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© Biologiezentrum Linz/Austria; download unter www.biologiezentrum.at THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MONITORING FOR THE RAMSAR CONVENTION Michael Smart GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO Iranian city of Ramsar where the text of the THE RAMSAR CONVENTION Convention was adopted, since the governments of all the countries represented are members, and since the Austrian go- The Ramsar Convention (or, to give it its vernment has been particularly active in full name the "Convention on wetlands of application of the Convention: it designa- international importance especially as wa- ted five wetlands (all of them in cross- terfowl habitat") is the first of the modern frontier locations) for the Ramsar List on intergovernmental agreements on conser- accession in 1982, and has since added two vation and wise use of natural resources. more; it has established an active National As on October 1993, 80 governments had Ramsar Committee which brings together become members (or "Contracting Par- representatives of the federal government, ties"). The four main obligations of mem- provincial governments and non- ber states are: governmental organiziations; it has made voluntary contributions to the Ramsar - to designate at least one wetland in their Wetland Conservation Fund, which helps territory for the "List of wetlands of in- the implementation of the Convention in ternational importance", and to maintain developing countries; it has given particu- the ecological character of listed sites; larly close attention to the recommendati- the 80 members have so far designated ons of the Monitoring Procedure in the 640 wetlands, covering over 42 million March-Auen Ramsar site; and it has decla- hectares (rather more than the total area red 1993-1994 Year of the Wetlands. of Germany) for the List; - to make "wise use" of all wetlands in It should be noted that the original text of their territory; this is interpreted to me- the Convention is in many cases interpre- an that members should develop a na- ted by decisions, resolutions or recommen- tional wetland policy; dations of the Conference of the Con- - to establish wetland reserves and provide tracting Parties, held every three years. trained staff for them; Thus, criteria for the identification of wet- - to promote international cooperation in lands of international importance have be- wetland matters, whether in the field of en established, guidelines have been agreed cross-frontier wetlands, shared species for the implementation of the wise use or development aid affecting wetlands. concept, and the conference has established the Wetland Conservations Fund and two The convention will be well-known to important mechanisms for maintaining most of the participants in the present ecological character of listed sites - the workshop, since two of them actually took Montreux Record and the Monitoring part in the conference held in 1971 in the Procedure, both discussed below. The © Biologiezentrum Linz/Austria; download unter www.biologiezentrum.at most recent meeting, held in Kushiro, Ja- wetlands at the time they arise. In others, pan, in June 1993, agreed on guidelines for reports have been sent to the Ramsar Bure- management of Ramsar sites, established au from other sources, and have been con- the Scientific and Technical Review Panel firmed by the Party concerned. The repor- and made further refinements to the Mon- ting function has generally been carried out treux Record and Monitoring Procedure. however through the national reports presented to the triennial Conference of the Parties, and these national reports present THE MONTREUX RECORD the principal source of information on the AND MONITORING PROCE- implementation of the Convention. DURE In response to these national reports, Re- commendation 4.8 of the Montreux Confe- The Montreux Record and Monitoring rence in 1990 instructed the Bureau to Procedure are two mechanisms to help maintain a record of Ramsar sites where Contracting Parties maintain the ecological such changes had occurred or were likely character of listed wetlands. to occur. Resolution 5.4 of the 1993 Kushi- Article 2 of the convention covers the ro Conference refined the concept further principles behind the designation of wet- in its Annex (attached to the present pa- lands for the List. However, it is clear that per). The Montreux record ist not in any listing alone will not be enough to fulfill sense a black list or a red list of "Ramsar the aims of the convention as set out in the sites in danger". It is established in consul- preamble. In dynamic ecosystems like tation with the Contracting Party con- wetlands, action will be needed to achieve cerned and identifies priority sites for po- these aims, and so Article 3 deals with the sitive national and international conserva- consequences of listing: Article 3.1 states tion attention. As from 1994, the sites in- that "Contracting Parties shall formulate cluded in the Montreux Record will be and implement their planning so as to pro- included in an Annex to the regular publi- mote the conservation of wetlands included cation of the Ramsar List. The first 1994 in the List"; while Article 3.2 indicates that version is likely to include about 60 sites in each Contracting Party shall inform the about 30 states. Bureau "if the ecological character of any wetland in its territory and included in the The Monitoring Procedure was also for- List has changed, is changing or is likely to malized at Montreux (see Annex 2 to the change as the result of technological deve- present paper). The term "monitoring" lopments, pollutions or other human inter- should not here be understood in its scien- ference". tific sense of long-term detailed measure- ment and study of a variety of parameters This reference to change in "ecological affecting a wetland. What is meant is rather character" should be emphasized. Ramsar a mechanism for providing a Contracting listing does not mean that a wetland must Party with advice and recommendations on never be used, nor that every single aspect how to address actual or potential problems of the site must be maintained for ever in at a Ramsar site. Such advice may be given exactly the same condition; it does mean through examples from other Contracting that the fundamentals of its ecological Parties who have found solutions to com- functioning should be conserved. parable problems; it may involve visits to In some cases, Contracting Parties have the sites by Bureau staff and/or relevant spontaneously reported actual or possible specialists. Priority for application of the changes in ecological character of listed Monitoring Procedure is naturally given to © Biologiezentrum Linz/Austria; download unter www.biologiezentrum.at sites included in the Montreux Record. document which is to be formally Reports of Monitoring Procedure missions presented to the Federal Minister in become public documents once the Con- 1994. tracting Party concerned has had an oppor- tunity to study and comment on them. (b) Myvatn, Iceland. This was an example of a preliminary, more informal appli- Since the Montreux Conference, specific cation of the Monitoring Procedure. Al- provision has been made in the Ramsar ready at the Montreux Conference a Re- budget for operation of the Monitoring commendation noted the possible im- Procedure. In some cases, particularly whe- pact of sediment dredging at Myvatn. re major investment is required, it has been As this site of high biological pro- difficult to carry out all the recommendati- ductivity, where local people have for ons in Monitoring Procedure reports. Ne- many years farmed land surrounding the vertheless, the procedure is increasingly lake and exploited its fisheries and ne- being seen by the parties themselves and sting waterfowl, mining of diatomites by wetland conservationists in general as a from the bed of the lake for industrial major implement for helping parties to processing in a nearby factory had been overcome problems at Ramsar sites. The going on for some years. The factory following paragraphs offer examples of had requested permission to extend its application of the Monitoring Procedure. dredging operations, and concern had been expressed that this might have a (a) March-Auen, Austria. Following re- negative effect on the lake's productivi- ports to the Bureau of increasingly in- ty. The Ramsar Bureau arranged for a tensive agricultural use of the Ramsar small mission to visit the site in June sites on the Austrian banks of the River 1992 and to comment on the situation in March, and of transformation of flood a letter to the Icelandic Minister of the meadows and woodland into arable Environment. The letter referred to the land, a Ramsar mission visited the site scientific studies in progress, drew (along the frontier with the Czech and parallels with other Ramsar sites and to Slovak Republics) in April 1991. Its re- the recent adoption of the precautionary commendations were: that the federal principle in the Biodiversity Conventi- and provincial authorities develop an on. At the Kushiro conference in 1993, overall concept for the management of the Icelandic delegation announced that the site; that the necessary administrati- a bill had been introduced to the natio- ve and financial means be provided for nal assembly confining sediment dred- application of this concept; that cross- ging to a restricted area of the lake's frontier initiatives be pursued, and that northern basin, and that dredging would plans for the excavation of a canal joi- cease by the year 2010. As a result, the ning the Danube and Oder go ahead conference agreed that the site be remo- only on the basis of the precautionary ved from the Montreux Record. principle. The report also presented recommendations on the Donau-Auen (c) St. Lucia system, South Africa. This sector of the site. The Austrian authori- site too, had been mentioned in the re- ties have taken the recommendation on commendations of the Montreux confe- development of a concept for the wise rence, since mining for titanium and use of the site very much to heart, and other heavy metals in the coastal dunes the federal and provincial athorities ha- could affect the ecological character of ve cooperated with local non - govern- this, Africa's oldest nature reserve. A mental organizations to produce a Monitoring mission visited the site in © Biologiezentrum Linz/Austria; download unter www.biologiezentrum.at April 1992. Its report, conceived as a Parties, to be held in Australia in 1996. The complement to the Environmental Im- convention's new Scientific and Technical pact Assessment being carried out by Review Panel (STRP) will take the lead in the South African authorities, suggested producing these guidelines. that the authorities consider whether, in view of the importance of the site, the As noted above, the Ramsar Monitoring mining application be refused on prin- Procedure does not deal with monitoring in ciple. It further recommends that, if the its usual scientific sense. This scientific mining application were given serious sense will however undoubtedly be called consideration, special consideration be upon in drawing up the guidelines, since given to such issues as: possible alter- change can be often only be measured by a native sources of ore; need for an envi- long-term process of detailed scientific ronmental cost/benefit analysis; critical inquiry. Equally, change can only be mea- impacts on the St. Lucia system; the sured against an agreed starting-point, and difficulties of dune restoration after this will mean increased use and increased mining and possible changes in land. precision of the Ramsar database and data- The national EIA together with the collecting operation (existing Ramsar me- Ramsar report was subjected to very chanisms include a standardized data sheet detailed public scrutiny, since the and wetland classification system). documents were opened to public deba- te and discussion before an independent The present workshop has carried forward review panel made its recommendations the reflection on these complex and dif- to the government. These recommenda- ficult issues, and the Ramsar Bureau and tions, made in late 1993 (after another STRP will look forward to input from par- recommendation from the Kushiro Con- ticipants into the ongoing discussion. ference), suggested that mining should not be allowed, and that special measu- res should be taken to improve the li- ving standard of local people. The South African cabinet still has to take a final decision on the subject. FUTURE RAMSAR WORK ON MONITORING The terms "ecological character" and "change in ecological character" are very general in nature. It may be that it will pro- ve too difficult to work out usable definiti- Address of the author: ons, and that the Convention will continue to use them in their general sense. At the Michael Smart Kushiro Conference participants looked at Assistant Secretary General a first draft of possible definitions. They Ramsar Convention felt that more study was needed and appro- Ramsar Bureau ved a recommendation calling for guideli- Rue de Mauverney 28 nes defining these concepts to be presented CH-1196 Gland to the next conference of the Contracting SWITZERLAND © Biologiezentrum Linz/Austria; download unter www.biologiezentrum.at REC. C.4.7 (Rev.) Annex 1 MONITORING PROCEDURE 1. It comes to the attention of the Bureau that the ecological character of a listed wetland is changing or is likely to change as a result of technological development, pullution or other human interference. 2. Where appropriate, the Bureau shall propose to the Contracting Party or Parties concerned to apply the Monitoring Procedure, requesting, at the same time, additional information on the status of the wetland concerned. 3. Where, as a result of this procedure and other information available of the Bureau, the Bu- reau is of the opinion that there is evidence of significant change or likely change in the ecological character of a listed wetland, the Bureau shall collaborate with the Contracting Party or Parties concerned to arrive at an acceptable solution and the Bureau may offer advice and assistance to that Party or those Parties, if required. The Bureau shall inform the Standing Committee of any action it has taken in this connection. 4. If it does not appear that an acceptable solution can be readily achieved, the Bureau shall immediately bring the matter to the attention of the Standing Committee. The Standing Committee, acting through the Chairman and Secretary, provided by the Bureau, may pur- sue the matter, in direct contact with the Contracting Party or Parties concerned and, where appropriate, with other responsible agencies or bodies, with a view to helping to find a solution. 5. In the event of alterations to the List or changes in ecological character in wetlands included therein, the Standing Commitee shall arrange for the information to be circulated for discussion at the next Meeting of the Confererence of the Contracting Parties in accordance with Article 8 paragraph 2 (d) of the Convention. 6. The Bureau shall periodically review and report progress on the conservation status of sites to which its attention has been drawn under this procedure. To facilicate follow-up, the Bu- reau shall maintain a register of activities undertaken in this connection. © Biologiezentrum Linz/Austria; download unter www.biologiezentrum.at RES. C.5.4 Annex 2 MONTREUX RECORD 'Record of Ramsar sites where changes in ecological character have occurred, are occurring, or are likely to occur' 1. the Convention Bureau shall draw up the Montreux Record initially on the basis of sites listed in paragraph 224 of document INF. C.4.18, prepared from National Reports submit- ted to the Fourth Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties. Sites that have come to the attention of the Convention Bureau subsequently shall be included in the Montreux Record subject to the procedure outlined below (points 2-4). 2. It comes to the attention of the Convention Bureau that the ecological character of a Ramsar site may have changed, may bei changing, or may be likely to change as a result of technological development, pollution, or other human interference. 3. If relevant consultations are not already in progress, the Convention Bureau shall contact the contracting Party concerned, requesting additional information on the status of the site. 4. When, following such consultations, it is confirmed that the site has undergone, is undergo- ing, or ist likely to undergo change in ecological character, the Convention Bureau, in agreement with the contracting Party concerned, and in consultation with the Scientific and Technical Review panel, shall add the site to the Montreux Record. 5. The Montreux Record shall indicate those sites where the Monitoring Procedure has been or is being implemented, as well as those sites where a Contracting Party has already iden- tified and/or begun to implement remedial actions. Contracting Parties shall provide annual reports to the Convention Bureau on the conservation situation at sites included on the Montreux Record. 6. The Convention Bureau, in agreement with the Contracting Party concerned, and in consultation with the Scientific and Technical Review Panel, shall remove a site from the Mon- treux Record upon receipt of documents detailing either the remedial actions implemented successfully at the site, or the reasons why the ecological character of a site is no longer likely to change. 7. The Montreux Record shall be maintained as part of the Ramsar database and shall be subject to continuous review. Copies of the Record shall be available to contracting Parties and other interested bodies upon request, but shall in any case be included with the regular circulation of the List.