To develop the network of French Ramsar sites, to encourage cooperation, dialogue, and the promotion of best practices for management to the benefit of all wetland managers: such is the objective of the seminars for managers of French Ramsar sites. The second seminar was held last December at the île de Ré, by an initiative of the Birdlife in France, the community of île de Ré Communes, and the Atlantic Marshes Forum, with the support of Evian.
This second seminar also had the objective of laying the foundations of the French network’s structure. To this end, it was decided to set up an Association and to base it on a Charter detailing the obligations of the Ramsar site managers. This Association should be created sometime between now and autumn 2011, and the Charter drawn up, to be signed by the Minister for Ecology and the Secretary-General of Ramsar during the third seminar, which will take place in the Camargue in November 2011. This third meeting, which is being organised by an initiative of the Tour du Valat, the Camargue Regional Natural Park, and the Syndicat Mixte for the Camargue Gardoise, will see the formal structure of the network being finalised, and will also look back on the origins of the Ramsar Convention on the occasion of its 40th birthday.
The first appeal to draw up an international wetlands convention dates from 1962; it was launched during the closing session of the MAR project, organised by Luc Hoffmann in the Camargue, at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, in November 1962. The MAR project, initiated in 1960, was a response to concerns caused by the destruction of vast areas of wetland in Europe and by the decline in water birds which was taking place as a result. Luc Hoffmann played a key role, with the participation of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and its Resources (now IUCN – World Conservation Union), the International Waterfowl and Wetlands Research Bureau (IWRB – now Wetlands International), and the International Council for Bird Preservation, (ICBP – now BirdLife International).