The
Ramsar Convention The Convention’s CEPA Programme
The Ramsar CEPA List
Invitation to join the
Ramsar CEPA List
The Ramsar Bureau invites all interested persons to join the Ramsar CEPA List. This is an unmoderated e-mail discussion group, devoted to the wide range of news, announcements, opinion, information requests and replies concerning the use of Communication, Education and Public Awareness (CEPA) as an effective tool for the conservation and wise use of wetlands. The CEPA List is an official service of the Ramsar Bureau. It consists of three language sections (three separate mailing lists), one for the exchange of CEPA information in English, another for French, and another for Spanish. Subscribers are welcome to join any, or all, of these mailing lists. To see a typical range of messages visit the news page.
You may subscribe to the CEPA List in English simply by sending an e-mail to the following address: ramsar-cepa-eng-join@indaba.iucn.org (or ramsar-cepa-franc-join@indaba.iucn.org to join the French list, ramsar-cepa-esp-join@indaba.iucn.org for the Spanish). The subject line and text area can be left blank. Alternatively, you can submit the form below. You will receive a confirmation of your subscription and a message in the appropriate language which will welcome you with a fuller description of the CEPA List's policy and purpose as well as details on how to use the list and its services. This "welcome message" is reproduced below.
Ramsar CEPA List Join/Leave Request
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[What follows here is the message that new subscribers to the CEPA List will receive. It lays out the purpose and practice of the mailing list and provides a brief guide to the commands by which to take advantage of its services.]
The CEPA List
1. Policy
Matters
2. Technical matters (how to use
this list)
Welcome to the Ramsar CEPA List, a public electronic mailing list of the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971), which is maintained by the Ramsar Convention secretariat, or "Bureau", in Gland, Switzerland, with technical assistance from IUCN - The World Conservation Union.
The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands is an intergovernmental treaty which provides the framework for international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. The Convention's mission is "the conservation and wise use of wetlands by national action and international cooperation as a means to achieving sustainable development throughout the world." There are presently more than 150 Contracting Parties to the Convention, which have designated more than 1600 wetlands for the List of Wetlands of International Importance, covering a surface area of over 145 million hectares.
PURPOSE: The purpose of the CEPA List is to provide a mechanism for the exchange of news, views, announcements, information and advice on CEPA-related issues between any of the List's subscribers and all the others. At this time, the CEPA List is open to all interested persons and is unmoderated, so that all posted messages go directly to all subscribers. Therefore, any facts or opinions contained in any posted messages should not be seen as representing the opinions of the Ramsar Bureau or the Contracting Parties or as facts whose accuracy is guaranteed by them.
SUBJECTS: Appropriate subjects for posting on the CEPA List include anything which might be of interest to citizens, schoolteachers, NGOs, Ramsar CEPA Focal Points, Ramsar Administrative Authorities as well as other government personnel who are interested in the development and evolution of communication, education and public awareness as a tool for the conservation and wise use of wetlands in general, and more specifically, for implementing the Convention on Wetlands. A broad definition of appropriate subjects might include:
1) NEWS about events, initiatives, campaigns, resource materials, best practice or cautionary examples, etc., concerning CEPA activities at Ramsar sites or other wetlands; launching of CEPA national action plans etc.;
2) ANNOUNCEMENTS of upcoming events, meetings, training courses, employment opportunities, funding opportunities, awards, etc. relating to wetland CEPA;
3) REQUESTS for information or advice on wetland CEPA activities (beyond those that might be better addressed directly to the Bureau) and REPLIES to such requests; and
4) OPINION on issues under development within Ramsar's Outreach Programme and the broader wetland community, such as the development and implementation of CEPA national action plans, community-based CEPA activities, training needs, cooperation and harmonization of CEPA activities with those of other environmental conventions, among many, many others.
LANGUAGE: Since some of our readers will not be working in their mother-tongue, expression should be very clear, concise, free of jargon and slang, and probably without much irony. Scientists are encouraged to write in such a way that their messages will be intelligible to the rest of us.
RIGHTS: The CEPA List is open to all interested subscribers. Please note that the Bureau considers the list to be an adjunct to its other communications instruments, especially its World Wide Web site, and reserves the right to reprint any material posted on this mailing list on the Web site, in the Newsletter or in other publications as Bureau staff deem appropriate, acknowledging the source in each case.
The following paragraphs give you important information about using this list. Please save this file for future reference.
There are three types of actions you can take regarding this list:
A) Send a message to be distributed to all of the other subscribers to the CEPA List (called "posting to the list"),
B) Reply to a message you have read on the List and
C) Send commands concerning your subscription directly to the list server software, and NOT to the CEPA List itself.
A) SENDING A MESSAGE TO THE LIST
To send a message to all CEPA List members, send an e-mail message with the following form to the CEPA e-mail address, not to the list server:
To: ramsar-cepa-eng@indaba.iucn.org
Subject: [Choose a suitable title]
(Your message goes here...)
==>> NOTE: Messages sent to the list are archived with an index of Subject headings, so please help future list users by selecting an appropriate Subject title.
To post a large message or file
We have members in some parts of the world who only have access to slow and expensive dial-up Internet connections, so large attachments should always be avoided. If you wish to make a large file available to many subscribers, we recommend either of two methods:
a) post a brief description of the document to the list
and invite subscribers to reply to you directly with a request for the file, or
b) send the file to the CEPA List owner (hails@ramsar.org) and ask her to post it to the
server for retrieval by those subscribers who wish to read it (see Requesting Files,
below).
B) REPLYING TO A MESSAGE ON THE LIST
Important: There are two types of replies: a) to all members of the list, and b) to only the person who posted the message you want to reply to.
a) If you wish to send a reply to a previous message posted on the CEPA List, to be read by all members of the list, you must send a new message to ramsar-cepa-eng@indaba.iucn.org.
b) If your reply should be sent only to the person who posted the message and would not be appropriate for all the subscribers to the list, you should simply hit the reply button.
C) SENDING COMMANDS TO THE LIST SERVER (to join or leave the list, modify how mail is sent to you, retrieve files etc.)
(1) SUBSCRIBING TO THE LIST:
To join the CEPA List. simply send the following message:
To: listadmin@indaba.iucn.org
Subject: (none is required)
[message] join ramsar-cepa-eng
(2) REMOVING YOURSELF FROM THE LIST
To remove yourself from the List and stop receiving messages, simply send a message to the list server control as follows:
To: listadmin@indaba.iucn.org
Subject: (none is required)
[message] leave ramsar-cepa-eng
(3) WEB ARCHIVE of List Messages:
Using your Web browser, you may see a Web-format archive of all postings to this list, updated every hour, at:
http://indaba.iucn.org:1276/readlistarchives.mml You will need to enter the name of the mailing list [ramsar-cepa-eng@indaba.iucn.org] and then the e-mail address you use for receiving mail from the list, in the two boxes provided. Click on the "View the archive list" to see the full list.
(4) CHANGING YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS
To unsubscribe yourself from your old e-mail account and then join again using your new one, either write to the CEPA list manager, hails@ramsar.org, and ask her to make the change for you (don't forget to tell her both your old and your new addresses), or send this message from your new address:
To: Listadmin@indaba.iucn.org
Subject: (none is required)[message] leave ramsar-cepa-eng (yourOldEmailAddress)
[message] subscribe ramsar-cepa-eng (yourNewEmailAddress)
(5) REQUESTING DIGESTS
Instead of getting each message from the list separately, you may ask the list server to send you a single file containing all the messages that were sent that day. To do this, send a message to the list server control address with the command "DIGEST". For example:
To: ramsar-cepa-eng-request@indaba.iucn.org
Subject: (none is required)
[message] digestThe list server will send you a confirmation message back, and every 24-hours you will receive a single e-mail message with a list of contents and each message listed in it. To return to immediate delivery of messages, please use the Subscribe command as above.
(6) REQUESTING FILES FROM THE LIST
To get the list of files that have been placed on the CEPA list's server for retrieval, send:
To: listadmin@indaba.iucn.org
Subject: (none is required)and in the first line of the message, write:
DIR ramsar-cepa-eng
You will receive by return e-mail 1)a confirmation of your command, and 2)a list of all the available files.
You may then retrieve one or more of the files with the GET command.
To: listadmin@indaba.iucn.org
Subject: (none is required)and in the first line of the message, write:
GET ramsar-cepa-eng filename
(where filename is the name of the file you want to have sent to you by email). You may repeat this line in the message for additional filenames:
GET ramsar-cepa-eng filename1
GET ramsar-cepa-eng filename2
GET ramsar-cepa-eng filename3
WHERE TO REPORT PROBLEMS
Should you have any problems or questions, advice and suggestions, or changes of e-mail address, please e-mail the CEPA list manager directly at hails@ramsar.org, and she will be happy to help you.
E-MAIL ADDRESSES ASSOCIATED WITH THIS LIST
**
ramsar-cepa-eng@indaba.iucn.org To post a message to all list
members.
** ramsar-cepa-eng-request@indaba.iucn.org To change your list settings
** ramsar-cepa-eng-help@indaba.iucn.org To get the Help file for this list.
** ramsar-cepa-eng-leave@indaba.iucn.org To leave this list.
** ramsar-cepa-eng-suspend@indaba.iucn.org To stop temporarily delivery of list messages
to you (for vacation or travel periods)
** ramsar-cepa-eng-resume@indaba.iucn.org To resume delivery of list messages to you.
** ramsar-cepa-eng-owner@indaba.iucn.org To send a message to the owners / managers of
this list.
For
further information, please contact the Ramsar
Convention Bureau, Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland
(tel +41 22 999 0170, fax +41 22 999 0169, e-mail ramsar@ramsar.org). Posted
16 April 2001, updated 23 November, 2006, Sandra Hails, Ramsar.
