Subject: Ramsar report on the Montreal meetings


Hi, for those who might be interested: Ramsar cooperation with the CBD
is such an important issue for us that I take the liberty of posting a
report on Ramsar's participation in the recent round of meetings on
biodiversity of inland water systems leading up to the SBSTTA3 meeting
in Montreal.  It was prepared for the Ramsar Web site by Mike Smart, who
has been the Bureau's focal point on these issues.  I hope you find it
interesting.  Best regards, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.
---
Montreal: Global Biodiversity Forum 8, Wetlands International Workshop,
and SBSTTA3

The Ramsar Bureau was involved in a series of important meetings related
to wetlands, held in Montreal, Canada, from 28 August to 5 September:

Global Biodiversity Forum 8 (GBF8), held from 29-31 August, and in
particular its workshop on "Biodiversity of Inland Waters". GBF8 was the
latest in a series of meetings organized by IUCN to precede other
important international events and to allow broad discussion of the
issues by governmental and non-governmental experts and interested
bodies. GBF8 preceded the 3rd meeting of the Subsidiary Body on
Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) of the
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which was to discuss, inter
alia, marine and coastal issues, inland water ecosystems and forest
biodiversity. A full report on GBF8 appears on the IUCN Web site.

The Ramsar Bureau was represented at the GBF8 workshop on biological of
inland waters, which pursued discussions on this theme held at the July
workshop organized in Wageningen, Netherlands, by the Ramsar Bureau,
IUCN 's Commission on Ecosystem Management, and Wetlands International.
The workshop developed further the conclusions of the Wageningen
workshop (about which a report has already been included on the Ramsar
Web site), with a view to contributing to the SBSTTA discussions.

On 31 August and 1 September, Wetlands International organized the
"International Workshop on Partnership for Integrating Wetlands and
Water Resources Management" at which the Ramsar Bureau was also
represented. This workshop took advantage of the presence in Montreal at
the same time of participants in the SBSTTA meetings and in the World
Water Congress. It took the form of a panel discussion bringing together
members of both the water resources community and the wetland
conservation community, followed by a series of workshops. It identified
a number of specific actions which the water resources and wetland
management communities could and should take in common. The summary
report of this workshop is also available on the Ramsar Web site.

>From 1-5 September, SBSTTA met in Montreal. The principal official
documents were posted on the CBD Web site (www.biodiv.org) in advance.
After an opening plenary session in which the Ramsar Bureau had the
opportunity to address the meeting and make a number of suggestions
(text of speech already posted on the Ramsar Web site), two parallel
working groups were held.

Working Group 1, chaired by Ms Elaine Fisher of Jamaica, covered item 3
of the agenda: "The main ecosystem topic; assessment of the status and
trends of the biological diversity of inland water ecosystems and
identification of options for conservation and sustainable use". In
addition, it dealt with coastal and marine biodiversity and
implementation of Article 7 on indicators and monitoring. This was
obviously the workshop of the greatest relevance to Ramsar, and was
attended by M. Smart of the Ramsar Bureau and Dr Y. Ntimoa-Baidu, the
Chair of the Ramsar Scientific and Technical Review Panel. Dr.
Ntimoa-Baidu also made a presentation at a lunchtime session organized
by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) about its project on coastal
wetlands of Ghana, which aims to conserve and make wise use of five
Ghanaian Ramsar sites; another presentation at this session was devoted
to the GEF project at the Jordanian Ramsar site of Azraq.

Working Group 2, chaired by Mr Gabor Nechay of Hungary, dealt with
forest and agricultural biological diversity.

The reports of both workshops were approved in a final plenary session
and will no doubt be available in the near future on the CBD Web site.
The conclusions on "Biological Diversity of Inland Waters", on
"Identification and monitoring of components of biological diversity of
inland water systems", and on "Methodologies for the the assessment of
biological diversity in inland water ecosystesm" figure in document
UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/3/L.8, and those on marine and coastal biological
diversity feature in document UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/3/L.9.

The conclusions on inland water ecosystems, and on indicators and
monitoring, have particular relevance to the Ramsar Convention. The main
thrust of the documents adopted (which will be presented as
recommendations for the approval of the 4th Conference of the Parties
(COP) to CBD in Bratislava, Slovakia, in May 1998) was very much in line
with preliminary workshops held in Trondheim, Norway, in June, in
Wageningen in July, and at GBF8. Great emphasis was laid on:

1. adopting an integrated catchment approach to watershed management
(and hence developing cooperation with the Broader Water Resource
Community);  
2. making valuation of inland water biological diversity; and  
3. emphasizing more effective conservation and efficiency in water use,
together with non-engineering solutions. 

The documents make specific calls for closer cooperation with Ramsar:

The General Recommendations include a call to the CBD COP in Bratislava
to encourage the two secretariats to elaborate a work plan that ensures
cooperation and avoids overlap. Included is a reference to Decision
III/21 of the third CBD COP which identified Ramsar as a lead partner in
inland water ecosystems and wetland issues.

The General Recommendations also call for establishment of a roster of
experts on the conservation and sustainable use of the biodiversity of
inland waters, noting that the Ramsar Bureau is also establishing a
similar list.

In the conclusions relating to identification and monitoring of
components of biological diversity of inland waters, the SBSTTA
recommends that the CBD COP advise its Parties to prepare indicative
lists of inland water ecosystems. The CBD secretariat should also work
closely with the Ramsar Bureau, and the SBSTTA with Ramsar's STRP, "to
achieve desirable convergence between approaches on criteria and
classification of inland water ecosystems between the two Conventions."

The Ramsar Bureau is keen to take up the challenge presented by these
recommendations, and is already investigating follow up action with the
CBD secretariat. 

*********************************************************
Dwight Peck, Executive Assistant for Communications
Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971)
Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland
E-mail dcp@hq.iucn.org, Web http://iucn.org/themes/ramsar/



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