ACEDP Wetland Policy, Guidelines and Capacity Building Project launched its Inception Workshop in Beijing on 21 April 2010.
More than 40 specialists from Australia and China attended, including program owners AusAID and MOFCOM; the four Chinese core partners NDRC, MWR, MEP, and SFA; the key member ministries of National Implementing Ramsar Convention Committee ( NIRCC); the Program Coordination Office (PCO); international donors such as the the European Union (EU) and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF); the joint Australian Kiri-ganai Research in association with Wetland International and Chinese Wetland implementation team, representatives from the four pilot provincial Forestry Departments ( Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Fujian and Hainan) and 5 wetland pilot sites ( Xixi, Qinhu, Lake Tai, Zhangjiangkou and Dongzhaigang) , the media ‘Greentimes’ and a number of senior experts from Chinese institutions and universities.
At the beginning of the workshop, the Australian project team and Chinese Wetland specialists, shared with the audiences the contextual background in the wetland area of Australia and China including issues and challenges, actions taken by both governments, experiences and lessons learnt and on-going Australia-China collaborative activities. This has presented a clear picture of how the ACEDP Wetland Project can respond the Chinese needs.
During the workshop, the joint team presented in detail approaches and methodologies of the development of wetland monitoring, wetland management plan, wetland park construction/assessment and wetland restoration guidelines relating to 5 wetland pilot sites. These will include a full review of the current relevant Chinese laws, regulations and guidelines and also the combination of good practices, experiences and lessons learnt from other donor communities. A detailed workplan was discussed and agreed upon that will guide project implementation. The project team will produce a final Inception Report incorporating all comments and discussions and submit it to the PCO by May 2010.
At the end of the workshop, SFA made the conclusive summary. They commented ‘ a successful workshop ’ echoed by all the local forestry representatives. Finally, SFA also stressed the importance of strengthening horizontal communications among the NIRCC members and vertical communications among SFA, Provincial Forestry Departments and Wetland Sites during the project implementation.
The workshop news have been placed in the SFA website and the newspaper, ‘Greentimes’.