03.02.2010 

The first ever World Wetlands Week has been launched by Minister Joel Morgan at the International Conference Centre under the theme: Wetlands connect life and culture.

Vice-President Belmont, Minister Morgan (respectively 5th and 4th from right, front row) and other guests watch …

Present at the ceremony on Monday evening were Vice-President Joseph Belmont, secretary general Anada Tiéga of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, sustainable development director of the World Tourism Organisation Luigi Cabrini, members of the diplomatic corps and other high government officials.

The event comes under the umbrella of the Ramsar convention, an intergovernmental treaty that commits its member countries to maintain the ecological character of their “wetlands of international importance” and to plan for the “wise” or sustainable use of all the wetlands in their territories.

Addressing the audience Mr Morgan, Minster for Environment, Natural Resources and Transport, said as an environmentally conscious people we are happy to have been chosen by the Ramsar secretariat to lead such an important event worldwide.

… a performance by school children during Monday’s ceremony to officially launch World Wetlands Week

Each year more than US $200,000 is committed from our national budget to conserve and manage our water bodies, he said. And the Department of Environment has a section that is mandated to ensure they are properly protected.

He said we are proud to be associated with 159 member countries and 1,883 Ramsar sites globally, adding that two wetland areas – Mare Aux Cochons on Mahe and Aldabra atoll – have now been designated as Ramsar sites.

Mr Morgan said this shows their outstanding value for conservation. This year’s international theme – Caring for wetlands: an answer to climate change – is appropriate at a time when communities around the globe are struggling to attain the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, he added.

These cover such areas as health, food, water security and the need to alleviate poverty, as well as helping to prevent and mitigate natural disasters, in which wetlands play a vital role, he said.

“Climate change is unequivocal, its impact is already being felt and we are deeply concerned because our existence is being threatened,” said Mr Morgan.

Our tourism and fishing industries and other sectors such as agriculture are already feeling the impact of these changes, he added.

The minister stressed that the government has taken climate change seriously and we are already mainstreaming adaptation measures into our development plans. Last December we launched our own national climate change strategy in Copenhagen at the UN Conference on Climate Change.

Mr Morgan said Small Island Developing States are among the most vulnerable, and our wetlands play a vital part in the natural process to reduce the effects of climate change.

“Our main goal is to strengthen the collective voice for the conservation and preservation of the wetlands in Seychelles,” he added.

Mr Tiéga said Seychelles is showing the way on the “wise use” principle of the convention, especially in its tourism industry, food security strategy, fisheries, biodiversity conservation through protected areas, and human health through watershed and waste management.

“Wetlands help to reduce poverty and natural disasters, and recent studies have shown that they provide US $33,000 per hectare of savings in a single storm event,” he said.

Mr Tiéga said Ramsar appreciates Seychelles’ sustainable tourism policy through controlled coastal and hotel development, giving information to tourists about the coastal environment, and increasing the size and number of protected areas.

Environment principal secretary Didier Dogley said Port Launay, our first Ramsar site, was declared in 2005 and now Mare Aux Cochons and Aldabra atoll have been designated.

“In the near future we have plans to add La Plaine Hollandaise, Vallée de Mai and Anse Lazio on Praslin to the protected sites,” he said.
The ceremony was marked by the launch of a wetlands documentary entitled Wetlands and Ecotourism in Seychelles.

There were also recorded video messages from Dr Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, and Franck Riboud, chief executive of the Danone company, which sponsored the event.

Songs and poems by Mont Fleuri and Anse Etoile primary schools were on the programme, and local singer Joe Samy also performed.

World Wetlands Week will go on until Friday and will promote an array of educational, cultural and social activities.

Forrás: http://www.nation.sc/