EJEMPLOS DE CÓMO OBTENER VALORES CRÍTICOS

The underlying purpose of the Ramsar document is to provide technical guid-ance designed for wetland managers and others on the day-to-day implementa-tion of an enhanced understanding of wetland-related cultural issues. The text includes a re-working of some earlier material³⁷, refining its logic and making it more systematic to make it easier for cultural aspects to be incorporated where they need to be in wetland management. Overall, the document’s primary aim is to provide an action-oriented resource.

Fig 1.5 Cover of the Ramsar Guidance on Culture and Wetlands.

The guidance integrates and expands the various principles and elements of good practice listed in the two Resolutions, which thus remain firmly in effect as components of the Ramsar Parties’ formally adopted thinking. Examples of the issues covered in the Resolutions include:

37 More specifi cally, an Information Document tabled by the Ramsar Secretariat at Ramsar COP8 attached to the Resolution draft on cultural aspects of wetlands.

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– recognising and assessing the significance of wetland cultural values, including those associated with individual wetlands of international importance for their ecological values;

– recognising the intimate links between cultural values and traditions and the sustainable management of wetlands and water resources;

– maintaining relevant sustainable practices;

– safeguarding, learning from and applying traditional knowledge;

– promoting greater awareness and understanding;

– integrating cultural values in relevant institutional structures, legal regimes, policies, strategies, management plans, impact assessments, monitoring pro-grammes and other planning and decision-making processes;

– facilitating the participation of local communities, indigenous peoples and other stakeholders in decision-making and management;

– taking cross-sectoral, multidisciplinary and cooperative approaches;

– compiling and using good-practice case studies.

The document’s first chapter covers a number of general considerations and in-cludes a broader picture of what is being done in relation to cultural issues of relevance to wetlands, and by whom, in other fora and institutions, including other Conventions. A summary is provided of the history of attention to the sub-ject in the Ramsar Convention, together with a scene-setting discussion on the place of wetlands in the cultural landscape, and the place of culture in the wet-land wet-landscape. This provides a rationale for recognising cultural values more completely than has been done hitherto.

There are three different types of situation that may be recognised:

(i) a situation where there is cultural interest in a wetland by a coincidence of location, meaning there is not necessarily any functional connection with the wetland ecosystem. The cultural interest is thus an additional dimension which needs to be taken into account, and in regard to which conflicts need to be avoided;

(ii) a situation where cultural interests arise from the ecological values;

(iii) a situation where cultural interests have produced the wetland value, for ex-ample through land-use practices, and where the objective would be to maintain the cultural interest as part of the key to maintaining the wetland’s ecological character.

The first chapter of the guidance also has a number of inserted text boxes which present summaries of case studies from around the world. These include the shap-ing of the fortunes of the civilisation of ancient Egypt by the seasonal floodshap-ing cy-cles of the river Nile, threats to the stilt-village fishing communities of Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia, archaeological discoveries from fourteenth century ships sunk

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in the Venice lagoon, and contemporary restoration of the traditional fishponds of Armagnac, France, for biodiversity, tourism and irrigation purposes.

Chapter two deals with relevant Ramsar policies and principles on different lev-els, and deals with the responsibilities of the Contracting Parties to the Conven-tion. It then elaborates a scheme of nine objectives (conservation, management and more general objectives) based on these. For each objective, a set of sug-gested implementation actions is set out.

As suggested above, guidance of this kind can only be indicative. Cultural priori-ties are specific to a given society and to the particular context of each country, and the text emphasises this point. The document helps by setting out the Ramsar Parties’ existing collective thinking, and by acting as a source for a range of spe-cific ideas to support and encourage all the parties concerned to proceed in a useful direction.

An appendix provides a suggested matrix tool for summarising and prioritising the cultural aspects of individual wetlands, drawn from work undertaken by the Mediterranean Institute for Nature and Anthropos (Med-INA).

Fig. 1.6 Illustrative extract from the Ramsar cultural aspects matrix (Papayannis+Pritchard 2008, p. 80).

The third chapter sets out a proposed typology of wetland-related activities that have associations with cultural values in one form or another. Not intended to be an exhaustive list, it covers over 60 of the most significant categories of activity in a three-level hierarchy, and includes items relating to habitation in wetland areas, to primary and secondary uses of wetland resources, to social practices and to knowledge and belief systems.

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An extensive menu of suggested objectives and actions based on these items is also provided, building on the components of the Ramsar Resolution adopted in 2002.

The document therefore offers two schemes of actions: one based on Ramsar ob-jectives, and one based on a technical characterisation of the linkages between wetlands and culture. The aim of both schemes is a more integrated approach to attending to wetlands’ natural and cultural values; as such, it is consistent with the concept that the best way to maintain ecological character is to embrace the ecological basis of cultural services.

Chapter four provides more detailed implementation guidance for some of the categories of action suggested in both schemes, with an emphasis on practical aspects of wetland management. Again this is constructed as an extensive menu of suggested possibilities accompanied by a linking narrative.

The point is emphasised that where primary resource use has some cultural signifi-cance, it is not automatically seen as positive from a Ramsar perspective because of that.

All of the suggested objectives and actions must still be considered in a context of com-patibility with the ‘wise use’ principle stemming from Article 3.1 of the Convention.

Ramsar Article 3.1:

‘The Contracting Parties shall formulate and implement their planning so as to promote the conservation of the wetlands included in the List, and as far as possible the wise use of wetlands in their territory’.

The guidance reflects a number of issues with a powerful link to various important ‘peo-ple-centred’ themes of work under the Convention, such as the agendas that have devel-oped on water, agriculture, fisheries, poverty and education, as well as to human health (through traditional knowledge concerning wetland medicinal products, for example).

Great care has been taken in drafting the text to avoid problematic implications for the realm of international trade or other areas of political, legal or technical sensitivity.

The document presents a set of recommendations, including one general recom-mendation concerning the development of a Ramsar strategy for the enhanced incorporation of cultural aspects into the management and wise use of wetlands in the future. Taking this forward could be a key role for the Convention’s Culture Working Group. The guidance constitutes one step in a process, and it will have to continue to evolve in parallel with developments in knowledge and capaci-ties. In the meantime, there is a good deal in the document that will help Con-tracting Parties and others make a meaningful difference on the ground.