01
Oct 2008 - Paris, France: A plan to reform
the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) by
fiddling with catch quotas is not enough
in the face of failing fisheries, WWF-France
said yesterday.
Michel Barnier, French
minister for agriculture and fishery, brought
his European counterparts together for an
informal meeting, during which they discussed
individual quotas, transferable or otherwise,
before reaffirming their attachment to the
Total Allowable Catches (TAC) and quotas
system.
However, according to
Charles Braine, head of sustainable fishery
for WWF-France, this was missing the point.
“The question is not to know if quotas should
be individual or not, but to bring the expertise
of the scientists into the heart of the
decision-making process for fisheries management,”
said Braine.
“The French EU presidency
has missed its target. Instead of re-thinking
the CFP, France has suggested ‘adjustments’
such as multi-annual quotas and individual
and administered quotas. That won’t change
the situation.”
With 88 per cent of
target species currently being over-fished,
the EU is one of the worst offenders when
it comes to fisheries management.
“The EU’s mistake has
been to treat fishing as a production process,
like agriculture,” said Braine. “However,
it is not a production process but a collection
process, and we are collecting wild species
without being in a position to improve their
production.
“To increase production
the focus should be on the amount of each
species that can be fished sustainably.
But in their blindness, and with the support
of the taxpayer’s money, EU fisheries have
been led to the edge of bankruptcy. It is
a human and environmental scandal.”
+ More
Major Bosnian karst
polje receives international recognition
01 Oct 2008 - Livno,
Bosnia-Herzegovina: What may be the world’s
largest karst polje – a distinctive landscape
shaped by water and soluble rocks – has
been officially recognised as a Ramsar wetland
of international importance.
The 45,868-hectare Livanjsko
Polje, near the town of Livno in Bosnia
and Herzegovina, contains an impressive
network of surface and underground water
bodies including rivers, springs, sinkholes,
lakes and oxbow lakes.
It is the largest wetland
in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with important
populations of rare birds and significant
communities including corn crake, Montagu’s
harrier, lesser spotted eagles, redshank,
snipe and great bittern.
Livanjsko Polje vegetation
is a very special mix of northern European
grasslands and forest as well as Mediterranean
plants, while large areas are covered with
oak, ash and alder forest, important to
conservation.
“Bosnia and Herzegovina’s
karst areas are among the best preserved
in Europe but they are still unprotected
and some are directly threatened by water
extraction and unsustainable use of the
resources,” said Francesca Antonelli, Head
of the Freshwater programme at WWF Mediterranean.
“The protection of Livanjsko
Polje is not only vital for maintaining
its unique natural assets but will also
make all the difference between short term
and perpetual use of the area’s resources
to benefit local people.”
Livanjski Sir, the cheese
from the site, is its most famous product
and a good reason to preserve the temperate
grassland. The traditional land use is important
as the Dalmatian coast in Croatia receives
its drinking water from the upper Cetina
basin, with Livanjsko Polje as the key wetland.
The Ramsar Convention
on Wetlands — signed in 1971 in the city
of Ramsar, Iran — is an intergovernmental
treaty which provides the framework for
national action and international cooperation
for the conservation and wise use of wetlands
and their resources.
The recognition of Livanjsko
Polje as a Ramsar Wetland was thanks not
only to the work of WWF but also to the
Livno Youth Center and EuroNatur, the European
Nature Heritage Fund.
+ More
Interview: WWF's Denis
Landenbergue wins Ramsar Wetland Conservation
Award
30 Sep 2008 - Denis
Landenbergue, WWF International’s manager
for wetlands conservation, has won the Management
category of this year’s Ramsar Wetland Conservation
Awards. Throughout his long career in wetlands
management, Denis has played a key role
in worldwide efforts to designate millions
of hectares of freshwater areas as Wetlands
of International Importance and has assisted
many countries, particularly developing
countries, in joining the Ramsar Convention.
Recently back from Africa
following a ceremony that designated the
Ngiri-Tumba-Maindombe area in the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC) as the largest Wetland
of International Importance in the world,
Denis talks about the successes and challenges
of wetland conservation, how he first got
involved in wetland issues, and on winning
the 2008 Ramsar Wetland Conservation Award.
The Ngiri-Tumba-Maindombe
in the DRC will be the largest wetlands
area added to the Ramsar List of Wetlands
of International Importance? What is involved
in getting such a large site designated?
Listing the Ngiri-Tumba-Maindombe,
an area twice the size of Belgium, is a
major accomplishment, not only for the wildlife
that live there but also for the welfare
of communities who depend on this wetland
for their livelihoods. Designating such
a wetland is about the sustainable use of
its resources. It is about protecting and
managing the freshwater habitat to conserve
biodiversity and ensure supplies of clean
water, food and services for millions of
people who depend on the wetlands every
day, as well as recognition of the economic,
social and environmental value of the wetlands.
What kind of work goes
into designating a site such as this or
any other site for that matter? A lot of
time and patience, and being able to rely
on the right people in the right place at
the right time. The success of the DRC designation
is a result of strong support and excellent
coordination among many people, including
from the DRC Ministry of Environment, the
Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation,
the Ramsar Secretariat, the WWF network,
and local associations.
Most importantly, the
designation received the support of more
than 30 ethnic groups that live in the area.
Consultation with local populations is crucial.
You can’t just map out the site in an office,
you have to go to the field and listen to
people who live there and work with them.
They need to see visible action that will
improve their livelihoods and overall quality
of life.
Support provided by
the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) through their Central
African Regional Programme for Environment
(CARPE) has also been extremely valuable.
Strong interest expressed by the International
Commission for the Congo-Oubangui-Sangha
Basin (CICOS) is a clear sign that the approach
we have adopted deserves replication elsewhere
in the Congo river basin.
Despite the scale of
the project, it took less than two years
to get to the designation stage, although
initial work started a few years earlier.
The speed reflects the efficiency of the
process and exceptional collaboration between
government, NGOs, donor agencies and other
partners. Considering the importance and
the location of the site, I must say this
has been a relatively fast achievement.
I have seen much smaller sites take up to
six or seven years, or even more, to reach
the same stage. Results can only happen
when you can rely on very committed people.
You cannot manage a wetland properly without
a great deal of patience and wide cooperation,
and of course, without a sufficient level
of funding.
Cooperation is a key
aspect in listing wetland sites, but what
was your specific role in designating the
DRC site and other sites?
One of my main roles
is to talk with as many people as possible
who are involved or have a stake in a wetland
area – it is important to understand their
concerns and needs, and it helps increase
everybody’s motivation to act. In the DRC,
as in the many other places where we support
similar kinds of projects, I spent a lot
of time meeting with officials from the
Ministry of Environment and other government
agencies, consulting with WWF staff working
on the ground, and with donors interested
in supporting conservation projects in the
area. It is very important to have government
support right from the beginning; a government’s
decision to undertake the Ramsar designation
of a wetland is a clear indication that
the area is a priority on the national agenda.
In addition to technical
and scientific support, WWF provided small
grants to conduct a biodiversity inventory
for the area. The Ngiri-Tumba-Maindombe
Ramsar site is part of the largest freshwater
ecosystem in Africa, which is shared with
neighbouring Republic of Congo. It also
home to a high degree of biodiversity that
includes such species as forest elephants,
buffaloes, leopards and hippos as well as
an estimated 150 species of fish and a wide
variety of birds.
As of July 2008, nearly
168 million hectares have been designated
for inclusion in the Ramsar List of Wetlands
of International Importance. Since I started
working for WWF in May 1999, around 75%
of the global area increase in hectares
of the world’s Ramsar sites has been the
result of projects supported by WWF International’s
freshwater programme.
But designation is not
the end objective; it is just a first, but
very important, step. I actually see it
more as a powerful tool to get to the next
step, which is to develop and improve the
management and sustainable use of a wetland
area and its natural resources. That is
where the real success lies. Wetlands are
not just about birds and fish, they are
about complex and fragile systems that support
nature and people. When wetlands are damaged
or destroyed, it is not only wildlife that
is at risk but also people.
You have been working
on wetland issues for a long time. How did
you get involved?
As a teenager growing
up in Geneva, Switzerland, on the banks
of the Rhône River and near Lake Leman,
I became interested in waterbirds. Before
going to school I used to go down to the
lake at dawn and follow the migration of
waders, terns, gulls, ducks and other birds.
I also started taking part in a regular
winter waterbird census. Through waterbirds
I became interested in their wetland habitat.
I think many people working in wetland conservation
started out like me as avid birdwatchers.
Although I studied international
relations at university (environmental studies
didn’t really exist at that time), I never
stopped being involved in nature conservation.
In fact, starting in the late 1970s, I took
part in a local campaign to restore and
protect the Teppes de Verbois, a unique
part of the Rhône River floodplain
that is known for its diversity of birds,
amphibians, reptiles, dragonflies, plants
and just about everything else.
It was on this campaign
that I learned just about all aspects of
wetland management … and politics. One of
my key responsibilities was to coordinate
and negotiate with all sorts of stakeholders:
landowners; farmers; construction firms;
the gravel industry; fishermen associations;
an electric company, which included managers
of a nearby dam; local, cantonal and federal
authorities; and other conservation organizations.
All had different ideas and views on how
to best use this riverine area. Initially,
I had thought the campaign would last only
2-3 years but it took 25 years to get the
100-hectare area restored and protected.
Ironically, it became part of a Ramsar-listed
site well before I started working closely
with Ramsar.
Another project that
played an important role in how I became
involved in wetland management was the construction
of artificial floating islands on the Rhône
River near Geneva to attract the Common
Tern, which then was actually a very uncommon
waterbird species in Switzerland. When I
initiated the project back in 1979 most
people thought I was crazy and that it would
never work. Today, the islands host one
of the largest tern colonies in Switzerland,
and several local nature associations have
successfully replicated the model elsewhere
in the country.
The most important thing
I learned from these early experiences is
that you can have all the strategic plans
and studies you want, but what you really
need is patience and to be able to talk
with and convince a lot of different people
with different interests. This is equally
true for protecting a relatively small area
like the Teppes de Verbois or something
as large as the Ngiri-Tumba-Maindombe.
Your commitment and
efforts to wetland protection around the
world has been recognized with the announcement
that you are one of the winners of the Ramsar
Wetland Conservation Award. What does winning
this award mean to you and for your work?
This was a big surprise.
Even better, it was officially announced
to me on my birthday, which coincidentally
falls on World Environment Day (5 June).
This has been a wonderful birthday present.
It has been amazing how many messages of
congratulations I have received, some from
people I don’t even know. Many colleagues
I work with from throughout the world heard
about me winning the award and were excited
about what it means to our projects and
future work.
On a personal level,
the award is a tribute to all those who
supported my interest in nature and wetlands
conservation, especially Geneva ornithologist
Paul Géroudet and Geneva naturalist
and artist Robert Hainard, as well as my
parents and my wife, Wendy Strahm.
On a professional level,
the award represents recognition for all
the work WWF has been doing globally in
wetland conservation over the last decade
or so. Like wetland conservation in general,
this award is not about one person, but
the result of teamwork. Hopefully, it will
help us get the support we need - including
the financial resources - to achieve even
more results in the future. I also hope
it serves as a call to those countries who
need to accelerate progress on their wetland
conservation efforts.
What does the future
hold for you and wetland conservation?
In 2002, Ramsar set
a target to reach a global coverage of at
least 250 million hectares of Wetlands of
International Importance by 2010. While
we are not quite there yet (as of July 2008
there were 1,758 Ramsar sites, totaling
nearly 168 million hectares), I believe
this target can be achieved, but more realistically
by 2015. This is provided that an intensity
of efforts and investments similar to the
ones achieved since 1999 can be pursued
and sustained by then. I certainly have
no plans to slow down and will keep working
towards that goal.
I also believe it is
important to expand the work of wetland
conservation beyond the “traditional” wetland
conservation community. By this I mean more
engagement with regional governmental organizations
(including international river basin commissions),
bilateral and multilateral donor agencies,
such as the GEF and regional development
banks, and very importantly, the private
sector. Only through a systematic approach
using broad partnerships will we have a
chance to succeed in our conservation efforts.
2011 will be a special
year - Ramsar will celebrate its 40th anniversary
and WWF its 50th anniversary. Few people
actually remember that WWF was founded in
1961 to support a wetland conservation project,
a project that successfully led to saving
the Coto Doñana wetlands in Spain,
now a national park and Ramsar site. Doñana
is a symbol of the strong historical links
between Ramsar and WWF. I look forward to
many more years of cooperation between the
two organizations in the future.
The 2008 Ramsar Wetland
Conservation Award ceremony will take place
at the opening session of the 10th meeting
of Ramsar's Conference of the Contracting
Parties in Changwon, Republic of Korea,
on 27 October 2008.
* Interview by Mark Schulman, former WWF
International Managing Editor.
