Australia's Fivebough & Tuckerbil wins award
Fivebough & Tuckerbil Ramsar site, Australia: wins award - hosts Australian Birdfair in Nov 07
Dear
Ramsar-ites,
Ramsar afficionados may recall the wonderful story of the Fivebough &
Tuckerbil wetlands in New South Wales, Australia. They were designated
as a Ramsar site in 2002 in place of a proposal to flood Fivebough Swamp
under a recreational lake. Since then local community, industry and government
agencies have formed the Fivebough & Tuckerbil Wetlands Trust, uniting
the Leeton community, and undertaken one of the most exemplary cases of
management and restoration and provision of visitor facilities we are
likely to find with the Register of Wetlands of International Importance.
The Trust's very impressive work, its management plan, and news on the
wetlands (including data on wildlife sightings) can all be viewed at:
http://fivebough.org.au/
This excellent work has been recognised with the Fivebough & Tuckerbil
Wetlands Trust winning the best eco-tourism prize in the 2007
Inland NSW Tourism Awards on the 29th July: http://www.inlandtourismawards.com.au/
Not content with merely winning awards, the Trust will host in Leeton
the 2nd Australian Birdfair on 15-18
November 2007. See: http://www.australianbirdfair.org.au/
Anyone with an interest in Australian birds and wetlands conservation
should not miss the opportunity to participate in this event with local
and national experts, and in a community that will provide visitors with
excellent hospitality (and great local produce from their vineyards and
orchards).
In my visit there last weekend, the Trust's Chair, Mike Schultz, quickly
located 11 Brolgas and the first of the thousands of Glossy Ibis expected
for the spring. If you are near Australia this is a Ramsar site you must
see.
Regards - Jamie Pittock
(Mr) Jamie Pittock
WWF Research Associate
(Former Director, WWF Global Freshwater Programme)
WWF
GPO Box 408
Canberra ACT 2601
Australia
E-mail: jpittock@wwf.org.au
For
further information about the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, please contact
the Ramsar Convention Secretariat, Rue Mauverney 28,
CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland (tel +41 22 999 0170, fax +41 22 999 0169,
e-mail 
).
Posted 16 August 2007, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.
