IMCG Resolutions

Submit your draft resolutions!

The IMCG General Assembly in South Africa 2004 will again discuss and adopt resolutions. To streamline the procedure, IMCG members are requested to submit their draft resolution timely, i.e. as soon as possible, to the IMCG secretariat. This will enable to circulate the draft resolutions among the Main Board, to publish the necessary background information in the IMCG Newsletters of March and June 2004, and to put the drafts on our website so that everybody can send reactions (to the IMCG Secretariat).

Draft resolutions should identify the apparatus and bodies to which the resolution has to be directed or send. Examples (phrasing and content) of resolutions can be found on the IMCG website (www.imcg.net/docum/france/frres.htm).

Below you can find the core content of two resolutions of IMCG France 2002 and the results. More will follow in the next Newsletter.

Finland:

Resolution 2002: Within Europe, Finland has a special importance with respect to the extent and quality of its peatlands, and in particular of its undisturbed, living mires. Finland is also known and respected throughout the world for the high quality of its research and education of students in mire ecology. In view of these facts, the IMCG is dismayed to learn that the almost 10 university chairs that were previously occupied by mire ecologists have now all been re-filled by specialists in other disciplines, and that mires have almost ceased to feature in the curricula offered by the country’s universities. As a result of these changes, Finland may very soon have no mire scientists and teachers, and no specialists able to make nature inventories for mires.

Accordingly, the IMCG urges the Finnish Ministry of Education and the Academy of Finland to critically re-examine the balance of disciplines that are represented within its universities. Furthermore, the IMCG asks that these bodies should give urgent attention to possibilities for reinstating educational opportunities and research funding in mire ecology to a level that is consistent with the importance of Finland’s mire resource, at both national and international scales.

Results:

No feed back was received until now. Additional pressure is put on the responsible bodies through the Finnish Nature Conservation Association. During 2003 the correctness of our resolution has, however, been painfully proven. In too many cases it has become evident that the collapse of mire education in the Finnish universities and other institutes causes serious problems in finding people to make e.g. inventories on biotopes and species in nature reserves (there is a big 5-year project going on in Finland) or to make restoration plans and connected inventories or monitoring in EU LIFE projects. For a job in a LIFE restoration project on forests and mires to be started in eastern Finland in January, for example, 76 persons applied. But there was only one who can reliably identify mire plants (including mosses), but that person was not chosen for the job. Anyway, the Ministry of the Environment seems to support the IMCG 2006 Field Symposium and General Assembly in Finland, and hopefully it will raise awareness on mires here. At the moment, mires are not regarded as priority habitats in the nature conservation research strategy of the Finnish Ministry of the Environment, which means that there is practically no funding from the ministry to mire research.

(reported by Raimo Heikkilä)

Hungary

Resolution 2002: In the past, more than 1% of the territory of Hungary was covered by mires. This is a substantial area considering the climatic conditions of the Carpathian basin. The extensive Hungarian mire systems, for example Ecsedi lap and Hansag, were lost during water regulation works in the 19th and 20th centuries. Now, more than 97% of Hungary’s mires have been drained so that protection of the remnants is of the highest importance to the biological diversity and natural heritage of Hungary, as well as at international scale.

In view of this, the IMCG is pleased to learn that the Hungarian government has provided legal protection for wetlands, mires, and their remnants within the national ecological network; and that the protection process takes into account the whole of each mire complex, together with a buffer zone.  The Hungarian practice of updating the national mire inventory every year is exemplary.

We are also encouraged to hear of Hungary’s achievements in preventing further destructive activities (e.g. drainage and industrial mining) on some mires; in initiating mire restoration schemes; in establishing the principle that land use and development planning procedures should take some account of the national and Natura 2000 networks (which contain mires, beside other valuable habitat types ); towards developing a national strategy for the conservation of mires; and towards incorporating principles of “wetland wise use” in national policies such as the proposed National Environment Programme.

However, IMCG asks the Hungarian government to renew efforts towards establishing the local agreements and partnerships with land users that will enable the Natura 2000 network to be completed. In particular, the introduction of a scheme to provide reasonable compensation and other financial incentives to land owners and users is recommended.

IMCG also suggests that there should be a management plan for every protected mire and that this should be revised regularly. Prospects for bringing Hungary’s valuable mires to favourable conservation status would be greatly enhanced by establishing a national monitoring system; by conducting research on mires and peatlands (particularly research for nature conservation); by introducing education programmes to establish study paths related to mires; and by encouraging the collaboration of non-governmental organisations with state agencies in the management of peatlands.

Results:

As was written in the resolution, the legal protection for mires is provided in the Hungarian Act for Nature Conservation  (No. LIII. /1996), since every mire is protected “ex lege” (by the virtue of law). The real protection procedure was very hard because of the lack of definition for mire. This year the definitions of mires, sodic lakes, tumuli etc. were replaced and built into this main act, so the protection in courts became more effective.

As every year, the Hungarian national park directorates prepared their reports about their annual activity, and among others they gave an account about the condition of mires.

This inventory showed, that because of the extremely dry climate conditions a lot of small mire had dried up. On the other hand some new mires were found in the less known southern part of the country.

The protection of mires (rehabilitation, reconstruction) was also built in in the National Environment Programme compiled this year, which contains the main required activities on nature conservation for the next 6 years.

For 18 of the most valuable mires a management plan was prepared, or almost finished by the colleges at the national parks, including plans for improving the circumstances for education (study path) and ecotourism.

As the IMCG resolution was also sent to the National Committee of Mire and Peat Society, they got in touch with us. Due to this cooperation the Hungarian Office for Nature Conservation has got useful information and recommendations. To sum up the result of the resolution, many of the recommendations were attained this year, but of course there is still much work to do for mires in Hungary.

(Reported by Rozalia Érdi and Krisztina Koc)