Standing Committee 20 -- The Photo Gallery

Here, to supply you with the visual correlative of those somewhat tedious minutes, are the much livelier participants in the 20th meeting of the Ramsar Standing Committee, 29 September to 3 October 1997. They were caught in their unguarded moments -- in the meeting hall in the IUCN headquarters building in Gland, Switzerland; at the reception just outside the hall; and at the gala dinner for Mike Smart held in the cafeteria of the same rare edifice -- by Valerie Higgins of the Ramsar Bureau, all except one photo of which she is clearly the star. Almost everyone is here, but our apologies to those participants who were inadvertently missed. -- Web Editor.

They look like the jury in a domestic bludgeoning case, but it's not as bad as that.

The Head Table: Delmar Blasco, Secretary General of the Convention; Louise Lakos, Hungary (SC Member for Eastern Europe) and chair of the Standing Committee; Sergey Tveritinov and Igor Movtchan, Russian Federation (Alternate for Eastern Europe).

Abdoulaye N'Diaye of Senegal (SC member for Africa) and Paul Mafabi, Uganda (Alternate for Africa) contemplate the proceedings, whilst Clayton Rubec of Canada (Alternate for North America) contemplates the photographer.

Gerard Boere, the Netherlands (Permanent Observer State), shuffles papers whilst Senegal and Uganda watch out for the débris.

Meinrad Küttel of Switzerland (Permanent Observer State as host of the Bureau), who has recently replaced our own Aldo Antonietti after the latter's well-merited retirement.

Representing the Alternate for Asia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, are Borhan Riazi and Mohammad Reza Salamat, and Abdel Rahim Al-Wreikat batting for Jordan as an Observer State.

The Oceania Region, brilliantly represented by Samuel Antiko, Papua New Guinea, SC Member for the region, and Alison Shepherd of Australia, SC Member as Host of the most recent Conference of the Parties.

The delegation of the United States of America, Gilberto Cintron and Herbert Raffaele, with the Bureau's Regional Coordinator for the Neotropics, Montserrat Carbonell, nodding complacently behind. The USA is chair of the Subgroup on Finance and is the principal donor for the Wetlands for the Future programme.

Nadra Nathai-Gyan represents Trinidad and Tobago as an Observer State and, with her enthusiasm, has done more to promote the Convention's values in the Caribbean Region than a flight of conservation angels could have done.

Dave Pritchard of RSPB, representing partner organization BirdLife International, smiles competitively with Nadra Nathai-Gyan at the reception and wins, but not by much.

Yours Truly

And here's the intrepid rapporteur, Dwight Peck of the Ramsar Bureau, cringing behind a row of coffee cups, in mortal dread of the next mumbler or squeaky microphone.

Mr John O'Sullivan, BirdLife International, raiding the promotional materials desk as if it were the hors-d'oeuvres tray.

Doug Hulyer (center), representing the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, is smiling in a forebearing manner at something stage-right that we can only guess at. Biksham Gujja and Cassandra Phillips of WWF International (left) don't really know that this is happening, because they are busy with policy matters, and Mihaly Végh of Hungary, representing Ramsar's subsidiary scientific body, the Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP), disapproves, steadfastly.

Louise Lakos, Hungary (Member for Eastern Europe and Chair of the Standing Committee), explains essential elements of picturesque and practical automobile design to Tim Jones of the Ramsar Bureau and Rakovski Lashev, Observer representing Bulgaria, who tops 2.5 meters --

And then laughs off several attempts by Rebecca D'Cruz, the Bureau's outstanding Regional Coordinator for Asia, to resurrect the virtues of the Edsel for a new generation that might be ready for it.

Here, in this collector's item photo, is the photographer herself, Valerie Pearson Higgins of the Ramsar Bureau's Communications Unit, either on a fast delay or taken by a well-meaning passerby. And hovering all about her are a battalion of hispanophones, beginning at the left: Marco Solano and Manfred Peters of Costa Rica, SC Members as hosts of the next COP, then Roberto Cal Johnston of Uruguay, Member for the Neotropical Region and Vice-Chair of the Standing Committee; then Ms Higgins of course; then Gilberto Cintron of the US Fish and Wildlife Service of the USA, and Guillermo Lingua representing Argentina, attending as an Observer State. This is the Web Editor's favorite picture in this collection.

Dr Michael Moser, director of Wetlands International, is distinctly skeptical about the Netherlands' Gerard Boere's enthusiasm for the coffee.	Clearly, Scott Frazier, the Ramsar/Wetland Sites Officer at Wetlands International in the Netherlands, Keeper of the Sacred Ramsar Database, knows something we don't know. Perhaps it will show up in his next Overview of the Convention.
Sang Hoon Kim and Tae Yoon Park represent the Republic of South Korea, one of the Convention's most recent Contracting Parties, and find that hilarious.	The MedWet Initiative is in his hands! This is Thymio Papayannis, the Ramsar Convention's MedWet Coordinator, caught in a reflective moment.

For further information, please contact the Ramsar Convention Bureau, Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland (tel +41 22 999 0170, fax + 41 22 0169, e-mail ramsar@ramsar.org). Two scanning frenzies, 14 and 26 November 1997, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.