The Convention on Wetlands, signed in Ramsar, Iran, is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for
the conservation and wise use of wetlands, including rivers and lakes, coastal lagoons, mangroves, peatlands and coral reefs. It also covers human-made wetlands such as fish
and shrimp ponds, farm ponds, irrigated agricultural land, salt pans, reservoirs, gravel pits, sewage farms and canals. Some,1,650 wetland sites, totalling 150 million hectares, have
been designated for inclusion by its 154 member states in the Ramsar List of Wetlands of
International Importance as of April 2007.
Activities
The Convention obliges its Contracting Parties to include wetland conservation considerations in their national land-use planning. Parties must promote, as far as possible, “the wise use of wetlands in their territory”. The Convention’s “Wise Use Guide- lines” call upon Contracting Parties to:
adopt national wetland policies, which involves a review of existing legislation and institutional arrangements;
develop programmes of wetland inventory, monitoring, research, training, education and public awareness; and
take action at wetland sites, including the development of integrated management plans covering every aspect of the wetlands.
Type of organisation:
Intergovernmental organizations
Established:
1971
Number of staff:
17 and 4 interns
Head/Director:
Secretary General: Anada Tiéga
Cooperation
BirdLife International; IUCN – The World Conservation Union; Wetlands International; the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and the International Water Management Institute are formally recognized as the Convention’s ‘International Organization Partners’. The Secretariat also cooperates with many other international and national NGOs and has formal collaborative agreements with most global environment Conventions.
Publications
Ramsar Handbooks (guidelines on the wise use of wetlands, etc.); The Ramsar Convention Manual; Wetlands, Biodiversity and the Ramsar Convention (1997); Economic Valuation of Wetlands (1997); Towards the Wise Use of Wetlands (1993); etc.
