CONVENTION ON WETLANDS "RAMSAR" AND THE ARAB REGION سبل تفعيل تنفيذ ا تفاقية الا راضى الرطبة فى المنطقة العربية "رامسار" National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries
WETLANDS SERVICES AND PRODUCTS
EXAMPLES OF ARABIC WETLANDS
1. Lagoons Ghar El Melh, Tunisia An ancient sea bay now almost totally laden with sediments. Migratory fish use the site for feeding, especially during the winter period before reaching the sea. Fishing is practiced by the local population.
2. Lakes Lake Bardaweel, Egypt It is important bird sites due to their habitat and their geographical position along the migration routes.
3. Marine Islands Hawar Islands, Bahrain An archipelago of 16 small desert islands and islets in the Gulf of Bahrain, surrounded by shallow seas with extensive seagrass beds. The islands support one of the world's largest concentrations of the Socotra Cormorant, and significant numbers of Greater Flamingo and Black-headed Gull. Notable marine species in the surrounding waters include the endangered dugong and several species of marine turtles.
4. Sandy Beaches Tyre Beach, Lebanon The Ramsar site is located within the best preserved stretch of sandy coastline in southern Lebanon; it is remarkable for its biodiversity but threatened by its proximity to the city of Tyre. The beaches of Tyre are thought to be important nesting areas for the Green Turtle.
5. Swamps Sudd, Sudan One of the largest tropical wetlands in the world, located in Southern Sudan. Composed of various ecosystems, from open water and submerged vegetation to floating fringe vegetation. It is an important wintering ground for birds
7. Saline Lakes Sabkhat Al- Jabbul, Syria A saline lake surrounded by semi-arid steppe, the lake is an important staging, wintering and breeding area for large numbers of waterbirds. The surrounding areas are used primarily for agriculture and livestock grazing. The lake has been identified as an Important Bird Area
8. Fresh water lakes Lake Nasser One of the largest man-made lakes in the world. The eastern and western parts of the lake comprise a number of shallow lobes (Khores).
9. Shallow Depressions Wadi El-Natrun lakes, Egypt Shallow depression in the northern sector of the West Desert. They receive their water from underground seepage.
10. Riverine Islands River Nile Islands, Egypt 144 protected islands in the Nile. Islands hold the last remnants of natural habitats in the Nile Valley. Islands are important wetlands for waterbirds
DAMS Euphrates River greatly diminished the amount of river flow in recent years because of building new dams upstream in Turkey.
Pollution Two types of pollutants; 1. From a specific source such as the output of factories and sewage 2. Non-point sources, which usually come from irrigation water to agricultural land.
Tubli Bay, Bahrain is located in more densely populated areas of the island is under heavy pressure from various human activities such as disposal of garbage, sewage and oil pollution.
Drying Merja Zerga, Morocco
Lake Manzalah, Egypt
Dredging Dredging and pumping of seabed in the eastern coast of Dalma island (Abu Dhabi) was destroyed a lot of marine life and corals.
RAMSAR CONVENTION IN THE ARAB REGION
Number of Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention at 29 May 2009: 159 countries Including 16 Arab countries Number of sites designated: 1847 Arab Ramsar sites 113 sites 102 sites located in Africa 11 sites located in Asia
7.13% total area 6.11% total number 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% العالم الدول العربية 20% 10% 0% عدد المواقع المساحة
Number of sites Except Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, the number of registered sites of every country ranging between one to four sites. 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0
Area of sites سوريا %0.072 تونس %5.235 الجزاي ر %21.324 البحرين %0.049 جزر القمر %0.115 الا مارات العربية %0.004 جيبوتى %1.587 مصر %0.656 العراق %0.992 الا ردن %0.053 لبنان %0.008 ليبيا %0.001 السودان %59.006 المغرب %1.960 موريتانيا %8.938
CHALLENGES
Prepared In preparation Not prepared No Informations 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
ACTIVATION
Regional Capacity Building Exchange and sharing of experiences and information between the Arab States. Funding Regional Training Center to wetlands in the Arab States. Cooperation for the establishment of transboundary Ramsar sites
3.Strengthening of national policies Assessment and monitoring of wetland resources Scientific management of wetlands Established programs for rehabilitation and sanitation for wetlands Prevention of damages of Invasive species Prevention of environmental damage, mitigation and compensation
3.Promotion of the use of information technology Using GIS, remote sensing and satellite images technology Putting all the basic information on the status of Arab wetlands in data base.
4. Development and maintenance of Wetlands Declaration of new Ramsar sites Work to preserve the environmental characters of the Ramsar sites Follow-up the changes affecting the environmental status Ramsar Effective management of Ramsar sites
5. International cooperation Cooperation and partnership with relevant international conventions and organizations (IUCN, WWF, CBD.etc). Preparation a cooperation mechanism and work to implementation regional networks. Promotion of international assistance to support the conservation wetlands and wise use of wetlands.
6. Application the environmental framework of Millennium wise use of wetlands Wetlands and Climate Change Wetlands and Biofuel Wetlands and extractive industries (minerals and oil) Wetlands and urbanization Wetlands and poverty alleviation
7. Regional initiatives Clarity of purpose of the regional initiatives Coordination between the objectives of the initiatives and Convention Use the same tools that apply by the Convention
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