7377

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7377
• Author: Kusler, J. A. and S. Daly.
• Title: Wetlands and River Corridor Management.
• USFW Year: 1989.
• USFW - Doc Type: \
• Copyright Material: NO

larly powerful individuals and there are often
influential committees or informal groups of
people. Often these people and groups are not
readily apparent and in some situations the most
influential people never appear on reports and
studies. There is not usually any relationship
between the size of the informal groups and their
power and in some situations there is almost an
inverse relationship between power and size. The
Friends of Prespa is one such group that has
worked very effectively for conservation action in
the Mikri Prespa National Park in Greece (Friends
of Prespa 1989).
The final, and vitally important box in Figure
1 is the one entitled "invisible links by history,
marriage, etc." There are almost always linkages
between people and organizations depicted
elsewhere on Figure 1 but these linkages can only
be discovered with patience, perseverance and
gentle curiosity. One often hears that the
minister was once the student of the foreign
engineering consultant when the latter was a
university professor. The wife of the minister may
be a leading figure in a National NGO whilst
international organizations may take consultants
from universities, national NGOs and from
organizations in foreign countries. Frequently
powerful landowners are influential in
international NGOs whilst webs of extended
families can permeate many organizations. The
management of the Donana National Park in Spain
was brought out prominently in the national press
in 1988. It was revealed that the change of a
planning decision to favour high rise hotels
instead of small houses in land adjacent to a
sensitive part of the park had connections via
family interests to some of the most senior
government figures.
WHAT CAN BE APPLIED ELSEWHERE?
Strategy
One of the most important lessons from recent
wetland management experience in Europe and Africa
is that it is essential to invest in people. There
are relatively few people with training relevant
to wetland issues. Those who are already working
in wetland management, either within governmental
or non-governmental sectors, are short of
financial resources.
It is unlikely that the world's wetlands will
be saved by action within, and action for, wet-
lands alone. When the schemes that damage wetlands
are examined, and especially when their economic
analysis and social effects are investigated, it
is usually possible to torpedo the scheme or to
establish major modifications. Wetland conserva-
tion should involve intellectual assaults upon the
processes that degrade wetlands as well as
conservation action for the wetlands themselves.
The broad functions of wetlands and their
values to societies in both developed and develop-
ing countries must be quatified and disseminated
widely.
It is vital that "wetlands" are entered into
both the legislative structure and the adminis-
trative framework of nations. This is an essential
step for effective wetland conservation in almost
all countries. The U.S. is presently about the
only country in the world with a strong legisla-
tive structure for wetlands protection.
Any planning involving wetlands must involve an
approach which sees the whole catchment and the
associated coastal area as one system. It is
essential that wetland management pays attention
to the upstream support systems of the wetland.
Management in the wetland must recognize that
benefits are to be found downstream and that there
are often vital couplings between wetlands and
adjacent coastal areas.
The final strategy must be to support and use
international action through the Ramsar Bureau,
IUCN, IWRB and other international agencies.
International action facilitates a flow of
experience as well as permitting a broader
perspective to be provided for wetland management
issues in any one country.
Tactics
Training courses, especially those held in the
participants' own countries and those with a
project context in which skills can be developed,
are a vital element in any wetland conservation
programme (Hollis and Smart 1988). Training
courses benefit enormously from additional
participants from neighbouring countries. The
exchange of experience, the reduction of the sense
of isolation, the establishment of enduring
networks of contacts and the broader perspective
of the course are all highly beneficial. Financial
assistance for wetland management need not be
lavish to be appreciated. The provision of small
items of simple equipment, assistance to produce
local handbooks with local names and species, and
the gift of textbooks and offprints are always
valuable. Perhaps most important of all,
cooperation should be genuine and foreign experts
should never jet in and jet out believing that
good science is all that is needed.
The compilation of national inventories of all
wetlands within a nation is widely regarded as the
first step in the development of a national
wetland strategy. The functions and values of each
of the wetlands should be enumerated using the
available materials such as maps, air photographs,
existing studies, field visits and perhaps a local
modification of the established American WET
procedure (Adamus et al. 1987). The inventory
should include an assessment of the current status
of each wetland. In addition, the case for wetland
conservation will be greatly strengthened if a
measure of the wetland loss over the last few
decades can be established from different editions
of maps or air photographs. An estimate of the
rate of loss and the land uses replacing wetlands
will also form effective political levers.
Environmental impact assessment and the
production of integrated management plans for
wetland sites must remain essential tools for
wetland protection worldwide. However, they should
be linked with assistance to locally-based NGO
groups who can build public knowledge and mobilize
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