Ramsar Advisory Missions: Report No. 5, Bañados del Este, Uruguay (1988)
Special attention is given to assisting member States in the management and conservation of listed sites whose ecological character is threatened. This is carried out through the Ramsar Advisory Mission, a technical assistance mechanism formally adopted by Recommendation 4.7 of the 1990 Conference of the Parties. (The Ramsar Advisory Mission mechanism was formerly known as the Monitoring Procedure and the Management Guidance Procedure.) The main objective of this mechanism is to provide assistance to developed and developing countries alike in solving the problems or threats that make inclusion in the Montreux Record necessary.
Ramsar Convention Monitoring Procedure
[Report No. 5:] Bañados del Este, Uruguay
by Patrick J. Dugan & Antonio C. Diegues
The present report is the result of a four-day visit to Uruguay from 24-28 October 1988 by Patrick J. Dugan (Coordinator of the IUCN Wetlands Programme) and Antonio C. Diegues (Coordinator of the IUCN Wetlands Programme in Brazil). The purpose of the mission was threefold. First, to meet with government and non-governmental institutions concerned with the problems of wetland management in Uruguay, in particular those of the Bañados del Este. Second, to review the current status of the Bañados del Este and the threats to this area. And third, to provide recommendations on future action through which the concerned authorities can work towards effective conservation and environmentally sound management of the Bañados. Meetings were held with the Sub-Commission for the Bañados del Este of the Institute for the Preservation of the Environment; the Laguna Merin Commission; the Environmental Commissions of the Congress and the Senate; the Society for the Conservation of the Environment; the Society for the Study and Conservation of Birds; the Institute for Legal and Social Studies; the National Museum of Natural History; and the Department of Biology of the University. Discussions were focused upon the current status of the Bañados del Este and the apparent conflict between conservation and development in the zone, the existing plans for further investment in development activities which are likely to change the ecological character of the zone, proposals for conservation measures within the Ramsar site and compensatory measures outside, and proposals through which the Ramsar Convention and associated international institutions might provide technical and other assistance to Uruguay in order that it might more effectively fulfill its obligations under the Ramsar Convention.
The present report introduces the Ramsar monitoring procedure, summarizes the status and likely prospects for the Bañados del Este, makes preliminary suggestions on approaches which may provide lasting solutions to the conflicts that exist in the zone, and makes recommendations to the Ramsar Convention as to how the Convention might most effectively follow up on this initial mission with more substantive support to Uruguay.
The consultants would like to thank the Institute for the Preservation of the Environment for organising the mission to Uruguay, and the Laguna Merin Commission, the Environmental Commissions of the Congress and the Senate, the Society for the Study and Conservation of Birds, the Institute for Legal and Social Studies, the National Museum of Natural History, and the Department of Biology of the University for the opportunity to discuss with them the problems of the Bañados del Este.
In ratifying the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat (Ramsar Convention) each Contracting Party undertakes to "designate suitable wetlands within its territory for inclusion in a List of wetlands of international importance" (Article 2.1 of the Convention). Specifically, each Contracting Party is obligated to "designate at least one wetland to be included in the List" (Article 2.4) and "shall formulate and implement their planning so as to promote the conservation of the wetlands included in the Lis