TOPIC - WETLANDS
RAMSAR'S COP-7: ACCELERATING THE
APPLICATION OF THE WISE USE PRINCIPLE
Delmar Blasco, Secretary General
The Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971)
The Convention on
Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971), while perhaps best known for the List of Wetlands of
International Importance, is also one of the global instruments promoting sustainable
development of our natural resources through its Wise Use principle. The Convention
defines Wise Use as "sustainable utilisation for the benefit of mankind in a way
compatible with the maintenance of the natural properties of the ecosystem".
The
Convention’s 1993 publication, "Towards the Wise Use of Wetlands",
documented 17 local, national, and international case studies showing wise use in action.
Since then successive Conferences of the Contracting Parties have contributed to the
further development of the principle through a range of Resolutions and Recommendations
that have refined the major themes contained in the Wise Use Guidelines (Recommendation
4.10, 1990) and the Additional Guidance for the Implementation of the Wise Use Concept
(Resolution 5.6, 1993).
Ramsar’s 7th
COP in San José, Costa Rica (10-18 May 1999), promises to provide detailed guidance to
the Contracting Parties on a range of the key elements which should be considered when
implementing Wise Use. It is expected that the participants in Costa Rica will have before
them for consideration draft guidelines on :
developing and
implementing National Wetland Policies;
establishing
participatory approaches to involve local communities and indigenous people in the
management of wetlands;
establishing
programmes for education, public awareness and communications (the Convention’s
Outreach Programme);
reviewing laws and
institutions for wetland conservation and wise use;
integrating
wetlands conservation and wise use into river basin management;
international
cooperation under the Convention, including development assistance;
wetland risk
assessment and methods for predicting change in ecological character;
taking a strategic
approach to designating sites for the List of Wetlands of International Importance;
priorities for
wetland inventory at the global scale.
In addition, there
will be keynote papers that will help to chart the course for the Convention up to its
next COP in 2002 on:
alien/invasive
species and wetlands;
wetlands and human
health;
Ramsar’s role
in responding to the global water crisis;
wetlands as an
element of National Water Policies;
management of
shared wetlands and river basins;
restoration of
wetlands as an element of policy and administration;
incentive measures
for promoting wetland conservation and wise;
strategic,
environmental and social impact assessment under the Ramsar Convention;
further guidance
on management planning at Ramsar sites and other wetlands;
global measures to
conserve peatlands and mires
Ramsar’s 7th
COP will be a very busy meeting, but also one that provides assistance to the Contracting
Parties on a full slate of issues which should allow the Convention’s Wise Use
principle to be implemented more effectively.
This same conference
will also provide an opportunity to review the successes and continuing challenges for the
Convention as it will mark the halfway point for the Strategic Plan adopted at the 6th
COP in Brisbane, Australia, in 1996. The National Reports that have been submitted to the
Convention Bureau and published on the Ramsar Web site (http://ramsar.org) are providing
the information to make this assessment of progress possible. COP7 will also allow the
Ramsar Convention to indicate with some degree of precision which areas of the Strategic
Plan require more energy, commitment and resources at the global, regional and national
scales. Through this, and the exciting technical and policy programme of the COP described
above, the Ramsar Convention will continue to support its signatories with practical,
hands-on guidance and assistance, while also setting out clear challenges and strategic
direction for the future.
All of the
documentation for Ramsar COP7 is presently being published on the Ramsar Web site, in Web,
Word, and PDF formats, as it becomes finalized.
The RAMSAR site can
be found at Internet: http://w3.iprolink.ch/iucnlib/themes/ramsar/ |
