NEWSLETTER

The International Mire Conservation Group (IMCG) is an international network of specialists having a particular interest in mire and peatland conservation. The network encompasses a wide spectrum of expertise and interests, from research scientists to consultants, government agency specialists to peatland site managers. It operates largely through e-mail and newsletters, and holds regular workshops and symposia. For more information: consult the IMCG Website: http://www.imcg.net

IMCG has a Main Board of 15 people from various parts of the world that has to take decisions between congresses. Of these 15 an elected 5 constitute the IMCG Executive Committee that handles day-to-day affairs. The Executive Committee consists of a Chairman (Jan Sliva), a Secretary General (Hans Joosten), a Treasurer (Philippe Julve), and 2 additional members (Tatiana Minaeva, Stuart Brooks).

Viktor Masing (†), Hugo Sjörs, and Richard Lindsay have been awarded honorary membership of IMCG.

More than 4 months have gone since the last IMCG Newsletter, a period in which much has taken place. First of all our South Africa / Lesotho meetings and excursions that were instrumental in making us understand the extreme difficulties and challenges in peatland conservation/restoration in developing countries. Piet-Louis and his dedicated crew did a marvellous job. Much of this Newsletter is devoted to the outcomes of South Africa.

This also includes the discussion about a joint internet journal with IPS that we are discussing and preparing since last year. Several members at the General Assembly raised critical questions. Please join the discussions.

Of a completely different character are the “burning issues” in South-East Asia that got a lot of press coverage in the last weeks and for which hopeful actions are now being undertaken. Huge restoration schemes are also implemented in Belarus, Russia, and China. All experiences show that restoration is an expensive and actually impossible job and that adequate land use planning and mire protection is the only cost-effective way to go. In Tierra del Fuego we must therefore protect the wide variety of wild and beautiful mires before they are destroyed. To stimulate that is the aim of our meeting in Ushuaia at the end of November 2005. Read the latest news about that.

As we were not able to include all news in this Newsletter (e.g. our “recent publications” part is a bit meagre this time) we will produce a next Newsletter before the end of 2004. This will enable YOU to participate in the discussions.

Please send all your proposals, discussion contributions, news, publications, etc. to us, and with your help we will again prepare an interesting Newsletter. Deadline for the next Newsletter is 15 December 2004!

For information or other things, contact us at the IMCG Secretariat. Address updates should be sent to Jan Sliva (sliva@wzw.tum.de). In the meantime, keep an eye on the continuously refreshed and refreshing IMCG web-site: http://www.imcg.net

John Couwenberg & Hans Joosten, The IMCG Secretariat

Botanical Institute, Grimmerstr. 88, D-17487 Greifswald (Germany)

fax: +49 3834 864114; e-mail: joosten@uni-greifswald.de