director of UNEP and the Director General of IUCN. [15/05/09]

Uganda designates famous “Mountains of the Moon”. In a brief ceremony during the opening session of the 40th meeting of the Standing Committee, Paul Mafabi, commissioner of the Wetlands Management Department in Uganda’s Ministry of Water and Environment, accepted the Ramsar site certificate for Uganda’s newest Wetland of International Importance – “Rwenzori Mountains Ramsar site” (99,500 hectares, 00°25’N 030°00’E). The new site, within a National Park and World Heritage Site, is located in the west of the country, ranging from 1,600 to 5,100 meters above sea level in mountains that are home to one of only three glaciated areas in Africa (with Mounts Kenya and Kilimanjaro) and contiguous with the Ramsar site “Parc national des Virunga” in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Uganda’s new designation, effective 13 May 2009, has been supported significantly by WWF – Uganda and WWF International’s Freshwater Programme.

Cynthia Kibata, Ramsar Assistant Advisor for Africa, has prepared this Annotated List description of the site based on the Ramsar Information Sheet submitted with the designation.

Feedback and suggestions are welcome to the Ramsar Convention Secretariat, Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland (tel +41 22 999 0170, fax +41 22 999 0169, e-mail ).