The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

World Wetlands Day 2001: Bahamas

National Wetlands Committee

Dear Margarita,

Further to the note from Pericles [Maillis], this is to advise that the Bahamas National Wetland Committee was recently re-appointed by Dr Earl Deveaux, Ambassador for the Environment, and Chairperson of the Bahamas Environment Science and Technology (BEST) Commission. BEST is the National Focal Point for all environmental Matters in the Bahamas. Established as a functional subcommittee of the BEST Commission, the Committee is headed by myself and Pericles as Co-chairs, representing the Public and Private Sectors respectively. The Committee comprises representatives from all agencies who's mandate impacts wetlands and includes the following:

• Department of Agriculture
• Department of Fisheries
• College of the Bahamas
• Bahamas National Trust (A quaisi-NGO which has responsibility for management of National Parks)
• Department of Lands and Survey (Forestry Division)
• The Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
• Private Citizens
• Water and Sewerage Corporation
• BEST Commission

In addition to and working in close association with the National Wetland Committee we are moving to establish a not-for-profit entity to be known as Wetland Care Bahamas. This entity will be the tool by which we carry out the comprehensive wetland restoration works through the country.

Following WWD activities we will be moving rapidly with advancing the objectives of Ramsar.

Add to the note sent by Pericles that we have adopted the theme "Wetlands Across The Bahamas". In line with the theme, Ambassador Deveaux will be the featured speaker at a Town Meeting hosted by the Bahamas National Trust during Wetlands Week. In addition to the Restoration works in Andros Island, BEST will be launching a major restoration project at Big Pond, a wetland situated smack in the middle of Nassau, the major urban centre in the Bahamas. A stakeholder's meeting will identify the major issues, and the project is expected to be community-based and participatory. It is expected that the restored wetland will once again become an important site for waterfowl, both local and migratory. Further, part of the periphery of the system will be enhanced as a community park for residents, and the school which borders the system. The College of The Bahamas has already begun collecting baseline data for the site, and will continue to monitor the site to provide data on both pre- and post-restoration conditions.

I trust that you are well and that this is useful.

Eric

Eric Carey [ ecarey@bahamas.net.bs ]

For further information about the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, 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 ramsar@ramsar.org). Posted 5 February 2001, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.