Delmar Blasco, the new Coordinator of the Mediterranean Wetlands Initiative (MedWet), is known to the wetlands community because he served as Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands from 1995 to 2003. During his time at the Secretariat, he actively supported the formal recognition of the MedWet Initiative under the Convention and the establishment of the MedWet Secretariat in Athens, Greece, in 2002.

He is a citizen of Spain and Argentina and, before his time with Ramsar, he worked as the director of the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA), with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and with the Environment Liaison Centre International (ELCI) in Geneva and Nairobi. His solid reputation and long experience in working at international level and most recently as a consultant in the Mediterranean region (where he has lived for more than ten years) will allow him to guide and drive the this new phase of MedWet, with a strong priority given to assist the Parties to establish a clear connection between wetlands conservation and water management in general, for the benefit of people and nature.

Delmar Blasco is heading the new MedWet Secretariat now established in the Camargue (Rhône river delta), France’s first Ramsar Site. This new location will facilitate cooperation with the Mediterranean Wetland Observatory, within the Research Centre of La Tour du Valat.

Contact blasco@medwet.org, Tel: +33 4 90 97 06 77