Mr Thymio Papayannis, MedWet Senior Advisor and Director of the Mediterranean Institute for Nature and Anthropos (Med-INA), represented the Ramsar Convention at the ‘High-level Conference o­n the Restoration of the Mesopotamian Marshlands’, held in Manama, Bahrain, o­n 28 February – 1 March 2005. During the Conference, co-organised by UNEP and ROPME (Regional Organisation for the Protection of the Marine Environment), the governments of Iran and Iraq decided to designate the shared Hawr Al Hawizah wetland, o­ne of the last remains of the vast Mesopotamian wetlands, as a transboundary Ramsar Site of International Importance.

An insightful account of the meeting ‘Can culture be restored in the Messopotamian Marshlands’ by Thymio Papayannis is available here.

Updated on 7/12/2005 1:28:52 PM.