The
Ramsar Convention on WetlandsThe
Ramsar Convention on Wetlands
Agenda 21 and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands [file 2]
Agenda 21 and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands
Submission to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) for the review and assessment of the implementation of Agenda 21 and the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21
Section 3. Role of major groups
3.1 Introduction
60. In Chapters 23-32, Agenda 21 focuses upon the importance of the involvement of all social groups, and in particular states that "one of the fundamental pre-requisites for the achievement of sustainable development is broad public participation in decision-making". (Paragraph 23.2).
61. At the generic level the Ramsar Convention has promoted, and witnessed, a major increase in the hands-on involvement and engagement of local people in the management of wetland resources. This has been achieved through a combination of raised awareness of the importance of wetlands to community health and well being (see section 4 following), their vital role in alleviating poverty and in food and water security, the increasing number of wetland outreach activities and education centers, the increase in the number of cross-sectoral National Ramsar or Wetland Committees, and the growth in the level of interest and participation by international, national and local non-governmental organizations (see section 3.4 below).
62. Of the nine Major Groups considered in detail in Agenda 21, perhaps the most notable achievements of the Ramsar Convention over the past decade have focused on the broad category of "local and indigenous peoples", business and industry, non-governmental organizations, and the scientific and technological community. These are highlighted below.
3.2 Local and indigenous peoples
63. At its COP7 (1999) the Ramsar Convention adopted Guidelines for establishing and strengthening local communities’ and indigenous people’s participation in the management of wetlands. These guidelines, developed by a consortium of NGOs, are based on the lessons learned from 23 documented case studies and three regional workshops and benefited from direct input from indigenous people’s representatives from around the world.
64. The Guidelines have since been published as Handbook 5 of the Ramsar Wise Use ‘Toolkit’ (see section 1), and should facilitate a continuing growth in the active involvement of local people from across the major groups identified in Agenda 21, in the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands.
65. As a follow up to the above Guidelines, IUCN-The World Conservation Union and WWF are collaborating with the Ramsar Bureau to establish a support mechanism – the so-called Participatory Management Networking Service. This Service will facilitate the dissemination of information relating to participatory management, serve to link existing networks and institutions with an interest in this area, and provide for a free flow of rich and diverse experiences.
3.3 Business and industry
66. The National Reports submitted to Ramsar COP7 (1999) indicate some growth in support from the business sector for wetland conservation and wise use. Forty-seven Parties advised of increasing private sector involvement in wetland conservation and wise use. Although it has to be acknowledged that this applies mostly to developed countries, where local-scale sponsorship of wetland stewardship or restoration is increasing, nevertheless this is a promising trend for the future.
67. A significant partnership with the business sector has been forged by the Ramsar Convention with the transnational company, the Danone Group. This, the so-called Evian Initiative, brings these partners together with the national government of France and the administration of the town of Evian. As outlined in the accompanying information box, under this sponsorship arrangement a range of on-ground, capacity building and awareness raising activities are being supported in developing regions of the world. With the theme of "Caring for water resources and water quality", the partnership is a model for advancing the importance of wetlands as part of providing water security for the future. (See Information box 11 at the end of this section.)
3.4 Non-governmental organizations
68. Chapter 27 of Agenda 21 emphasizes the vital role that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play "in the shaping and implementation of participatory democracy" and stresses that "Formal and informal organizations, as well as grass-roots movements, should be recognized as partners in the implementation of Agenda 21." (Paragraph 27.1)
Ramsar’s International Organization Partners
69. At the global level the Ramsar Convention has had since its inception four international NGO partners – BirdLife International, the World Conservation Union (IUCN), Wetlands International, and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). In 1999, at Ramsar’s 7th Conference of Parties, this special relationship was further formalized through Resolution VII.3 which created the status of International Organization Partners of the Convention.
70. These NGOs are now full members of the Convention’s Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP) and provide invaluable support and assistance to the Convention secretariat and the Parties through their respective regional networks and technical expertise. In many countries, these International Organization Partners play a prominent role in supporting implementation of the Convention through their direct involvement in bodies such as National Ramsar or Wetland Committees or equivalent biodiversity or sustainable development forums. They are in effect providing extension services for the Convention, assisting with capacity building and mobilizing funds from the donor community.
Ramsar’s other NGO partners
71. The Ramsar Convention has also added to its partnership approach with international and regional NGOs through a Memorandum of Understanding with Eurosite, signed in 1999, and a Memorandum of Cooperation with The Nature Conservancy signed in 2000. Both will bring closer collaboration and support for the implementation of the Convention through the extensive networks of these organizations. In the case of Eurosite this links the more than 70 conservation bodies, most of which manage protected areas inside Ramsar sites in Europe, with the established Ramsar networks in order to facilitate the bilateral and multilateral exchange of information and best practice in conservation management.
72. The mission of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is to conserve plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. Founded in 1951, The Nature Conservancy is an international conservation group with over one million members. TNC has helped to protect more than 11 million acres of habitat in the United States and nearly 60 million acres in Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. It currently manages 1,340 reserves, the largest system of private nature sanctuaries in the world. Its results-oriented, non-confrontational approach allows it to forge partnerships with landowners, corporations, and governments. Its commitment to working with local people gives it an on-the-ground presence in communities around the world.
The activities of NGOs nationally
73. Nationally, the involvement of NGOs in the work of the Ramsar Convention has increased steadily over the past decade. At the time of Ramsar’s 7th Conference of Parties, the National Reports of 90 Parties provided voluntary information about NGO involvement in wetland conservation and wise use, as follows:
a) Eighty-seven Parties reported that there were international, regional or national NGOs involved in wetland conservation and wise use;
b) Forty-five Parties indicated that they have consultative arrangements in place to allow NGO input to national decision-making and policy-setting relating to wetlands;
c) Eighteen Parties reported that they either regularly or occasionally include an NGO representative on their official delegation to Ramsar Conferences of Parties; and
d) Thirty-three Parties have NGO involvement with Ramsar site management committees, where such committees are in place.
74. These statistics are by no means authoritative, but they do give an indication of how involved in wetland issues NGOs are today. It is true to say that wetlands have now gained as much prominence as a community issue as the iconic rainforests and coral reefs (which in fact are ‘wetlands’ under the Ramsar definition), and the upsurge of community interest has brought about the formation of many NGOs, particularly in developed countries, which are specializing in wetland and water resources issues.
75. Ramsar’s International Organization Partners have further strengthened their efforts. These international organizations are helping to catalyze the involvement of regional and local NGOs in the work of the Ramsar Convention, and especially in national policy setting and local stewardship. However, despite these encouraging signs, there remains much to be done to give NGOs the level of involvement and ‘ownership’ needed in order to see full and true participatory management occurring.
3.5 Scientific and technological community
76. Agenda 21’s Chapter 31 considers the involvement of the scientific and technological community in both national and international dialogue relating to sustainable development. It notes the need for closer interaction between policy-makers and the scientific and technological community in order to develop strategies for sustainable development based on best available knowledge (Paragraph 31.2).
77. The Ramsar Convention has taken several steps to address this area of Agenda 21, as follows:
a) establishment of a Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP), an independent, regionally-constituted body of 13 experts (plus observers), elected by each Conference of Parties, which intersessionally reviews key issues and develops guidance for the Parties as appropriate. The Ramsar Wise Use ‘toolkit’ contains a considerable amount of the work undertaken by the STRP over the past 6 years.
b. At Ramsar COP7 (1999), permanent observers were added to the STRP (including the chairs of the counterpart bodies on the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention on Migratory Species and the Convention to Combat Desertification (see section 8 for further details)), an action that was taken to foster collaboration and cooperation between the scientific and technical bodies of these Conventions. The Ramsar STRP also includes as permanent members representatives of the Convention’s International Organization Partners, who provide access to their extensive expert working groups and similar bodies. Further it has observers from the Society of Wetland Scientists, the International Association of Limnology, the Global Wetlands Economics Network, the International Mire Conservation Group, and the International Peat Society.
c) In order to facilitate the input of expert views from the Parties of the Convention, and to accelerate the flow of information out from the STRP to national and local experts, Ramsar’s 7th Conference of Parties also created positions of National Focal Point for STRP business. Each Party is now nominating such a focal point who is expected to liaise with the regional member of the STRP and to transfer information out through their respective scientific networks. An important expectation is that these national focal points will collaborate closely with their national counterparts for the other international and regional environment Conventions.
d) In June 1999, the Ramsar Convention Bureau entered into a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Society of Wetland Scientists (SWS), which numbers over 4,500 members from Canada, the USA, Mexico and about 20 other countries. Through this arrangement the SWS has established the Ramsar Support Framework with annual grants to support specific small-scale projects. The SWS is also an observer to the Ramsar STRP, thus providing the Convention with access to the enormous expertise SWS has at its disposal.
e) The maintenance of the Ramsar Sites Database of wetlands included in the List of Wetlands of International Importance (which now numbers 1050 sites) has traditionally been done by one of the Convention’s International Organization Partners, Wetlands International. While this arrangement continues, the Ramsar Convention in February 2000 signed a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding with Wetlands International and The Centre for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University in the USA, which is leading to the development of an on-line data gateway for Ramsar site information. This powerful tool for interrogating and manipulating spatial and other data will make possible more sophisticated mapping, planning and projections of land-use patterns and demographics in association with the world’s premier wetland resources.
f) Ramsar is also participating (along with UNEP, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention to Combat Desertification, and others) in the recently launched Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. The Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention and the Chair of Ramsar’s STRP are members of the Board for the project.
78. A related issue for the Ramsar Convention, and a major priority of the Convention’s STRP, is that of wetland inventory. All efforts to implement the Ramsar Convention and apply Agenda 21 are clearly being hampered by the poor state of wetland inventory globally. It is hoped that the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the Global International Waters Assessment will bring about flow-ons into national wetland inventory around the globe.
79. For Ramsar COP7 (1999), just 42 Parties reported that they have completed a national wetland inventory. As indicated in Information box 13 below, a review of existing wetland inventory data done by Wetlands International reveals this to be a major impediment to applying Wise Use and to taking a systematic approach to further Ramsar site listings. Rio+10 needs to recognize that this is a major weakness to the implementation of Agenda 21 as well.
3.6 Thematic and policy review and recommended ‘course corrections’
80. Ramsar’s contributions to this area of Agenda 21 are considered to be as follows:
a) seventy-two Parties which report that the participation of local stakeholders in the conservation and wise of wetlands is being encouraged;
b) adoption of the Guidelines for establishing and strengthening local communities’ and indigenous people’s participation in the management of wetlands (Handbook 5 in the Ramsar Wise Use ‘Toolkit’);
c) thirty-three Parties (42%) which have wetland site management committees that include local stakeholders;
d) the establishment of the Participatory Management Networking Service;
e) Ramsar’s "Evian Project" – a partnership between a transnational company (the Danone Group), and international convention, a national government (France), a local administration and an NGO;
f) forty-seven Parties that report increasing private sector involvement in wetland conservation and wise use;
g) strong and productive working partnerships with Ramsar’s International Organization Partners – BirdLife International, IUCN-the World Conservation Union, Wetlands International, and WWF International;
h) new partnerships with Eurosite and The Nature Conservancy;
i) an increasing involvement of NGOs in wetland issues – 87 Parties reporting such involvement, 44 Parties where consultative mechanisms are in place between NGOs and Government, 18 Parties that have NGO representatives on official delegations to Conference of Parties to the Ramsar Conventions;
j) Ramsar’s small-scale, yet highly productive subsidiary scientific body – the Scientific and Technical and Review Panel, and the network of national STRP Focal Points being established;
k) partnership arrangements with the Society of Wetland Scientists and with the Centre for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University, USA; and
l) participation in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.
Ramsar’s Rio+10 challenges
81. Some of the challenges facing the Ramsar Convention for the future are:
a) to continue to encourage and support the active involvement of local, regional, national and international ‘stakeholders’ from all the major groups in the conservation and wise use of wetlands;
b) to encourage governance systems to decentralize and delegate the management of ecosystems to the most logical and effective level, in most cases river basins or catchments;
c) to seek particularly to engage the involvement and support of the business and industry Major Group in the local, regional and international work of the Convention;
d) to maintain strong and productive working partnerships with the Convention’s International Organization Partners (BirdLife International, IUCN, Wetlands International, and WWF) and seek other similar partnerships with other international organizations;
e) to encourage and assist Parties to adopt measures which will ensure that grassroots stakeholders, the business sector, and other groups are fully consulted and involved in the national implementation of the Convention;
f) to see the scientific community mobilized to provide advice and information to guide the conservation and wise use of wetlands;
g) to seek operational links and shared work programmes between the respective subsidiary scientific bodies of the UNCED-related Conventions;
h) to continue developing wetland inventory tools and encouraging all Parties to assemble and maintain comprehensive datasets of these natural assets; and
i) to develop the proposed Participatory Management Networking Service, and through it to see major groups continuing to increase their involvement in the conservation and wise use of wetlands.
Policy review and recommended ‘course corrections’ for Rio+10
82. Under the thematic review relating to ‘Decision-making structures and institutions’ (section 2.6) it was observed that the progress toward achieving governance structures which fully integrate social, economic and environmental factors at the policy, planning and management levels was very slow, and possible ‘course corrections’ to address this were made. One such ‘course correction’ is for Rio+10 to promote the decentralization or delegation of decision-making to the most appropriate management level, as advocated in CBD’s ecosystem approach.
83. Experience in many countries has now shown that participatory management, at the appropriate ‘ecosystem’ level, can greatly improve efficiency and effectiveness in natural resource management, and also assist with addressing equity and access issues. With the recognition that wetlands are an intrinsic element of the planet’s hydrology, this is certainly a priority for the Ramsar Convention - to see participatory management and integrated water resource management in place in the all of the world’s river basins.
84. Rio+10 is urged to support this goal and seek the resources to accelerate the introduction of participatory management regimes in the most ‘stressed’ river basins initially, and subsequently in all others. It is recognized that a large number of these are transboundary in nature and this adds complexities that will have to be dealt with. Again, there are now a significant number of multi-Party river basin commissions and similar cooperative agreements in place to indicate that solutions can be found, even where significant tensions exist over shared water systems.
85. In terms of the Major Groups, it appears that the point has not yet been reached where all interests are routinely involved in matters of natural resource management. Ramsar’s recent experience shows that not all Parties have open consultative processes which permit those representing the Major Groups to have their say in national, and in some cases local, policy setting and planning for natural resource management.
86. Business and industry, trade unions, children and youth or farmers are not yet strongly represented at CBD’s or Ramsar’s Conference of the Parties, for example. It is necessary to ask why, and to consider whether this is the way to achieve sustainable development. Likewise, the reverse applies: there is a need for bodies such as the World Trade Organization to have stronger input from conservation and sustainable development expertise. These are fundamentals of moving ahead with Agenda 21. If all interests are not brought together and a broader cross-section of views considered, integrating social, economic and environmental factors will take much longer to achieve.
87. Another priority for Rio+10 to address is that of the poor quality of inventory information relating to society and the environment. As Ramsar has found, unless Parties have at their disposal high quality data upon which to base integrated planning, much of the product has to be based upon guess work and speculation. While it is hoped that through the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the Global International Waters Assessment this problem can be addressed in part, the challenge will remain of getting this information into the hands of the people who need it, and ensuring that they have the capacity to interpret and apply such information. Rio+10 needs to recognize that this is a major weakness to the implementation of Agenda 21 at present and one that requires a concerted effort.
From Ramsar Wise Use ‘Toolkit’ Handbook 5
At the global level, the Ramsar Convention’s first partnership with the private sector began in January 1998 with the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Convention and the Danone Group including the Société des Eaux Minérales d’Evian, with the cooperation of the town of Evian and the Conservatoire de l’Espace Littorale et des Rivages Lacustres, and with the support of the Fonds Français pour l’Environnement Mondial. The action programme supported six main themes: transfer of know-how; training; water and health; the Evian "Encounters" seminar series; support for Ramsar communications; and a special Evian cash prize for the Ramsar Wetland Conservation Awards. The financial provisions in support of these themes totalled 13.5 million French francs, including 4 million francs from the Danone Group, 5.5 million from the town of Evian, and 1.5 million francs from the Fonds Français, the latter earmarked for the development of an information and communication centre at Evian with the aim of enhancing and promoting the action programme. Within the action programme, funds have been used to support several activities closely associated with developing communication and awareness. Three ‘Evian Encounters’, taking place in the town of Evian, France, were aimed at raising awareness of wetland conservation policies among high-level decision-makers from countries located in priority conservation regions - the Neotropics, French-speaking African countries, and Western Asia. Under the theme ‘support for Ramsar communications’, the Ramsar Administrative Authorities in 11 Contracting Parties have already benefited from financial assistance for the costs associated with establishing and maintaining an Internet connection. Additionally, funds have been used to produce copies of the Ramsar Information Pack in Arabic, Chinese, and Farsi. |
Section 4. Education, public awareness, training and capacity building
4.1 Introduction
88. Chapter 36 of Agenda 21 provides a framework for actions relating to education, public awareness and training, dividing these subjects into three programme areas:
a. education for sustainable development;
b. increasing public awareness; and
c. promoting training
89. As stated there, these areas of activity are "linked to virtually all areas in Agenda 21, and even more closely to the ones on meeting basic needs, capacity building, data and information, science, and the role of major groups." (Paragraph 36.1).
90. The building of endogenous capacity to implement Agenda 21 requires each country to consider their human, scientific, technological, organizational, institutional and resource capabilities (Paragraph 37.1). Under its Chapter 37, Agenda 21 sets objectives in terms of ongoing participatory processes to define capacity needs, reorienting technical cooperation and priorities, strengthening institutional structures, and improving institutional capacities.
91. In the following sections some of the accomplishments of the Ramsar Convention in these four closely related areas are summarized.
4.2 Education, public awareness and training
92. Overall, the past decade has seen a significant shift in general community attitudes and behaviour relating to wetlands. Once considered "wastelands", these are now, in most (but not all) countries increasingly being recognized for the range of ecosystem services they provide. This has come about through improved scientific understanding of the roles and functions played by wetlands, through an increase in the efforts to inform the community of these natural assets, and in some instances by the direct negative impact experienced by communities when wetland resources have been converted to other uses.
93. The Ramsar Strategic Plan 1997-2002 dedicates two of its eight Operational Strategies to the areas of education and public awareness (Operational Objective 3) and training and capacity building (Operational Objective 4). However, in the context of this submission to the Rio+10 process, the following information is presented to correspond to the three Agenda 21 programme areas as specified in the Introduction, namely education for sustainable development, increasing public awareness, and promoting training.
Reorienting education towards sustainable development
94. In their National Reports for Ramsar COP7 (1999), 43 Parties advised that wetlands and Ramsar’s Wise Use principles are now included as part of educational curricula. This disappointing level of progress suggests the need for greater priority to be given to this area.
95. Few countries can boast of wide-ranging educational programmes designed to promote sustainable development of wetland resources to the full range of age groups and within both formal and informal learning environments. This remains a major challenge for the Rio+10 process, to see these principles of sustainable development embedded in all forms of learning. Feedback from many countries indicates a fundamental failure of governments to break down the institutional and policy barriers between education ministries and those responsible for sustainable use of natural resources.
Increasing public awareness
96. Parties to the Ramsar Convention have been relatively active in the development of public education programmes, which include material about wetlands. At Ramsar COP7 (1999), 62 Parties reported that such programmes exist. However, this was overshadowed by the indication that in 63 Parties there exist NGO-run public awareness campaigns and programs. Also notable is the increasing number of education centers based at wetland sites. While no statistics are available for this, it is clear that such sites are increasingly viewed as ideal locations for community education and awareness raising. Also evident are an increasing number of exemplary wetland education kits such as those developed for the Tasek Bera site in Malaysia and that for the Rio Grande, Tierra del Fuego of Argentina – the Segismundo cartoon and short story. (See Information boxes 14 and 15 at the end of this section.)
Promoting training
97. The promotion of training has been, and remains a priority of the Ramsar Convention. However, despite this attention the indications contained in the National Reports for Ramsar COP7 (1999) were disappointing, as shown in the following summary statistics:
| Question | Response |
| Has a training needs analysis been done ? | 19 of 97 (20%) Parties reported "yes" |
| Has a review of training opportunities been completed ? | 23 of 97 (24%) Parties reported "yes" |
| Have training modules or training programmes specifically for wetland managers e been completed, or are they being developed ? | 42 of 97 (43%) Parties reported "yes" |
| Have nationals of the country gained wetland-related training either within or outside the country ? | 74 of 97 (75%) Parties reported "yes" |
98. In response to the above findings, the Convention secretariat developed and maintains the Directory of Wetland Management Training Opportunities, and with Wetlands International (an official International Partner Organization of the Convention) has begun development of the ‘Ramsar Wetlands Training and Advisory Service’. This initiative, to be launched at Ramsar’s 8th Conference of Parties in Spain in 2002, is designed to do the following:
a. assist Parties in reviewing their training needs in a systematic and standard way;
b. develop a comprehensive and interactive directory of training opportunities;
c. provide an Advisory Service, including a help-desk, to assist Parties in matching their training needs with the available opportunities;
d. assist those needing training in finding the necessary resources for such training; and
e. identify and seek to fill gaps in the availability of training at the appropriate level, topic and location.
99. In addition, the Ramsar Convention has its Small Grants Fund which has been operating since 1991. This has provided small-scale support (up to 40,000 Swiss francs) for many training-related projects in developing countries and those in economic transition. Also, through the generous support of the Government of the USA, the Ramsar Convention operates the Wetlands for the Future programme designed to support training and capacity building in Latin America and the Caribbean. Both of these schemes are described in more detail in section 4.3 which follows.
100. Further, each year since 1994, the Dutch Institute for Inland Water Management and Waste Water Treatment (RIZA), part of the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, has hosted the International Course in Wetland Management at the Wetlands Advisory and Training Centre (WATC) in Lelystad. Over the past few years, RIZA has also hosted a separate International Course on Wetland Restoration. Both 4-6 week, certificate-granting courses are organized according to approved Ramsar Convention principles (the Ramsar Secretary General serves as chair of the Advisory Board), and many graduates have returned to their own countries with a thorough understanding of the Convention’s work both in theory and practice.
101. In fulfilment of the Ramsar 25th Anniversary pledge made at Ramsar COP6 (1996), Australia is taking strong initiatives to provide training opportunities in wetland management for the Oceania region. To this end, it has established the "Asia-Pacific Wetland Managers Training Program", an initiative of the Commonwealth Government of Australia that is managed and funded through the National Wetlands Program, and $800,000 AUS has been committed to the initiative over a three-year period.
102. Despite these various mechanisms, and those provided through the donor community, it is apparent from the National Reports submitted by Parties that training continues to be ad hoc in nature – largely because the tools and expertise are not widely available at present to allow training needs analyses to be undertaken.
103. However, even for the developed countries this remains a significant challenge, and few of these can claim to have done such strategic planning in terms of their training needs. Another major weakness is that few countries have a good understanding of the training opportunities which are available either in their own country or elsewhere. A major push is needed to gather comprehensive information on training opportunities – both in-country and externally.
104. A clearing house of such information would be an invaluable resource to underpin the much needed increase in training which is required. Ramsar’s Directory of training opportunities and the proposed Training and Advisory Service are an excellent and timely response, but Rio+10 needs to see these as demonstrative of a broader need in the area of training and capacity building for sustainable development.
The Ramsar Outreach Program
105. In recognition of the need to encourage Parties to take a more systematic approach to issues of communication, education, public awareness and training, Ramsar COP7 (1999) adopted The Convention’s Outreach Programme 1999-2002: Actions to promote communication, education and public awareness to support implementation of the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran 1971). Now published as Handbook 6 of the Ramsar Wise Use ‘toolkit’ (see section 1), these guidelines set out recommended goals and objectives of a national Outreach Programme, identify the key ‘actors’ to be targeted, and describe a range of tools which Parties can apply, or adapt, to suit their national circumstances.
106. The COP requested all Parties to nominate both a government and a non-government focal point for the implementation of Outreach activities. The intention is for these two focal points to coordinate their efforts, thus helping to form a global ‘electronic’ network for sharing information, ideas and experiences in the areas of communication, education and public awareness.
107. The Ramsar Convention Web site (www.ramsar.org) constitutes a major communications tool of the Convention. By the end of 2000, there were an average of 1,174 User Sessions on the Ramsar Web site per day, accounting for more than 3,600 page views per day (annualized to 1.34 million pages viewed per year); this represents a four-fold increase in traffic over 1999, which was itself a doubling of traffic over 1998. Nationally-speaking, the hits came from 144 nations, with about 50% from the USA, followed by UK, Canada, and Australia, but also with 89 from Croatia and 68 from the United Arab Emirates, just for example. The average user spends 15 to 19 minutes on the Ramsar site.
108. Through the private sector partnership and sponsorship arrangement with the Danone Group (see section 3.3), the Ramsar secretariat has provided financial support to several developing countries to assist with gaining Internet access and email communications. These are important, if small-scale investments in helping all Parties to take full advantage of the resources available to them through the Ramsar Convention.
4.3 Capacity building in developing countries
109. As indicated in the preceding section under ‘Training’, there are strong signals that capacity building, while a high priority for most international environment conventions, the multilateral and bilateral donors and national governments, continues to be one of the greatest challenges, if not the greatest, for the implementation of Agenda 21. Few countries seem to have taken a systematic approach to advancing their capacity building, most efforts being ad hoc and opportunistic. The same must also be said of the efforts in this area by the Parties to the Ramsar Convention.
110. Training efforts are rarely based on a good understanding of needs, and those who undergo training seem required to give little feedback on the success of the training undergone. "Capacity building" has become a buzz word of the donor sector, but this capacity building tends to be sector-specific and is not in general fostering integrated approaches as sustainable development requires.
Ramsar’s capacity building ‘tools’
111. As a contribution to the promotion of capacity building, the Ramsar Convention launched its "Small Grants Fund (SGF) for Wetland Conservation and Wise Use" in 1991. Providing small-scale grants (up to 40,000 Swiss francs) to developing and transition States the SGF up to now has funded a total of 132 projects in over 72 countries with funds allocated totaling 4.3 million Swiss francs. While this has made a significant difference in these countries, during this same period 231 eligible projects could not be funded due to lack of resources. The target set by the Convention is to dispense US$1 million per year, and this occurred in just one of the SGF’s ten years of operation. Further details about the highly successful Small Grants Fund are provided in Information box 16 at the end of this section.
112. The Ramsar Convention also operates, through the support of the Government of the United States of America, the "Wetlands for the Future Initiative" designed to support training and capacity building in Latin America and the Caribbean. Details of this are given in Information box 17 below. As an example of the types of projects supported by this initiative, in December 2000 the Ramsar/SPAW Caribbean Training Workshop was held in Trinidad. With an attendance of over 30 participants from 20 Caribbean nations and territories, the workshop served as an introduction to the Ramsar Convention in the region, a research mission on wetland-related needs in the Caribbean, and an opportunity for some training of local professionals on several wetland management issues.
4.4 Thematic and policy review and recommended ‘course corrections’
113. Ramsar’s contribution to this area of Agenda 21 can be summarized as follows:
a) a general increase in awareness of the ecosystem services provide by wetlands has occurred;
b) Ninety-one Parties which have wetlands conservation and sustainable use (wise use) as part of educational curricula;
c) a large resource of exemplars or models in community education and public awareness raising to draw upon;
d) Sixty-two Parties which have government-run community outreach programmes, and 63 where NGOs are taking the lead with such activities;
e) a continuing increase in the number of environment education centers based at wetlands;
f) adoption of The Convention’s Outreach Programme 1999-2002: Actions to promote communication, education and public awareness to support implementation of the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran 1971) (Handbook 6 in the Ramsar Wise Use ‘Toolkit’);
g) a wide range of informative and user-friendly resource materials generated by the Ramsar Bureau (secretariat) to foster and support those generated by Parties and NGOs;
h) an informative, comprehensive and actively managed Web site for the Convention (http://www.ramsar.org) and increasing number of national and NGOs counterparts;
i) the establishment of a global network within Parties of Focal Points (government and non-government) for wetlands communication, education and public awareness;
j) limited progress in training for managers in wetland conservation and wise use; 19 Parties that have undertaken needs analyses; 23 that have reviewed training opportunities; 42 that have or are developing training modules, 74 Parties from which nationals have received training in wetland management elsewhere;
k) the International Courses in Wetland Management and Restoration supported by the Netherlands Government and the recently established Asia-Pacific Wetland Managers Training Program supported by Australia;
l) the Wetlands for the Future training initiative sponsored by the USA for training wetland managers in Latin America and the Caribbean; and
m) Ramsar’s Small Grants Fund, which has made significant progress despite being severely under-funded.
Ramsar’s Rio+10 challenges
114. Some of the challenges facing Ramsar in this area are:
a) to see the principles of wise use of wetlands and sustainable development more generally become a central plank of formal and informal education curricula in all countries;
b) to provide a ‘clearing house’ for Parties with respect to education and public awareness resources, and to secure the resources for an expert in this field to be based at the secretariat to energize the global network of national focal points for wetland communication, education and public awareness;
c) to develop the proposed Ramsar Wetlands Training Advisory Service, and through it to encourage Parties to take a more systematic and long-term approach to training needs – whether it be for high-level officials, natural resource planners, or members of the major groups;
d) to see the established training programmes continue in the long-term and encourage the development of further programmes in those regions where they are so urgently needed, particularly Africa;
e) to secure the US$1 million per year needed to allow the Ramsar Small Grants Fund to support the large number of eligible projects submitted each year;
f) to see the USA-sponsored Wetlands for the Future training initiative for the countries of Latin America and Caribbean continue in the long term and to secure the resources to duplicate it in other developing regions and for the countries with economies in transition.
Policy review and recommended ‘course corrections’ for Rio+10
115. There remains an urgent need for Rio+10 to encourage a range of actions in the education, training and capacity building areas. There has been too little progress with introducing the principles of sustainable development into formal and informal education streams and this warrants very high priority. Part of the solution lies in improved transfer of experiences and information, as there are good working models of sustainable development in all parts of the world. A failure to engage the education sector in Agenda 21 would seem to be limiting progress in this area, and steps need to be taken both nationally and internationally to address this problem.
116. Equally, Ramsar’s experience shows that while training is a popular concept, its delivery in many cases does not seem to be based on a sound understanding of needs or existing competencies. Rio+10 is urged to develop a major Agenda 21 training initiative which will bring together the necessary expertise and resources to see these shortcomings addressed. Such a programme could unite existing training and capacity building efforts such as Ramsar’s Small Grants Fund, Wetlands for the Future, and the International Wetland Management Course, with counterpart programmes being implemented by a range of international and regional institutions – thus creating a ‘one-stop-shop’ for training in sustainable development.
117. A major Agenda 21 training programme would also have the advantage of bringing together recommended curriculum material to support national actions to see sustainable development integrated into formal and informal education curricula.
Information box 14 - Tasek Bera wetland education kit Tasek Bera, a freshwater wetland system in Malaysia, was designated as a Ramsar site on 10 November 1994, and has been the focus of a three-year project to develop and implement an integrated management plan with the active involvement of the local community. One of the main outputs of the project is the Wetland education kit, a teaching tool for use in the classroom and on-site, aimed at instilling awareness about the importance of the site and its natural resources. The District Education Office, a Teachers’ Training Institute and teachers from 25 schools in the district were involved in its development. The kit is targeted for use by primary school students (ages 7-12) and contains:
The modules are designed to illustrate the range of values, functions and benefits of the site, in five main categories - Wetland functions, Fish and fishing methods, Recreation and tourism, Biodiversity, and Source of natural products. The kit is available in English and Malay from: |
From Ramsar Wise Use Handbook 6 – "The Convention’s Outreach Programme 1999-2002: Actions to promote communication, education and public awareness to support implementation of the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran 1971)."
Information box 15 - Segismundo - communicating with children in Argentina Building local awareness among local communities about the importance of biodiversity in the coastal wetland of Rio Grande, Tierra del Fuego, and encouraging their participation in the conservation and wise use of the wetland - this was the dual aim of a Wetlands for the Future grant in 1997. Administered by Fundación Vida Silvestre, an Argentinian NGO, the project provided training as well as teaching materials for local school teachers. Teachers were supplied with copies of a children’s magazine telling the story, in cartoon form, of a bird called Segismundo which flies from the Northern hemisphere to Samborombon Bay, a wetland of international importance in Argentina. The story describes the friends he meets and the places he visits on his migratory journey along the coastline of the Americas. Through this short story, children of all ages are made aware of the diversity of habitats and species that are found along the migratory route, as well as the feeding and roosting needs of the birds so that they can undertake the journey every year. At the end of the story a user-friendly guide is included to identify common migratory species. The 37-page cartoon magazine was prepared by Fundación Vida Silvestre with the support of Pennies for the Earth and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and the cost of duplication and distribution in Tierra del Fuego was covered by a Wetlands for the Future scheme administered by the Ramsar Convention Bureau. For further information contact: |
From Ramsar Wise Use Handbook 6 – "The Convention’s Outreach Programme 1999-2002: Actions to promote communication, education and public awareness to support implementation of the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran 1971)."
Information box 16 - The Small Grants Fund of the Ramsar Convention - "filling the gap" Established in 1990, the Small Grants Fund (SGF) provides financial support to developing countries, and countries with their economies in transition, to further the aims of wetland conservation and wise use promoted by the Convention. Providing up to 40,000 Swiss Francs to support suitable projects, it "fills the gap" for many countries requiring assistance for small-scale or emergency projects which the larger funding programmes are unlikely to support. While SGF funds do not replace the need for most countries to have access to much more substantial levels of funding, they are highly cost-effective and are intended to be catalytic in their effects, helping countries to complete the preparatory work which can lead to greater access to major project funding from bilateral and multilateral donor agencies. Funds have been used to support a wide range of activities, including site restoration, training in wetland management, awareness-raising, management planning, policy development and inventory. Although applications have to be endorsed by the Administrative Authority of the Convention in each country, the projects can be designed and implemented by NGOs, other government agencies, research institutions, etc. A few specific examples include:
A recent critical review* of the Fund’s activities over the period 1991-1998 was presented to Ramsar COP7 (1999). On the positive side, the Fund had provided a total of 3.8 million Swiss Francs to 113 projects from 72 countries over the period reviewed. On the negative side, 122 suitable projects over the same period were not supported because of lack of funds. Resolution VII.5** on the Small Grants Fund, adopted at COP7, expressed concern at the shortfall in funding and reiterated the conviction, expressed in previous resolutions, that the level of resources available to the SGF should be increased to at least US$ 1 million annually. The Fund relies exclusively upon the voluntary contributions from government agencies and both national and international NGOs. *Full text of this review is available is available from the Ramsar Convention Bureau or through its Web site at http://ramsar.org/key_sgf_evaluation.htm. ** Resolution VII.5 Critical evaluation of the Ramsar Small Grants Fund for wetlands conservation and wise use (SGF) and its future operations is available from the Ramsar Convention Bureau or through its Web site at http://ramsar.org/key_res_vii.05e.htm. |
Section 5. Oceans and seas, living marine resources and coastal zone management
5.1 Introduction
118. Under the Ramsar definition of ‘wetland’ a range of types (see table in this section) are recognized within the coastal zone, including estuaries, intertidal flats and marshes, mangrove swamps, tidal lagoons, coastal freshwater lagoons, seagrass beds and coral reef systems. This defines the mandate of the Ramsar Convention under Chapter 17 of Agenda 21. Of the seven programme areas contained in Chapter 17, the Ramsar Convention has contributed significantly in terms of the following three:
a) Integrated management and sustainable development of coastal areas, including exclusive economic zones;
b) Marine environmental protection
d) Sustainable use and conservation of marine living resources under national jurisdiction;
119. It has also made some, and in future will make increasingly greater, contributions in terms of the following programme areas:
e) Addressing critical uncertainties for the management of the marine environment and climate change;
f) Strengthening international, including regional, cooperation and coordination:
g) Sustainable development of small islands.
These achievements are briefly summarized in the following sections.
5.2 Integrated management and sustainable development of coastal areas, including exclusive economic zones
120. Consistent with its Wise Use principle and guidelines, the Ramsar Convention has been a long-term advocate of integrated management and sustainable development of coastal areas. Most are predominantly wetland ecosytems, as defined by the Convention, and the Parties are expected to apply the Wise Use principle to all such areas (Article 3.1 of the Convention). In addition, among the 1050 sites that the 123 Parties to the Convention have designated as Wetlands of International Importance, 498 (47%) contain coastal wetland types.
121. The Convention has recognized that some coastal wetland types are under-represented in the List of Wetlands of International Importance and Parties have been urged to address this ‘gap’ through the Strategic Framework adopted for the List at Ramsar COP7 (1999) (see section 7.3). Perhaps most importantly, Ramsar Parties are expected to develop integrated management plans for all of their Ramsar sites. At the time of Ramsar COP7, National Reports indicated that such plans were in place or being developed for 416 (44%) of sites (at the time).
Table 3 - Ramsar’s Wetland Types
| Marine/Coastal
Wetlands A – Permanent shallow marine waters in most cases less than six metres deep at low tide; includes sea bays and straits. B -- Marine subtidal aquatic beds; includes kelp beds, sea-grass beds, tropical marine meadows. C -- Coral reefs. D -- Rocky marine shores; includes rocky offshore islands, sea cliffs. E -- Sand, shingle or pebble shores; includes sand bars, spits and sandy islets; includes dune systems and humid dune slacks. F -- Estuarine waters; permanent water of estuaries and estuarine systems of deltas. G -- Intertidal mud, sand or salt flats. H -- Intertidal marshes; includes salt marshes, salt meadows, saltings, raised salt marshes; includes tidal brackish and freshwater marshes. I -- Intertidal forested wetlands; includes mangrove swamps, nipah swamps and tidal freshwater swamp forests. J -- Coastal brackish/saline lagoons; brackish to saline lagoons with at least one relatively narrow connection to the sea. K -- Coastal freshwater lagoons; includes freshwater delta lagoons. Zk(a) – Karst and other subterranean hydrological systems, marine/coastal |
Inland
Wetlands L -- Permanent inland deltas. M – Permanent rivers/streams/creeks; includes waterfalls. N -- Seasonal/intermittent/irregular rivers/streams/creeks. O -- Permanent freshwater lakes (over 8 ha); includes large oxbow lakes. P -- Seasonal/intermittent freshwater lakes (over 8 ha); includes floodplain lakes. Q – Permanent saline/brackish/alkaline lakes. R -- Seasonal/intermittent saline/brackish/alkaline lakes and flats. Sp – Permanent saline/ brackish/alkaline marshes/pools. Ss -- Seasonal/intermittent saline/brackish/alkaline marshes/pools. Tp -- Permanent freshwater marshes/pools; ponds (below 8 ha), marshes and swamps on inorganic soils; with emergent vegetation water-logged for at least most of the growing season. Ts -- Seasonal/intermittent freshwater marshes/pools on inorganic soils; includes sloughs, potholes, seasonally flooded meadows, sedge marshes. U -- Non-forested peatlands; includes shrub or open bogs, swamps, fens. Va -- Alpine wetlands; includes alpine meadows, temporary waters from snowmelt. Vt -- Tundra wetlands; includes tundra pools, temporary waters from snowmelt. W -- Shrub-dominated wetlands; shrub swamps, shrub-dominated freshwater marshes, shrub carr, alder thicket on inorganic soils. |
Xf – Freshwater,
tree-dominated wetlands; includes freshwater swamp forests, seasonally flooded forests,
wooded swamps on inorganic soils. Xp -- Forested peatlands; peatswamp forests. Y -- Freshwater springs; oases. Zg – Geothermal wetlands Zk(b) – Karst and other subterranean hydrological systems, inland Human-made wetlands 1 – Aquaculture (e.g., fish/shrimp) ponds 2 -- Ponds; includes farm ponds, stock ponds, small tanks; (generally below 8 ha). 3 -- Irrigated land; includes irrigation channels and rice fields. 4 -- Seasonally flooded agricultural land (including intensively managed or grazed wet meadow or pasture). 5 -- Salt exploitation sites; salt pans, salines, etc. 6 -- Water storage areas; reservoirs/barrages/dams/impoundments (generally over 8 ha). 7 – Excavations; gravel/brick/clay pits; borrow pits, mining pools. 8 – Wastewater treatment areas; sewage farms, settling ponds, oxidation basins, etc. 9 -- Canals and drainage channels, ditches. Zk(c) – Karst and other subterranean hydrological systems, human-made |
Note : "floodplain" is a broad term used to refer to one or more wetland types, which may include examples from the R, Ss, Ts, W, Xf, Xp, or other wetland types. Some examples of floodplain wetlands are seasonally inundated grassland (including natural wet meadows), shrublands, woodlands and forests. Floodplain wetlands are not listed as a specific wetland type herein.
122. While the precise number of Ramsar sites in the coastal zone with management plans is not known, it is encouraging that such progress is being made to put in place plans designed for the long-term sustainable use of these flagship sites. COP7 ‘raised the bar’ on this aspect of Ramsar work by urging Parties to achieve management plans for at least 75% of their Ramsar sites by COP8 in 2002.
123. To assist with further additions of coastal zone wetlands to the Ramsar List, the Convention’s Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP) is at present developing specific guidance for Parties in terms of future designation of mangrove, coral reef, sea grass and soft-bottomed community wetland types. The Ramsar STRP is also developing guidelines for the integrated management of wetlands within the coastal zone. All of these ‘tools’ will be considered at Ramsar 8th Conference of Parties in 2002.
124. One good example is Colombia. On 5 December 2000 the Consejo Nacional Ambiental approved the "Política Nacional Ambiental para el Desarrollo Sostenible del los Espacios Oceánicos y Zonas Costeras e Insulares de Colombia" (National Environmental Policy for the Sustainable Development of the Ocean and Coastal Areas and Islands of Colombia). The objective of the Policy is to promote integrated coastal zone management, improve governance and linkages between the different stakeholders, promote conservation and restoration of the goods and services provided by the ecosystems, generate knowledge and information to assist decision-makers in the strategic planning processes, promote the involvement of local communities, and apply the ecosystem approach of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
125. Another illustration that is especially notable is the case of the St Lucia Ramsar site in South Africa. This case is described in Information box 18 at the end of this section.
5.3 Marine environmental protection
126. Within this programme area, great emphasis is given to land-based marine pollution and coastal zone erosion processes. In both cases, wetlands are a key part of the response (see Information box 19 at the end of this section). The loss of wetland areas within river basins decreases water quality and increases sediment and pollutant loads discharged into the sea. The loss of coastal zone wetlands, especially within estuaries, further exacerbates these problems, while the loss of coastal fringing wetlands leads to direct shoreline erosion. A fundamental part of protecting marine environments therefore has to be integrated river basin management (where these discharge into the sea), and the protection of coastal ecosystems.
127. As indicated in the preceding section, the Ramsar Convention is taking a strong role in promoting the protection and sustainable development of coastal zone wetlands. It is also very active in promoting integrated river basin management (see section 6). Together these actions are also making a significant contribution to the protection of marine environments.
5.4 Sustainable use and conservation of marine living resources under national jurisdiction
128. This programme area draws attention to the importance of coastal zone fisheries and notes that "marine living resources provide an important source of protein in many countries and their use is often of major importance to local communities and indigenous people. Such resources provide food and livelihoods to millions of people and, if sustainably utilized, offer increased potential to meet nutritional and social needs, particularly in developing countries" (Paragraph 17.70).
129. In the Ramsar context, paragraph 17.85 in this programme area is especially relevant: "States should identify marine ecosystems exhibiting high levels of biodiversity and productivity and other critical habitat areas and should provide necessary limitations on use in these areas, through, inter alia, designation of protected areas. Priority should be accorded, as appropriate, to:
a) Coral reef ecosystems;
b) Estuaries;
c) Temperate and tropical wetlands, including mangroves;
d) Seagrass beds
e) Other spawning and nursery areas."
130. Reference to Table 3 with the Ramsar’s Wetland Types shows that a), b), c) and d) above are classified as wetlands under the Ramsar Convention. As indicated above, there are today 498 sites in the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance (out of 1050) which include coastal wetland types. The wise use management of these sites, as required under the Convention, is making a major contribution to Agenda 21 in the coastal zone.
131. Noting the importance of wetlands as spawning and nursery areas for fish, at its 6th Conference of Parties in 1996 the Ramsar Convention adopted criteria to establish Wetlands of International Importance based on their fish habitat values. These criteria are shown in Information box 20 below. Today there are 146 Ramsar sites (14%) in 52 Parties which have been designated on the basis of these criteria. Of these, 80 contain coastal wetland types.
5.5 Addressing critical uncertainties for the management of the marine environment and climate change
132. In section 8 the evolving partnership between the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Ramsar Convention is described. The basis of this collaboration is the role of wetlands - peatlands especially - in the management of greenhouse gases (particularly carbon dioxide) and in physically buffering climate change impacts, especially in the coastal zone. For more on this aspect of Ramsar’s work see section 8.
5.6 Strengthening international, including regional, cooperation and coordination
133. Apart from its overall mandate in the area of international cooperation (see section 8.5), the Ramsar Convention can boast two major regional initiatives which are resulting in stronger regional cooperation and coordination as it relates to the coastal zone.
134. One of these is the Mediterranean Wetlands Initiative (MedWet) which is described in Information box 37 in Section 8. The other is Ramsar’s Memoranda of Cooperation with the Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean Region (the Cartagena Convention) and the Convention for the Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea Against Pollution (Barcelona Convention).
135. The current work plan of the Ramsar Bureau (secretariat) indicates that similar forms of collaboration are to be pursued with the South Pacific Regional Environment Program.
5.7 Sustainable development of small islands
136. The Ramsar Convention has taken a range of actions to promote its work and encourage the small island developing states (SIDS) to join the Convention. Regrettably, relatively few have taken this action and their recruitment remains a priority for the Convention. It is apparent that one impediment to these countries joining the Ramsar Convention has been the unclear relationship (in both a policy and programmatic sense) between the Ramsar Convention and CBD and UNFCCC; both of which have high levels of SIDS participation. It is expected that with the strengthening partnership emerging between the Ramsar Convention and these two UNCED-related Conventions (see sections 8.2 and 8.3), the SIDS will come to realize the advantages, opportunities and benefits to be gained from becoming signatories of the Ramsar Convention as well.
137. In December 2000, as part of the Wetlands for the Future Initiative (see section 4.3), a Ramsar/SPAW Caribbean Training Workshop was held in Trinidad. It was attended by over 30 participants from 20 Caribbean nations and territories. The workshop served as an introduction to the Ramsar Convention in the region, a research mission on wetland-related needs in the Caribbean, and an opportunity for some training of local professionals on several wetland management issues.
138. Other actions taken or proposed by Ramsar which it is hoped will encourage the SIDS to join the Ramsar Convention include:
a. the Memorandum of Cooperation with the secretariat of the Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wide Caribbean Region (the Cartagena Convention);
b. the proposed development of a formal agreement of cooperation with the South Pacific Regional Environment Program, and
c. the current review of the Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island States being carried out by Ramsar’s intersessional governing body, the Standing Committee, which will result in recommendations to be tabled at Ramsar COP8 for priority actions by the Convention.
5.8 Thematic and policy review and recommended ‘course corrections’
139. Ramsar’s contribution to Agenda 21 in this area can be summarized as follows:
a) encouraging signs that wetlands are increasingly being managed as integrated components of the coastal zone, and recognized for their importance as protecting society from storm surges and supporting fisheries;
b) 498 Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar sites) out of 1050 which include coastal zone wetland types;
c) 416 Ramsar sites (44%) where management plans to promote conservation and wise use are in place or being developed, including sites in the coastal zone;
d) Ramsar’s STRP is developing guidelines for integrating wetlands into coastal zone management to be adopted at Ramsar’s 8th Conference of Parties in 2002;
e) adoption of the Strategic Framework and guidelines for the future development of the List of Wetlands of International Importance (Handbook 7 in the Ramsar Wise Use "Toolkit"), and the supplementary guidance being developed to assist Parties in identifying their internationally important coral reefs, mangrove systems, sea grass beds and soft-bottomed communities for designation as Ramsar sites;
f) publication of Frameworks for managing Wetlands of International Importance and other wetlands (Handbook 7 in the Ramsar Wise Use "Toolkit") providing guidance on management planning, site monitoring and risk assessment;
g) Ramsar’s recognition of the importance of wetlands as fish nurseries, the development of Ramsar site criteria for this function, and the subsequent designation (since 1996) of 146 sites on the basis of importance for fish;
h) Memoranda of Cooperation with the Cartagena and Barcelona Conventions, and the proposal to pursue a similar Memorandum with the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme.
Ramsar’s Rio+10 challenges
140. Some of the challenges facing Ramsar in this area are:
a) to continue to raise awareness about the importance of wetlands to coastal and marine ecosystems – from the perspectives of protection from storm surges, ecotourism, fisheries, etc.;
b) to complete, and see adopted and applied, Ramsar’s guidelines for integrating wetlands into coastal zone management;
c) to see management planning for coastal zone (and all) Ramsar sites accelerated, with plans to be developed through close consultation with major groups, and promote sustainable development of our highly populated coastal zones;
d) to see wetlands within the coastal zone and inland water ecosystems rehabilitated or restored as a deliberate tactic for returning ecosystem services;
e) to have Parties to the Convention applying the Strategic Framework for the development of the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance, resulting in increasing numbers of under-represented wetland types, and those wetlands most important for sustaining life, being designated under the Convention and managed for sustainability;
f) to see Parties systematically applying Ramsar’s fish criteria for Wetlands of International Importance, as a strategy for protecting fisheries resources vital as food and protein sources for human populations;
g) to see more small island developing States join the Ramsar Convention and use it as the important tool it can be for them in addressing biodiversity conservation, climate change and sustainable development imperatives; and
h) to apply effectively the existing memoranda of cooperation with the regional seas conventions, and adopt additional ones.
Policy review and recommended ‘course corrections’ for Rio+10
141. To date the Ramsar Convention has not been sufficiently recognized by world leaders as an important weapon in addressing the mounting pressures being experienced in the coastal and marine environments. As outlined in this section of Ramsar’s Agenda 21 Report, wetlands are a vital part of maintaining healthy and productive coastal and marine ecosystems.
142. Economic development for the communities of the coastal zone can also be strongly dependent on retaining their wetland assets, in terms of both fisheries production and eco-tourism potential.
143. For the people of the small island developing states, whose lifestyles are in most cases reliant on the natural resources of the sea, protecting coastal wetlands is an absolute priority. For these low-lying countries, retaining and restoring wetlands is also an important adaptive management strategy against the impacts of sea level rise.
144. Given these considerations, the Ramsar Convention urges Rio+10 to recognize the importance of States protecting and using their coastal wetland resources wisely. Parties should be encouraged to designate their key coastal zone wetland sites as Wetlands of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention as a ‘tool’ to assist sustainable development aspirations.
145. As advocated by the Ramsar Convention, the listed sites can become part of a global network of ‘demonstration’ sites for sustainable development (see section7.3), while at the same time providing a focus for national actions to implement Agenda 21 in very tangible and demonstrable ways.
146. Allied to this is the opportunity for States to use this same mechanism to establish national Ramsar site networks for protecting vital fish habitats. As population pressure mounts around the world, fish resources are being more and more stressed. By taking the proactive step now of protecting vital fish nursery areas as Ramsar sites, Parties are gaining some level of food security for the future.
Information box 18 - The St Lucia System, South Africa Designated a Wetland of International Importance in 1986 and a World Heritage site in 1999, St. Lucia represents one of the most important natural environments in Southern Africa. This Ramsar site is part of the largest estuarine system in Africa and has an area of 155,500 hectares. A 12-kilometre winding channel, known as ‘The Narrows’, connects the main portion of the lake system with the sea, and tidal exchange takes place through this channel. Evaporation is high in this region and freshwater input from the five rivers feeding the system is vital to prevent salinity rising to levels lethal to aquatic life. In 1989, the South African Government informed the Ramsar Convention Bureau that the ecological character of the St. Lucia System Ramsar site was likely to change should a mining proposal under consideration at the time be allowed to proceed. The site was added in 1990 to the Montreux Record of Ramsar sites where changes in ecological character have occurred, are occurring, or are likely to occur as a result of technological developments, pollution or other human interference, and the following year a Ramsar Advisory Mission was requested by the South African Government. The report of the mission, following an intensive investigation, advised the Government against even limited approval of the proposed project and made a number of suggestions for ‘wise use’ activities at the site in order to support the local people. In March 1996, it was announced that, in accordance with the Ramsar recommendations, all mining would be banned and a package of economic initiatives, including ecotourism, would be introduced to provide for the inhabitants of the area. In announcing the decision, the Minister for Environmental Affairs and Tourism stated "It gives me great pleasure to announce that the St Lucia System is to be removed from the Montreux Record on which it was placed in 1990. The threat to the system, namely the proposed dredge mining of the coastal dunes . . . has been removed. The Cabinet further decided in favour of an integrated development and land-use planning strategy for the entire region. This is in concurrence with the recommendations of the Ramsar Monitoring Mission which visited South Africa during 1992. I must acknowledge the support given to South Africa by the Ramsar community". [Information taken from a paper prepared for Ramsar COP6 by Allan E. F. Heydorn, available from the Ramsar Convention Bureau’s Web Site at http://ramsar.org/archives_heydorn.htm.] |
From Ramsar Wise Use ‘Toolbox’, Handbook 8, "Frameworks for managing Wetlands of International Importance and other wetlands"
Section 6. Freshwater resources
6.1 Introduction
147. Given the global recognition that the world faces, or is already experiencing, a freshwater crisis, Chapter 18 of Agenda 21 dealing with freshwater, warrants very special attention at Rio+10. The Second World Water Forum and Ministerial Conference held in The Hague in March 2000 issued a declaration which begins "Water is vital for life and health of people and ecosystems and a basic requirement for the development of countries." The assembled Ministers and Heads of Delegations went on to say that addressing the global water problems will mean that we have to ensure "that freshwater, coastal and related ecosystems are protected and improved."
148. Among the main challenges identified by the Second World Water Forum are the following, which are especially relevant to the role that the Ramsar Convention can and is playing in the promotion of integrated water resource management:
a. "Protecting ecosystems: to ensure the integrity of ecosystems through sustainable water resources management.
b. Sharing water resources: to promote peaceful co-operation and develop synergies between different uses of water at all levels, whenever possible, within and, in the case of boundary and transboundary water resources, between states concerned, through sustainable river basin management and other appropriate approaches.
c. Managing risks: to provide security from floods, droughts, pollution and other water-related hazards.
d. Valuing water: to manage water in a way that reflects its economic, social, environmental and cultural values for all its uses, and to move towards pricing water services to reflect the cost of their provision. This approach should take account of the need for equity and the basic needs of the poor and the vulnerable.
e. Governing water wisely: to ensure good governance, so that the involvement of the public and the interests of all stakeholders are included in the management of water resources."
149. The important roles played by wetlands in maintaining ‘healthy’ river systems and waterways are now well understood and are reflected in the Ministerial Statement from the Second World Water Forum.
150. Chapter 18 of Agenda 21, and the recommendations of the 6th Session of the Commission of Sustainable Development, give clear warnings about the need to protect and restore freshwater ecosystems as a key element of integrated water resource management.
151. Ramsar actively participated in the process leading to the 6th Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development in April 1998, when "Strategic approaches to freshwater management" was one of the two main issues for analysis. As a result of its deliberations, the Commission urged governments, inter alia, to address the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands as one of the "numerous gaps in the path towards integrated water resources development, management, protection and use" (paragraph 10 of the decision on this matter), and encouraged governments, while formulating integrated water resources management policies and programmes, to implement relevant conventions in force, including the Convention on Wetlands (paragraph 14 of the same decision).
152. The Ramsar Convention gains but a passing mention in Chapter 18 of Agenda 21 (Paragraph 18.39, (d)), and in 1992 this was probably a fair reflection of its profile and involvement in advancing integrated water resource management. A decade later, the situation is very different and the Ramsar Convention is now an active player and one that is taking a more and more active role in implementing the freshwater programme of Agenda 21. Some examples of this are perhaps the best way to illustrate this point.
6.2 Guidelines for integrating wetland conservation and wise use into river basin management
153. At Ramsar COP7 (1999) the Parties adopted Guidelines for integrating wetland conservation and wise use into river basin management. Based on case studies and experiences, these Guidelines provide a framework for Parties to apply integrated river basin management, which includes the conservation and wise use of associated wetlands. The Guidelines consider institutional frameworks, assessment and impact procedures, environmental water allocations and transboundary cooperation.
154. The River Basin Guidelines have been published as Handbook 4 in the Ramsar’s Wise Use ‘toolkit’ released in January 2000 (see section 1). As a follow-up initiative, and as an element of the Joint Work Plan between CBD and Ramsar, both secretariats are supporting the development of the so-called River Basin Initiative which aims to provide a global networking and information service for applying the Guidelines.
6.3 The expanding network of ‘freshwater’ Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar sites)
155. Of the 1050 Ramsar sites which exist today in 123 countries, 857 (82%) contain freshwater wetland types (see section 5) as defined under the Ramsar Convention. The ‘protection’ (meaning conservation and wise use) of these sites is providing an important contribution to the maintenance of ‘healthy’ and sustainable river basins, not to mention their importance in terms of flood and drought protection, water purification, food production and local economies, through ecotourism and alike. As the number of Parties to the Ramsar Convention increases, so to will the ‘network’ of Ramsar sites that are contributing to our efforts to sustain stressed waterways.
6.4 Transboundary wetlands and river basins
156. Article 5 of the Ramsar Convention places a clear obligation on the Parties to cooperate with respect to the management of transboundary wetlands and river basins: "The Contracting Parties shall consult each other about the Convention and especially in the case of wetlands extending over the territories of more than one Contracting Party or where the water system is shared by Contracting Parties". The guidelines developed pursuant to this Article (see section 8.5) therefore, and not surprisingly, place great emphasis on neighbouring Parties cooperating in this endeavour.
157. At the time of Ramsar COP7 (1999), the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) reported that of 955 Ramsar sites considered, 92 (9.6%) may be subject to direct impacts from adjoining States and could therefore benefit from cooperative management approaches. WCMC also examined situations where Ramsar sites where found within river basins that cross international boundaries and could potentially therefore suffer impacts from these adjoining States. They found that of 955 Ramsar sites, 267 (28%) were located in so-called ‘international’ river basins.
158. As part of its work under the banner of international cooperation, the Ramsar Convention has escalated its efforts to promote transboundary cooperation. Among some notable cases are the Dauriia International Protected Area shared between Mongolia, the People’s Republic of China, and the Russian Federation and Lake Prespa shared by Albania, Greece, and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (see Information box 24 at the end of this section).
159. The Ramsar secretariat is also actively supporting a number of multi-State river basin initiatives including the OKACOM for the Okavango River Basin shared by Angola, Namibia and Botswana and the management of Lake Chad among Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and the Central Africa Republic (see section 8.4).
160. In recognition of the Ramsar Convention’s direct interest in river basin management, it was given Observer Status to the Danube River Protection Convention in November 2000. As stated in the Agreement relating to this Observer status, this is acknowledgement of the "role of wetlands in water management, including flood control, nutrient retention and groundwater replenishment, as well as the need to minimize impacts of land use and