Summary
On Sunday, 28 October, plenary met in the morning to hear updates from the Credentials Committee, and updates on discussions from contact and informal groups. They adopted resolutions on:
- governance;
- responsibilities, roles, and composition of the Standing Committee, and regional categorization of countries;
- language strategy;
- Ramsar’s fourth Strategic Plan;
- Ramsar Advisory Missions;
- restoration of degraded peatlands to mitigate and adapt to climate change and enhance biodiversity and disaster risk reduction;
- identifying peatlands as Ramsar Sites for global climate change regulation as an additional argument to existing Ramsar criteria;
- gender and wetlands;
- conservation and management of small wetlands; and
- sea turtle breeding, feeding and nursery areas, and the designation of key areas as Ramsar Sites.
The draft resolution on wetlands and peace and security was withdrawn, with the intent to submit text for consideration by the 59th meeting of the Standing Committee. Final agreement on some draft resolutions were pending translation, including on:
- financial and budgetary matters;
- enhancing implementation, visibility, and synergies with other multilateral environmental agreements and other international institutions;
- future implementation of scientific and technical aspects of the Convention for 2019-2021;
- promoting the conservation and wise use of intertidal wetlands and ecologically associated habitats;
- wetlands in polar and subpolar regions;
- promoting conservation, restoration and sustainable management of coastal blue carbon ecosystems; and agriculture in wetlands
After the close of plenary, revisions on the remaining resolutions were submitted to the Secretariat, including some with bracketed text, on:
- Ramsar Regional Initiatives 2019-2021;
- cultural values, indigenous peoples and local communities, and climate change mitigation and adaptation in wetlands;
- rapid assessment of wetland ecosystem services; and
- wetlands in West Asia.
As COP13 began to wind down, delegates seemed committed to working through the remaining challenges to complete their work.
IISD Reporting Services, through its Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) Meeting Coverage, has provided a curtain raiser, daily web coverage, and a summary and analysis report from COP13.
Photos by IISD/ENB | Francis Dejon
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