Dear colleagues, It is my pleasure and honour to write to you once again in this newsletter. In late June I delivered an Executive Briefing at the UN’s Office here in Geneva (UNOG) on the work of the Convention. This was an opportunity to update UN Member States and our Contracting Parties on what has been happening at the Convention within the multilateral space and other related activities and to highlight the importance of the preservation of wetlands to the international diplomatic community. The theme of this briefing was “Centrality of wetlands in achieving the SDGs, water issues and the targets of related global processes” where I shared the outcomes from COP14 and World Wetlands Day. I connected our work on wetlands and why they are crucial to the world’s biodiversity (linking this to the Global Biodiversity Framework) which aligned neatly with my engagement at the 2nd UN Water Conference in March. I wanted to use this opportunity to share information on the processes that the Convention has been engaged in over the last months and the implications for wetlands. During this briefing, in looking forward, I alerted the audience to upcoming meetings such as the 62nd Standing Committee of the Convention on Wetlands, The SDG Summit (as we are now at the mid-point for the SDG delivery) in New York and also the Climate COP28 towards the end of the year. The audience consisted of UN Member States and multilateral organisations such as the European Union and UN Agencies. In early June I was proud to represent the Convention at the United Nations Habitat Assembly in Nairobi, the theme being: “A sustainable urban future through inclusive and effective multilateralism: achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in times of global crises.” At the Assembly and in bilateral meetings I held there, I stressed the importance of wetlands in urban areas and the pivotal role they can play in clean water, as sources of food for migrating birds and how wetlands can act as “natures shock absorbers” to prevent flood and storm surges. I stressed how the Convention was a co—custodian of SDG 6.6.1 - change in the extent of water-related ecosystems over time. I linked this to the COP14 resolution on Wetland City Accreditation. In May we held the 25th meeting of Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP) here in Gland. It was a very productive meeting, marked by active participation and engagement. I would like to thank all who attended and in particular our new chair, Dr Hugh Robertson and Vice-Chair, Prof. Siobhan Fennessy, who led the discussions with experience and knowledge. At the Secretariat we are preparing for the forthcoming 62nd meeting of the Standing Committee here at our headquarters in Gland, Switzerland. I would like to thank the staff here for preparing the necessary documents which are now available on our website. Sincerely, Dr Musonda Mumba
Secretary General, Convention on Wetlands |
