International workshop “Towards an integrated approach to the cultural and natural aspects of wetlands”

From 23-27 September an international workshop was held in the Prespa lakes interpretation centre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a Ramsar Site. The vast basin of the lakes of Prespa is shared between Greece, the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia and Albania, and is legally protected in all three countries.

The workshop “Towards an integrated approach to the cultural and natural aspects of wetlands”, organized by Med-INA in collaboration with the Mediterranean Ramsar programme (MedWet) and the Society for the Protection of Prespa, brought together around 30 experts from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Egypt, France, Greece, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the United Kingdom, Slovenia, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey.

Josep-Maria Mallarach of the Silene Association was invited to present a paper on the spiritual values of the wetlands of the northern rim of the Mediterranean Basin, which complemented the paper presented by Nejib Benessaiah, director of MedWet (the Mediterranean Initiative of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands), on the spiritual values of the conservation of the wetlands of the southern rim of the Mediterranean Basin.

>> More information on the workshop and the Prespa statement