Key Documents of the Ramsar Convention

Recommendation 5.1.1 on Greek Ramsar sites

5th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties
Kushiro, Japan
9-16 June 1993

Recommendation 5.1.1: Greek Ramsar sites

RECALLING Conference Recommendation REC. C.4.9.5, approved at Montreux, which noted that Greece had been the seventh State to become a Contracting Party and had therefore brought the Convention into force in 1975, and called on the Greek Government to provide definitive maps for the eleven Greek Ramsar sites;

NOTING that definitive maps of Amvrakikos Gulf and Mikra Prespa National Park have not as yet been submitted to the Ramsar Bureau as requested in Recom-mendation 4.9.5;

TAKING ACCOUNT of the statement by the Greek delegation at Kushiro, which indicated that some modifications of the preliminary zoning maps provided in 1987 might occur, mainly with regard to buffer zones;

CONCERNED at reports of damage to the Messolonghi Lagoons and further threats from schemes to divert the Rivers Acheloos and Evinos;

THE CONFERENCE OF THE CONTRACTING PARTIES

REQUESTS the Greek Government to take urgent measures to fulfil its obligations under the Ramsar Convention, and in particular by:

• submitting the existing definitive maps for the sites of Amvrakikos Gulf and Mikra Prespa National Park to the Bureau as soon as possible, as well as making definitive delimitations of the other nine Greek Ramsar sites, in accordance with Montreux Recommendation REC. C.4.9.5;
• preparing management plans for these sites in accordance with Kushiro Resolution 5.7;
• ensuring their wise use, in accordance with Montreux Recommendation REC. C.4.10 and Kushiro Resolution RES. C.5.6;

URGES the Greek authorities to consider all possible ways for averting negative impacts from water management projects upon the Messolonghi Lagoons Ramsar Site, and to inform the Ramsar Bureau correspondingly; and

EXPRESSES THE HOPE that, when Turkey becomes a Contracting Party to the Ramsar Convention, the Convention's Article 5 will be applied at the Evros/Meriç Delta transfrontier wetland.

For more information about the Resolutions and Recommendations of the Kushiro COP or the Ramsar Convention itself, please contact: the Ramsar Convention Bureau, Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland (tel +41 22 999 0170, fax +41 22 999 0169, e-mail ). Posted 28 January 1997, updated 9 March 2000, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.