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Adaptation policy for the conservation and management of nationally and internationally important wetlands Workshop

A two-day workshop to discuss what information Australia needs to meet its international obligations for its inland and coastal wetlands covered by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands has been hailed has “very forward-looking and very interesting” according to international wetland expert Prof Nick Davidson. photos from left to right are: Max followed by Hugh Roberston (Department of Conservation, New Zealand), Paula Warren (Department of Conservation, New Zealand), Kerry Bodmin (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, New Zealand) and Marc Schallenberg (University of Otago, New Zealand)

The workshop, hosted in by the Institute, in associated with the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF) and the Society of Wetland Scientists (Oceania chapter) was held at the Arthur Rylah Institute in Melbourne April 16-17.

Photo from left:Prof Max Finlayson Hugh Roberston (Department of Conservation, New Zealand), Paula Warren (Department of Conservation, New Zealand), Kerry Bodmin (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, New Zealand) and Marc Schallenberg (University of Otago, New Zealand, Photographer Di Crowley)

The 25 participants included researchers, policy makers and wetland managers from each of Australia’s state government agencies, the Federal government, New Zealand, and representatives from the Murray-Darling Basin Association and the Australian Conservation Foundation.

The meeting was convened by Institute Director Prof Max Finlayson and Prof Davidson, Deputy Secretary-General of the Ramsar Convention Secretariat and Institute adjunct, was a key-note speaker. NCCARF Workshop on Wetland Adaptation Dr Jamie Pittock, Prof Max Finlayson, Dr Dave Rissik, Prof Nick Davidson

Photo from left: Dr Jamie Pittock, Prof Max Finlayson, Dr Dave Rissik, Prof Nick Davidson (Photographer Di Crowther, from the Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries)

Australia is a founding Contracting Party to the Ramsar Convention and over the past 40 years has designated a national network of 65 Wetlands of International Importance, or Ramsar Sites, covering over eight million hectares. Prof Davidson said there were a number of issues which came out of the workshop, one of which has been known for many years, and that is the need for good base-line wetland inventory.

“This would provide us with a basis to work out how to handle the problems that wetlands face which include the effects of an increasingly rapidly changing climate,” said Prof Davidson. “If you don’t know where the wetlands are it is difficult to work out how to deal with managing them most effectively.”

Participants at NCCARF Wetland Adaptation to climate change workshop April 17-18

Photo: Participants at workshop include Dr Jamie Pittock (ANU), Marc Schallenberg (University of Otago, New Zealand, Kerry Bodmin (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, New Zealand)

The full interview with Prof Davidson will appear in May 2013 Connections magazine

Prof Max Finlayson was interviewed on ABC Rural on Friday April 26 about Kakadu and other wetlands and the need to protect them. http://www.abc.net.au/rural/telegraph/content/2013/s3746136.htm

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