ESA’s (European Space Agency) new €1 million Globwetland project is producing satellite-derived and geo-referenced products including inventory maps and digital elevation models of wetlands and the surrounding catchment areas. These products will aid local and national authorities in fulfilling their Ramsar obligations, and should also function as a helpful tool for wetland managers and scientific researchers. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands stresses that targeted assessment and monitoring information is vital for ensuring effective management planning for wetlands, their hydrology and their catchments, but for wetland managers and decision-makers in many countries access to sound information about wetlands and how they are changing is often a critical gap.
By working with users at site and catchment scales the Globwetland project should contribute significantly to helping achieve effective management of these critical important ecosystems for biodiversity and human well-being. With wetlands often made up of difficult and inaccessible terrain, satellites can help provide information on local topography, the types of wetland vegetation, land cover and use and the dynamics of the local water cycle. In particular radar imagery of the type provided by ESA’s Envisat is able to differentiate between dry and waterlogged surfaces, and so can provide multitemporal data on how given wetlands change seasonally. Globwetland products are being provided for a wide range of terrain types to users across four continents: North and South America, Africa, Asia and Europe, including European Russia. In Spain the Globwetland end-user is the government’s Ministry of the Environment.
In Russia the Globwetland partner is the Ministry of Ecology and Land Use of Moscow region, and has a particular interest in using periodic satellite data to monitor peat fires and estimate how effective a new rewetting project is in preventing further outbreaks. Wetlands comprise a third of the territory of the Russian Federation, the majority of it in the form of peatlands. Through much of the 20th century these areas were regarded as wasteland and drained for peat extraction - ending up as unproductive lands that do not contribute either economically or in terms of biodiversity, and also cause ecological problems such as dust storms and uncontrolled carbon dioxide emissions from smouldering peat fires.
In South Africa, Globwetland partner the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) seeks to use satellite data to help fulfil its Ramsar obligations for its existing three-site wetlands inventory. The Department also plans to map a separate site, the Prince Edward Islands Special Nature Reserve, for the first time. South Africa hopes to propose the offshore Reserve for designation as a new Ramsar Wetland of International Importance, but its uncharted nature is currently an obstacle to achieving this. This Southern Ocean site is also being nominated next year as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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2 February each year is World Wetlands Day, marking the date of the signing of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971. WWD was celebrated for the first time in 1997, and each year, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and groups of citizens at all levels of the community have taken advantage of the opportunity to undertake actions aimed at raising public awareness of wetland values and benefits in general and the Ramsar Convention in particular. From 1997 to 2003, the Convention’s Web site has posted reports from more than 80 countries of WWD activities of all sizes and shapes, and the Ramsar Bureau has provided materials free of charge to help planners get the greatest effect from their activities. This year the Bureau has prepared a poster on the theme of “From the mountains to the sea -- Wetlands at work for us,” a new 3-fold leaflet “Working for Wetlands,” and a new sticker, all of them in English, Français, and Español.
Contact the Ramsar Bureau for materials free of charge: http://ramsar.org
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Uganda has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands to host the 9th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention (COP9) in Kampala in late 2005. The offer, which is a highly significant commitment for Uganda, is the first time that the global Convention on Wetlands has come to Africa for its triennial meeting of its Parties, now numbering 138 countries. As the first country in Africa to develop a national wetland policy, and with over 14 years’ practical experience of learning from community based wetland management, Uganda has a leading role in showing how wise use and conservation of wetlands is achievable in the demanding context of Africa. Uganda has demonstrated how sustainable support for people's livelihoods can go hand in hand with conservation of the biodiversity of these supremely rich areas.Uganda joined the Convention in 1988, and has since then, in partnership with several Contracting Parties and international organisations, developed effective and transferable strategies and tools to enable other African countries to benefit from Uganda's experience.This 2005 Uganda Conference fits well with the IMCG Action Plan, paying priority attention to African mires in the coming years.
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Panama has designated its fourth Ramsar Wetland of International Importance, the “Bahía de Panamá” (48,919 ha., 08°57'N 079°01'W ) in the province of Panamá, effective 20 October 2003. Located to the east of Panama City on the the Pacific coast, the site features broad intertidal mudflats divided by several estuaries, mangrove forests, swamp forests, and freshwater pools. It is renowned as an important stopover for migrating shorebirds: up to 360,000 individuals have been counted in one season and it is estimated that 1-2 million birds stop there during migration. The site harbours over 8% of the world population of Western Sandpipers Calidris mauri with records of over 280,000 birds, 20% of Semipalmated Plover Charadrius semipalmatus, and over 1% of the biogeographical populations of Semipalmated Sandpiper Calidris pusilla, Willet Catoptrophorus semipalmatus, Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus, Short-billed Dowitcher Limnodromus griseus and the Plover Pluvialis squatarola. Endangered species in the area include the Giant Anteater Myrmecophaga tridactyla, Baird's Tapir Tapirus bairdii, American Crocodile Crocodylus acutus, Loggerhead Turtle Caretta caretta and the endemic tree species Annona spreguei. Fishing and agriculture are the main human activities in the area, but due to its proximity to Panama City, pressures from urban development are increasing, as well as pollution from sewage waters discharged into the sea. Several research activities with shorebirds have taken place, and the site was recently declared an Important Bird Area. The Sociedad Audubon de Panamá assisted in the preparation of the technical data for the designation.
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The Marais de Lavours, the important peatland site at the transition of the Jura and the Alpes has opened a new internet site. If you want to know more about this highly diverse area of wetlands and calcareous peatlands, browse to http://www.reserve-lavours.com/flore.htm
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The bog burst at Derrybrien in the Slieve Aughty Mountains in County Galway which occurred on 16 October was almost certainly caused by the construction of a wind farm at this site. This disastrous event could have been avoided had the planning authorities taken on board the concerns of the Irish Peatland Conservation Council and local residents group in regard to this development on such a wet, fragile upland blanket bog. IPCC are concerned that wind farms being built in other upland areas are threatening the future of mountain blanket bog habitat, which is a priority for conservation under the EU Habitats Directive. Not only is the risk of bog bursts now a reality, but road construction over the bogs to sevice and install turbines only serve to attract other unsustainable activities in the blanket bogs such as dumping, turf cutting, drainage, and fire. IPCC’s wind energy policy supports the development of renewable energy provided this does not damage areas of conservation value.
In light of this recent bog burst, it seems clear that wind farm construction is not compatible with the protection of upland blanket bog. IPCC are very concerned about several other areas of upland blanket bog designated as proposed SACs, which have wind farms proposed on them, and we will double our efforts to prevent such developments taking place and ensure the survival of these sites.
The IPCC's policy statement on Wind Energy Developments on bogs can be viewed on www.ipcc.ie.
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The plan to create 5,000 hectares of new wetlands was unveiled by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). The proposed wetlands, stretching from Lincoln to Cambridge, would be equal to the size of Loch Ness. The RSPB hopes it will provide a lifeline for England’s vanishing species. The scheme aims to build on the RSPB's work on fen projects in Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk and Lincolnshire. The fens once covered 5,000 square kilometers in East Anglia.
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The removal of more than 6km of dikes on Tataru Island in the Danube Delta starts with restoring the natural flooding regime of this part of the Danube River. The bulldozers symbolize a new future for the island, which is the first model site of the “A Vision for the Ukrainian Danube Delta” project, supported by WWF. The dikes were constructed across and around Tataru Island more than ten years ago, in order to drain around half the 738ha island for forestry and horticulture.