Recommendations of the Brisbane Conference

Recommendation 6.13 on Guidelines on management planning

6th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties
Brisbane, Australia
19-27 March 1996

Recommendation 6.13: Guidelines on management planning for Ramsar sites and other wetlands

1. RECALLING that Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention are requested to designate wetlands within their territory for the List of Wetlands of International Importance, and formulate and implement their planning so as to promote the conservation of listed sites;

2. REFERRING to Resolution 5.7, which calls on Contracting Parties to:

a) develop management plans for each wetland designated for the Ramsar List; and

b) consider using the "Guidelines on Management Planning for Ramsar and Other Wetland Sites", attached as an Annex to Resolution 5.7, to review and, where necessary, update existing management plans;

3. FURTHER RECALLING that Resolution 5.7 emphasizes "the need for each Ramsar site to have its own management plan" and requests that "as far as necessary, Contracting Parties apply the Kushiro Guidelines";

4. AWARE that the Ramsar Strategic Plan 1997-2002 states that:

a) ten case studies of the best practice of management planning for Ramsar sites at local, regional, and catchment or coastal zone levels should be published for the guidance of Contracting Parties before the 7th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties in 1999 (Action 5.2.2); and

b) management plans or other mechanisms should be in preparation or in place for at least half of the Ramsar sites in each Contracting Party by the 8th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties in 2002 (Action 5.2.3);

5. WELCOMING the initiatives taken by some Contracting Parties to develop management plans in line with the Ramsar Guidelines on Management Planning; and

6. NOTING the conclusion of Technical Session D at this meeting that in general the Ramsar Guidelines provide a suitable model for management planning for Ramsar sites and other wetlands throughout the world;

THE CONFERENCE OF THE CONTRACTING PARTIES

7. CALLS ON the Contracting Parties to prepare and implement more management plans for Ramsar sites and other wetlands;

8. INSTRUCTS the Ramsar Bureau to promote the development of more management plans, in accordance with the Ramsar Guidelines on Management Planning and their implementation; and

9. REQUESTS the Ramsar Scientific and Technical Review Panel to monitor the Ramsar Guidelines on Management Planning, including a review of the most recent advances in the total or integrated catchment approach to management planning, and to report its conclusions, as well as the ten case studies of the best practice of management planning (Action 5.2.2 of the Ramsar Strategic Plan 1997-2002), to the 7th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties.

For further information about the Ramsar Convention, 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 25 December 1996, updated 24 March 2000, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.