The Ramsar Archives

Communities Working for Wetlands Conference, Alexandria, Virginia, USA, 7-9 May 1997

"Let’s listen to the secrets of the water"

A keynote address by Delmar Blasco
Secretary General
Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971)

"He looked lovingly into the flowing water, into the transparent green, into the crystal lines of its wonderful design. He saw bright pearls rise from the depths, bubbles swimming on the mirror, sky-blue reflected in them. The river looked at him with a thousand eyes - green, white, crystal, sky-blue. How he loved this river, how it enchanted him, how grateful he was to it! In his heart he heard the newly awakened voice speak, and it said to him: ‘love this river, stay by it, learn from it’. Yes, he wanted to learn from it, he wanted to listen to it. It seemed to him that whoever understood this river and its secrets would understand much more, many secrets, all secrets." Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse

You have also perceived the voices of your hearts, and you love your rivers, the lakes, the marshes, the big and small spans of water that run by or stay quietly in the neighbourhood of your communities. You have stayed by them, you have learnt from them. So, you have understood, and you are ready to understand many secrets, all secrets. The secrets that maintain the web of life on earth so inextricably knitted together.

We have gathered here to learn from each other, but also to celebrate. To celebrate the wonders of wetlands, those very special places.

And we are here to reaffirm that the only sustainable solution to maintain, or repair, the capacity of wetlands to sustain life, lies in building the capacity of communities to collectively and responsibly manage their resources. Governments and other institutions have an important role to play in enabling communities to do so. But they cannot substitute for the communities in their caring and active engagement at the local level. Here in the United States of America, in Burkina Faso, in Ecuador, in Finland, or in Malaysia: community action is at the heart of true, long-lasting nature conservation efforts, and, thus at the heart of long-lasting sustainability.

But we need to assist communities to equip themselves to play effectively their irreplaceable role of guardians of nature and its resources. We need for communities to understand the true challenges that we are facing.

In its testimony to the US Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, presented only a week ago, on 30 April, the U.S. National Ramsar Committee said:

"Over the next 30 years . . . the world population will grow by 45 percent, while our collective ability to capture freshwater will increase by only ten percent. This relative scarcity of water may be exacerbated by global climate change, which is anticipated to prolong and intensify both flood and drought events. A decrease in water supplies will likely lead to intensified regional competition for water, not only in the conflict-ridden areas of the world such as Northern Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, but also here in the United States".

This is the context of your involvement and action. You are involved in a life-saving enterprise. The wetlands that you care for, as well as the wetlands of faraway places, all wetlands, are of crucial importance for this water-scarce planet. When defending them from unwise uses, we are not defending a whim of the moment, a "pet issue", but a basic component of practically all ecosystems on Earth, and I would say of the planetary ecosystem.

And the term "ecosystem" is a crucial one. Let me quote from WorldWatch Paper No. 128, entitled Imperiled Waters, Improverished Future, in which the author, Janet N. Abramovitz, says:

"Until now, people have exploited and controlled freshwater resources in fragmented ways. . . . The tendency is to focus on only one element at a time – whether navigation, irrigation, power generation, sport fisheries, or even limited measures of water quality – without regard for the entire system. But a river does not stop at the water's edge; a healthy wetland is not simply a place with cattails and ducks.

The ways we view the goods and services provided by ecosystems, our understanding of our impacts, and our responses to the problems are also fragmented. We need to see a river or lake, along with its entire watershed and all its physical, chemical, and biological elements, as part of a complex, integrated system. Human inhabitants are also part of that system. Once we adopt a more comprehensive view of nature, we can learn to interact with ecosystems in ways that maintain their integrity, in what may be called ecosystem management. In an ecosystem-based approach, resources can be managed over large enough areas and long enough time scales to allow their species and ecological processes to remain intact while still allowing human activity. On a social level, involving all stakeholders in defining problems, setting priorities, and implementing solutions is essential."

Finally, another important question that communities should also take on board, is the question of the economic valuation of wetlands. And on this let me quote Under Secretary of State Tim Wirth from his speech at a forest symposium in Washington on 3 April. He was referring to forests, but his statement can be equally applied to wetlands:

"I personally feel that one of the greatest challenges . . . will be to devise ways to value the ‘free’ services provided by forests ecosystems and nature as a whole: clean water, clean air, stable soils. And much more. To my mind, there is little doubt that even small investments in the ‘biological capital’ of forest can generate big returns to society by providing potable water, preventing land slides, protecting downstream agriculture – all of which represent countless billions of dollars in property, prosperity and human life."

We have an exciting opportunity in front of us here in Alexandria. Let us share our experience and let us go from here with a renewed commitment to encourage communities all over the world to take ownership of the magnificent capital embodied in the richness and variety of our wetlands.

Thank you to the Terrene Institute for the initiative of this Conference, and thank you very much to the sponsors and co-sponsors for having contributed to making it possible. For us at the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, it has been an honour and a privilege to be associated with this event, and we look forward to continuing to work closely with all of you for the benefit of conservation and sustainable use of wetlands world-wide.

Let’s share our knowledge and our perceptions of all the secrets shut up in these special places, our wetlands.

Thank you.

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 ). This address was delivered by Mr Blasco to the American Wetlands Conference on 8 May 1997 and posted here on 14 May 1997, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.