Videos
Looking out across Tunisia’s Ghar el Melh lagoon, a Wetland of International Importance, the city of Ghar el Melh embodies a unique natural and cultural heritage. But for the last 10 years, the lagoon has been suffering from intensive development pressures, their impact exacerbated by climate change. Urgent action is needed to save this precious ecosystem and the vital services it provides to local communities.
The Gulf of Oristano is home to 85,000 people, but significant parts of the area could be flooded by 2100 due to climate change. In response to this threat, the Oristano Coastal Contract is a ground-breaking multidisciplinary policy plan that involves mayors, citizens and businesses all working together towards the effective management and sustainable development of the territory. The agreement signed in Oristano has since become a model for collective management of wetlands in the Mediterranean.
Ulcinj Salina is a Ramsar site and one of the most important stopovers for migrating birds in Europe. Built in the 1930s, the salina once provided valuable income for local communities; but in 2013 salt production was stopped and the salt basins were left to dry out. In response, EuroNatur Foundation and its partners BirdLife Europe and Central Asia, the Centre for Protection and Research of Birds (CZIP), the Dr Martin Schneider-Jacoby Association (MSJA) and Tour du Valat launched the international #SaveSalina campaign, aiming to drive actions at local, regional and international levels to save and restore this unique coastal wetland in the Adriatic.
The training course on “Visitors Management in Protected Wetlands – Making them the allies of conservation” was held on 24-29 July 2017 at the National Centre of Environmental Education (CENEAM), located in Valsaín (Segovia), Spain.
The contents of the course were designed for planners, managers, policy makers and people working in public use issues, as they are increasingly faced with the challenges and opportunities of operating in environments where tourism is or will be a dominant factor in management.
As in many other scenarios affecting wetlands in the Mediterranean region, the Azraq Oasis (Jordan) has been subjected to anthropogenic activities that have impacted its functioning and ecological value and led to its degradation. The Azraq Oasis received a boost from a grant by the AFD and FFEM, which supported the rehabilitation of several freshwater pools.
As part of a micro-project funded by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM), and coordinated by Tour du Valat, the Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon (SPNL) organized a training session on ‘composting for limiting pollution inputs to Ammiq Ramsar Site’.
Fourteen persons attended the training.