User consultation

GlobWetland II Project: 1st User Consultation Workshop

The first user consultation on the GlobWetland II project was held at the premises of the Tour Du Valat, France on 25th March 2009.

Organised jointly by the European Space Agency and the Observatory of Mediterranean Wetlands, this user consultation is the main step towards a wide user consultation that will lead to the GlobWetland II Invitation to Tender scheduled to be announced in 2009 Q2. During this one-day workshop, the Ramsar Secretariat represented by its Deputy Secretary General, Dr Nick Davidson, the MedWet Secretariat, the Tour du Valat as hosting organisation of the Observatory of Medeterranean Wetlands, the European Environmental Agency and the participants to the workshop have presented their view on how to best scope the GlobWetland II project. This workshop has permitted to secure the participation to the project from a number of key stakeholders, and has served as a mean to collect a first set of high level user needs that will be used as the foundation of the GlobWetland II project.

The GlobWetland II project aims at developing a pilot project of a Global Wetlands Observing System (G-WOS) in a regional context through a close partnership with the MedWet Secretariat and its Observatory of Mediterranean Wetlands, and with the Ramsar National Focal Points and supporting conservation agencies of the subject countries. The geographical areas that will be covered by the project are the coastal catchment areas of the Southern and Eastern part of the Mediterranean basin, extending from Morocco to Turkey.

Workshop Agenda:

09:00 – 09:10	Welcome at the GW-II User Consultation	Marc Paganini ESA; Jean Jalbert (Tour du Valat)
09:10 – 09:20	The European Space Agency and its participation to the International Environmental Conventions	Olivier Arino (ESA)
09:20 – 09:40	The GlobWetland I project and symposium, Achievements and future perspectives	Marc Paganini (ESA)
09:40 – 10:00	MedWet, the Mediterranean Initiative of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands	Adnan Budieri (MedWet Secretariat)
10:00 – 10:20	The Observatory of Mediterranean Wetlands (OMW), a tool for the assessment of the status and trends of Mediterranean wetlands	Laurent Chazee (Tour du Valat
10:20 – 10:50	Expectations of the Ramsar Convention and of the STRP for the setting of a Global Wetlands Observing System and its relation to the Ramsar Indicators of Effectiveness	Nick Davidson (Ramsar Secretariat)
11:10 – 11:30	EEA needs to accounting for the Mediterranean wetlands socio-ecosystems	Jean-Louis Weber (EEA)
11:30 – 11:50	OMW needs for the inventory, monitoring and assessment of wetlands in the Mediterannean Basin	Alain Sandoz (Tour du Valat)
11:50 – 12:10	Review of the proposed wetlands related indicators of the OMW monitoring system, which may be covered under GlobWetland-II	Coralie Beltrame (Tour Du Valat)
12:10 – 12:30	National needs in Turkey for the inventory, assessment and monitoring of wetlands.	UÄŸur Zeydanli (Nature Conservation Center, Turkey)
12:30 – 12:45	Preliminary Objectives of the GlobWetlands II project	Marc Paganini (ESA)
12:45 – 13:00	Modalities for user participation to the GlobWetland II project	Marc Paganini (ESA)
14:00 – 17:00	Discussions on GW-II user needs: - Geographical area - Wetlands Mapping, Monitoring and Assessment at National scales - Wetlands Mapping, Monitoring and Assessment at site level - Mediterranean Wetlands socio-ecosystems accounting - Ramsar Indicators of Effectiveness - OWM wetlands-related Indicators
17:00 – 17:30	Conclusion and meeting wrap up Follow up activities/calendar	Marc Paganini, ESA