In the current Tunisian context, civil society involved in environmental programs need more than ever to unite and to improve its capacity in order to be able to play its part as mediator between government and population and to safeguard the rights of both Man and Nature. And the time has come for specialized associations and organizations (like WWF, Tour du Valat...) to accompany them – thanks to their expertise and their financial support – in this process in order to achieve population welfare together with a environmentally friendly development.
More than 230 wetland sites are recorded in Tunisia; they are listed and classified in 11 categories. About half of the sites are rivers or sebkhas. According to some estimates, the Tunisian total wetlands surface covers about 1,250,200 ha. These ecosystems face high anthropogenic and natural pressures which lead to their degradation. In order to cope with these degradations, given the ecological, hydrological and socioeconomic importance of wetlands, and recognizing the pressures and threats that affect these systems, Tunisia is pursuing since 2004 its programme aiming at listing wetlands under the Ramsar Convention, training people and implementing initiatives for their wise management.
A training workshop for NGOs was organized from 17/11/2011 to 19/11/2011 at Sousse in the frame of this project entitled “Tunisian Wetlands: Home for People and Nature”, which aims, among others at improving wetlands management capacity. The workshop focused on the importance of wetlands monitoring and evaluation, communication, institutional issues, monitoring methodologies and techniques, and networking. The Mediterranean Wetlands Observatory also supported this training session.
The specific objectives of this training programmes were as follow:
This training course is organized in order to meet the NGOs – either existing or emerging - capacity needs, mainly in the field of wetlands management and surrounding territorial planning.
The workshop targeted national and local NGOs working in the area of sustainable development, nature protection with focus to wetlands.
The Participants were especially interested to learn about communication and the “livelihood” approach. For the communication, they have recognized the need to better harmonize wetlands information and learning how to identify, study and monitor wetlands. The introduction of the new approach of sustainable development “livelihood” was considered useful for Tunisia because more appropriate, global and analytical than the sector approach to integrate human and environmental dimension, including wetlands.
The participants expressed a high interest to work on wetlands but underlined major gaps, such as:
For further information, contact Mr. Faouzi Maamouri, fmaamouri@wwftunis.org
