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Support program for the development of the Ramsar Regional Initiative for Southern Africa
The Ramsar Regional Initiatives are designed as operational means to provide effective support for better implementation of the objectives of the Ramsar Convention and its Strategic Plan. They promote cooperation and capacity building for wetland conservation. The Southern Africa Regional Ramsar Initiative (SARRI), launched in 2020, brings together 13 of the 16 member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and regular dialogue between all the contracting parties must be established in order to begin the work phase for its development and implementation.
In this context, encouraging the ongoing dynamic around the establishment of SARRI governance, the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB) supports and facilitates exchanges between SARRI member states in this key stage of the initiative’s development and construction process. In order to enable the construction of solid governance through the sharing of feedback and bases for reflection on the various governance models that can be envisaged, the OFB is mobilising NatureXpairs to coordinate the project and run workshops, and MedWet’s expertise to share the Mediterranean experience.
Within this framework, the support programme, which will take place between January 2023 and September 2024, should enable the following results to be achieved: –
- Building the governance of the initiative, by drafting and validating the terms of reference for the SARRI initiative,
- Defining SARRI’s objectives and a multiannual action plan,
- Supporting the setting up of the initiative’s Secretariat, hosted by the IUCN ESARO,
- Defining SARRI’s visual identity and a website,
- Identifying the first projects to be funded to operationalise the initiative’s roadmap.
Two workshops, involving the RAMSAR focal points of the 13 SARRI member states, are being organised to achieve the project’s objectives and adopt the initiative’s framework documents
- Workshop in La Réunion, 20-21 May 2024, in conjunction with the international seminar on wetlands
- Workshop in Marrakech, 6-7 January, in conjunction with the Pre-COP15 meeting for Africa The progress of the SARRI initiative will also be presented at the next RAMSAR COP, to be held in Zimbabwe in July 2025.
Further information:
Emmanuelle Sarat – NatureXpairs
Florent Merle – French Biodiversity Agency