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Ramsar/MedWet award for wetlands film set for Ecocinema festival

MedWet PRESS RELEASE 27 May 2004

Annual Ramsar/MedWet award for a film on water/wetlands to be awarded at the ECOCINEMA festival

The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, signed in the city of Ramsar, Iran, in 1971, is the world's oldest global environmental convention, working for the wise use of wetlands and water resources worldwide. MedWet, the Mediterranean Wetlands Initiative of the Ramsar Convention, is a long-term collaborative initiative for the conservation of Mediterranean wetlands. MedWet includes all 25 Mediterranean countries, the Palestinian Authority, and a number of international and intergovernmental institutions, expert centres, and NGOs.

The MedWet initiative of Ramsar shares the view of Ecocinema that important environmental issues should utilise the universal art of cinema in order to increase awareness and help create a more humanitarian society. On these grounds, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and its MedWet initiative are establishing in 2004 the award of an annual prize for a film on water or related ecosystems (especially wetlands) that will be entered in the competition segment of the Ecocinema international film festival. The films entering the competition for the Ramsar/MedWet award will have water and/or aquatic ecosystems as their overall theme and will be judged by a specific jury. The winner will be awarded a prize of €4.000 (four thousand euro) provided by the Ramsar Convention and MedWet. At the 4th Ecocinema festival, which will be held in Rhodes, Greece, from 1 to 6 June 2004, the award will be presented by the Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention Dr Peter Bridgewater.

The objective of the Ramsar/MedWet award is to encourage and support the production of good quality films and documentaries on the themes of water and wetlands and the interaction of people with them, thereby aiming to increase public awareness and concern with regard to their conservation and wise use.

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 ramsar@ramsar.org). Posted 27 May 2004, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.