Minutes General Assembly South Africa 2004

Minutes of the IMCG General Assembly, 26 September 2004 (08.00–13.00h), Paarl, South Africa

Ab Grootjans, Adriana Urciuolo, Alma Szafnagel-Wołejko, Althea Grundling, Andreas Grünig, Arlette Laplace-Dolonde, Asbjørn Moen, Celine Sacca, Christian Hildebrandt, David H. Kleyn, Francis Muller, Gert Michael Steiner, Hans Esselink, Hans Joosten (IMCG secr.-gen., minutes), Hervé Cubizolle, Izolda Matchutadze, Jaanus Paal, Jutta Zeitz, Leburu Mmaledburu Sophy, Lesław Wołejko (IMCG MB, assembly chairman), Line Rochefort, Mara Pakalne, Matšeliso Mphale, Mel Meyer, Michael Heinl, Olivier Olgiati, Pascal Demazière, Piet-Louis Grundling (IMCG MB), Retief Gobler, Rodolfo Iturraspe (IMCG MB), Tapio Lindholm (IMCG MB), Thilivhali Nyambeni, Ulrich Graf

Jan Sliva (IMCG chair), Michael Trepel, Philippe Julve (IMCG EC), Stuart Brooks (IMCG EC), Tatjana Minaeva (IMCG EC)

1. Opening and Welcome: The chairman opens the meeting at 8.45 hour and presents the agenda.

2. The Minutes of the General Assembly of 21 July 2002 in Besançon are unanimously adopted.

3 and 5. The Biennial report on the state of affairs in the IMCG and on its policy and the progress in the delivery of the IMCG Action Plan were presented by Hans Joosten

“Assessment of the global distribution and condition of mires and peatlands” with as output a report “The global status of mires and peatlands” (champion Hans Joosten). Joosten informs that the data on countries/region of Africa and Asia are already online available in the IMCG Global Peatland Database (www.imcg.net/gpd/gpd.htm) and that the other countries/regions will follow in the coming months. He calls upon everybody to check the data and send corrections and additions to him.

"Development of a globally valid system of mire types and an overview of their distribution” with as expected output a Report/book “The mire types of the World and their global distribution” also including an overview of global peatland classification (champions Michael Steiner and Jan Sliva). Michael Steiner mentions that since the meetings in Tamsweg (Austria 2001) the project has seen no progress. Jan Sliva had planned to make this theme the subject of his habilitation dissertation but it is unclear what the current progress is. Steiner stresses that still several workshops of regional experts are necessary and envisages 2008 as the earliest year of delivery. He proposes to dedicate half a day in Ushuaia to the theme. Hans Joosten thinks that such workshops are no adequate instrument and that the responsible champions should take the initiative to compile most material themselves. Furthermore he argues that IMCG can not stay behind in this important issue, where several international conventions pay increasingly attention to peatlands. Also Asbjørn Moen points at the necessity to separate the strategical issue (to present an overview that is useful for interventions in conventions, especially the Convention on Biodiversity) and the scientific challenge to make the “ultimate” overview. Joosten informs that the Convention on Biodiversity has recently adopted the wetland classification of the Ramsar Convention, which is not adequately expressing the ecosystem biodiversity of peatlands and underlines again that “the better should not be the enemy of the good”.

The chairman proposes to discuss the issue further in the Main Board or Executive Committee.

“The production of an overview of mire and peatland diversity and conservation status in Europe” with as output the book “Mires and peatlands of Europe” (champion Hans Joosten). Joosten informs that progress has been slow in the last year because of other IMCG priorities. This is unacceptable because this is a central project of IMCG. Therefore Asbjørn Moen has been approached for cooptation in the Main Board with as priority activity to strengthen the Greifswald editing team to bring this project to a successful end. The assembly applauds this step.

“The production of an overview of mire and peatland diversity and conservation status in Southern Africa” with as output a book “Mires and peatlands of Southern Africa” (champion Jan Sliva). Joosten informs that Rehana Dada will be assigned to produce a popular-scientific book on the subject on the basis of the material collected for the excursion guide and the observations of the participants of the excursion complemented by general information on mires and peatlands. Basis funding for preparatory work (€ 2000) will be provided from IMCG funds and it will be checked what funds are still available from GPI-Africa. Also John Dini (Working for Wetlands) has offered support. Joosten call upon all participants to support Rehana and send her their observations, ideas, and contributions. Aim should be to have the booklet ready before Ramsar CoP IX (Uganda, November 2005) so that it can function as a contribution of South Africa (and Lesotho) to the delivery of the Ramsar Action Plan for Peatlands.

“The production of an overview of mire and peatland diversity and conservation status in Russia” with as output a book “Mires and peatlands of Russia” (champion Tatjana Minaeva). This work will follow the completion of the chapter on Mires in European Russia for the European Mires Book.

With respect to “Starting the identification of the mire and peatland diversity and conservation status of South America” with as output the book “Mires and peatlands of South America” (champion Rodolfo Iturraspe) the idea is to produce a popular scientific book on the peatlands of Tierra del Fuego, associated with the IMCG Field Symposium 2005.

“The development of an infrastructure for membership expertise exchange”: Ab Grootjans noted that the expertise questionnaire that has been send to members was deterrent in its complexity (he gave up filling in after 15 minutes) and proposed to simplify it substantially.

“Continued active participation in relevant Ramsar bodies”: Michael Steiner noted that – although many IMCGers were present there - IMCG was not officially represented at CoP8 in Valencia and stresses that IMCG should be more visible at such meetings. Andreas Grünig notices that Wetlands International is very active and visible with respect to peatlands in Ramsar and that IMCG should put more people in Ramsar and related gremia. With respect to the Ramsar STRP (Scientific and Technical Review Panel) Grünig and Steiner express their concern that the monitoring system for wetlands that is currently developed will not reach quality standards and ask IMCG to give advice to Ramsar how to deal with this issue. They agree to come with background information for the IMCG Newsletter and to conceive a draft letter for the IMCG Executive Committee on the case.

“Stimulation of mire/peatland related aspects in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto process”: the secretary notes with concern that still no IMCG champion as been identified for this important issue.

The secretary-general notes that with 56% in 2001 and 38% in 2002 the growth in membership widely exceeds the target of 10 % annually. The growth in number of countries represented stays with 1 severely behind the target of 10 over that period, and requires more attention, also in Southern Africa (C.2.4.).

“The publication of a scientific journal on peat and peatlands” together with IPS raised considerable discussion under Agenda point 10 (Any other business). Ulrich Graf and others questioned a joint journal of IMCG with IPS because of the different interests of both organisations. Ab Grootjans and others additionally pointed at the fact that a new journal would have no wide readership and no impact factor so that you cannot ask people to submit good manuscripts. Furthermore he asked where sufficient manuscripts should come from. He proposed to stimulate peatland associated publications in already existing journals. Michael Steiner asked for the financial funding of the journal and warned for a too strong cooperation / interdependence of IMCG and IPS.

The assembly decided that a further discussion in the Newsletter is necessary, after which a final decision will be taken by the Main Board.

With respect to action point C.4.2. “The stimulation of the development and the use of peat alternatives“ the secretary-general informed that since the action point had been published on the IMCG website as being not completed and in need of urgent attention, Michael Trepel had developed a new chapter on the IMCG website devoted to peat alternatives.

It was proposed to approach Catherine O’Connell (IPCC) to write the booklet “Wise use for children and ministers”.

Because the treasurer Philippe Julve was urgently visiting the hospital, the secretary-general presented and informed on the financial situation of the organisation. Because of a crash of the treasurer’s hard disk, only a preliminary report could be presented. The Assembly accepted the preliminary report with no votes against and 1 abstention, but required a rapid publication of a final report.

6. With respect to the Membership fee, Ulrich Graf proposed starting to raise a membership fee to fund the political work of IMCG, e.g. in the Ramsar Convention. The secretary-general explained the proposal of the Main Board for a continuation of a “zero” membership fee, because the costs of collecting a moderate fee would exceed the revenues. A high fee would deter membership from a lot of people in countries with currency problems. The formal proposal of Piet-Louis Grundling for a “zero”-fee was adopted with 2 votes against.

As there were only 12 candidates for 15 Main Board positions, and in accordance with article 9.1 of the constitution, no voting was necessary and all candidates were included in the new Main Board. The Main Board 2004 – 2006 consists of Olivia Bragg, Stuart Brooks, Piet-Louis Grundling, Rodolfo Iturraspe, Hans Joosten, Philippe Julve, Elena Lapshina, Tatiana Minaeva, Jan Sliva, Jennie Whinam, Lesław Wołejko, and Meng Xianmin. The secretary-general informed on the outcome of preliminary discussions among the Main Board members present in South Africa on possible candidates for the positions in the Executive Committee and on proposals for cooptation of an additional three Main Board members.

8. The Conference resolutions were projected on the wall, read aloud, and discussed.

The draft resolution for Germany was slightly amended (removal of the words “fascist” and “Benz” from the draft text) and adopted with 0 votes against and 1 abstention.

The draft resolution for Czechia was slightly amended (“agriculturalist” changed for “farmer”, reasonable” for “responsible”, “virgin” for ”pristine”, shorter sentences) and adopted with 0 votes against and 0 abstentions.

The draft resolution for Poland was slightly amended (“water relations” changed for “water conditions”, “as far away as possible from” for “far enough that it does not affect”) and adopted with 0 votes against and 0 abstentions.

The draft resolution for China was slightly amended (the sentence “The majority of wetlands of the World consists of peatlands, i.e. lands covered with a layer of peat” was skippep, “peat sequestering” was changed into “peat accumulating”) and adopted with 0 votes against and 0 abstentions.

The draft resolution for Latvia was slightly amended (“regeneration” changed for “restoration”, “a Latvian Mire Research Station, where …. are carried out” skipped) and adopted with 0 votes against and 0 abstentions.

The draft resolution for the European Union, the United Nations, and the Global Environmental Facility was discussed and clarified, and adopted with 0 votes against and 1 abstention.

The draft resolution for South Africa raised discussions with respect to the formulation of the position towards the developments at Braamhoek (Watervalvlei). The draft formulation of “acceptance” of the decision was by the Assembly changed into a position of “regret, but if, then mitigation”. The rephrased resolution was adopted with 14 votes in favour, 6 against, and 3 abstentions.

The draft resolution for Austria was adopted with 0 votes against and 0 abstentions.

Tapio Lindholm presented an invitation to and the plans for the 2006 biannual IMCG Field Symposium in Finland that will focus on the evaluation of mire conservation in Finland.

Rodolfo Iturraspe and Adriana Urciuolo displayed their plans for the 2005 IMCG Field Symposium in Tierra del Fuego (Argentina). It was agreed to organize the meeting in November 2005 to not interfere too strongly with the 2006 Finland meeting. The exact dates should be coordinated with the dates of the Ramsar Conference of Parties 2005 in Kampala (Uganda).

With respect to the 2008 meeting, Mara Pakalne informed that in June 2008 a final workshop will take place of her new EU project; Line Rochefort informed that the conference “The Biology of Sphagnum” will take in that year in Canada and USA with an excursion from Vancouver up to the Yukon.

Ideas on a possible venue for the IMCG 2008 events were exchanged but no decision taken. The Assembly delegated that decision to the EC and MB and asked to come with a final decision within half a year.

10. Under Any Other Business Francis Muller informed that a review of the results of the resolution for France as adopted in France 2002 will be prepared for the IMCG Newsletter and website.

Furthermore the request was raised to put a selection of fotos of the South Africa event on the IMCG website, as well as the text of the “IMCG in Africa” song.

Membership Fees and Donations

On our General Assembly in South Africa we again decided to keep the IMCG membership free of charge, because the costs of collecting low membership fees would exceed the fees themselves and high membership fees would chase off a large part of the IMCG membership in countries with currency problems. Some members rightfully acknowledged that IMCG needs money for its increasing activities. The solution for this dilemma is simple: why not donate a substantial amount of money to IMCG if you have the money available and you want to support IMCG also financially. Contact the treasurer to discuss the best option for you (e.g.for having optimal fiscal advantages): philippe.julve@wanadoo.fr