Ramsar signs MOC with Congo Basin Commission

On 20 March 2006, on the peripheries of the IV World Water Forum in Mexico, Secretaries General Peter Bridgewater and Benjamin Ndala signed a memorandum of cooperation between the Ramsar Secretariat and the International Commission of the Congo-Oubangui-Sangha Basin. The Commission Internationale du Bassin Congo-Oubangui-Sangha (CICOS) was created in November 1999 in an accord signed by the heads of state of Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It's an intergovernmental organization charged with managing the navigable waterways of the region sustainably and promoting integrated water resources management for he Congo-Oubangui-Sangha Basin. Its objectives are to support sustainable development, reduce poverty, and reinforce regional integration in the countries of the basin. The MOC provides for increased exchange of information about activities and work programmes and for the possibility of joint activities between CICOS and the Convention and its International Organization Partners; it will also help to keep wetland values high on the very full CICOS agenda of concerns.