Pierre Caessteker, In charge of wetland management plan studies at the National Office for Water and Aquatic Habitats (ONEMA)
What are the ONEMA’s objectives with respect to wetland conservation?
Since its creation in 2007, the ONEMA has been providing support to the Minister in charge of ecology in drawing up and implementing e national wetlands policy.
The local government services provide technical support for water policies while helping to ensure that ecological issues are better taken into consideration in planning and programming documents for water policy (SDAGE, SAGE, major river plans, etc.). They support State departments and water agencies in raising awareness of contracting bodies and managers. They also provide technical support to the administrative police services in the preparation of cases that are affected by legislation concerning water. Finally, they ensure that regulations concerning the uses of water and aquatic habitats are respected, and record any offences (infilling, drainage, flooding, pollution, etc.).
The ONEMA also organises and coordinates the network of wetland transfer units. In particular, in 2010 it opened the national portal giving access to information about wetlands in partnership with stakeholders involved with water and environmental conservation: www.zones-humides.eaufrance.fr.
What kind of work is carried out in the framework of the wetlands transfer unit network?
The coordination of the network of wetland transfer units has the objective of making better use of everyone’s efforts and raising the profile of activities being undertaken in the wetlands.
The main undertakings, in progress since 2009, are:
- contributing to the website “technical documents relating to water”
- building on feedback from experiences, in collaboration with various water agencies
- sharing the latest information to feed into the national wetlands website, complementing their communications tools
- publicising the events organised by stakeholders associated with water and the environment during world wetlands day. Over 280 events were included in the 2010 programme on the website.
What’s new for World Wetlands Day 2011?
Since 2001, in France, government organisations, non-governmental organisations, and citizens have been making use of the “Law of 2 February” [relating to the strengthening of environmental protection, dating from 2 February 1995], to launch public awareness-raising campaigns in relation to the value and benefits of wetlands in general and the Ramsar Convention in particular. But 2011 is a special year for this Convention, which is celebrating its 40th birthday!
The theme of the celebrations is “Forests: vital for water and wetlands”. For this occasion, the national wetlands website has just added a new section, “Ramsar and World Wetlands Day”, which enables all the events being organised for this day to be brought together. Accessible on line, this tool allows organisers to publicise their activities and to make them known to a wide audience.
The more of us there are joining in and organising events, the more this occasion for the preservation of wetlands will be in everyone’s thoughts. In the end, it’s the wetlands which stand to gain!