Wuxi Declaration
Asian Wetland Symposium
Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, P.R. of China
11 - 13th October 2011
The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands promotes the conservation of wetland habitats, thewise use of wetland resources, and regional exchanges and cooperation to support
ecological security, economic development, and human wellbeing.
Wetlands provide many products that are essential for human wellbeing: China’s wetlands
store about 2.7 trillion tonnes of fresh water, accounting for 96% of the total available freshwater nationwide. China’s Zoige Wetland stores about 1.9 billion tonnes of peat; and on
average each hectare stores 4130 tonnes of carbon. 300 million people in China depend
directly on wetland products. The Government of the P.R. of China has enacted laws andregulations on wetland conservation and in the last five years has completed 205
conservation projects and restored nearly 80,000 hectares of wetlands.
The AWS Wuxi 2011 was hosted by the State Forestry Administration of the P.R. of China,
Jiangsu Province People’s Government, Wetlands International and the Ramsar Center Japan.
It was organized by the Wuxi Municipal People’s Government, Forestry Department ofJiangsu Province, Office of Wetlands Conservation and Management of the State Forestry
Administration of the P.R. of China, and sponsored by the Ministry of Environment Japan,
Japan International Cooperation Agency, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and others.
The participants of the AWS Wuxi 2011 call for the following actions to be taken for wetland
conservation and wise use:
1. Incorporate wetland priorities into legislation, and policies and plans for economic
and social development; promote scientific innovation; encourage greater
cooperation between various government agencies; and increase financial allocations
for wetland management.
2. Manage wetland resources in a holistic and comprehensive manner to improve thelivelihoods of people, and to support sustainable development.
3. Strengthen the capacity of countries in Asia by promoting high-level dialogues,
technological cooperation, and the sharing of knowledge. Establish a cooperative
mechanism for wetlands conservation and wise use in Asia.
4. Protect the remaining natural wetlands and restore degraded wetlands to enhance
the resilience of people and ecosystems to natural disasters and to mitigate theimpacts of climate change.
5. Act to mitigate the ecological impacts of invasive species on the health and integrityof wetlands.

16. Maintain the ecological character of rice paddy ecosystems and other wetland
agricultural ecosystems, e.g. by avoiding the overuse of pesticides, to secure foodsecurity, enhance biodiversity and protect human health.
7. Conserve, manage, and where necessary, restore urban and peri-urban wetlands tomaximize the ecosystem services they provide for human wellbeing, and establish
wetland parks and centers, where appropriate, to raise understanding about thebenefits provided by wetlands.
8. Recognize the role of traditional/local ecological knowledge and practices (such as in
the Sacred Forest in Hani Village in China), and incorporate these cultural values into
the management of wetlands.
9. Invest in communications, education and training at the local level to help
communities understand the benefits that wetlands provide, and to provide themwith the tools to manage their wetlands sustainably.
10. Establish, protect and where possible and relevant, enhance an inter-connected
network of habitats for migratory waterbirds along the East Asian-AustralasianFlyway, especially the tidal-flats around the Yellow Sea and Bo Sea.
The participants of this meeting undertake to promote the uptake of the “Wuxi Declaration”
through their networks and, as far as possible, to implement the actions in their work. The
meeting seeks the assistance of the Government of the P.R. of China and the Ramsar
Secretariat to convey the "Wuxi Declaration" to the Asia Regional Ramsar Meeting to be heldin Jakarta in November 2011, the 11th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties
to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands to be held in Romania in June 2012, and the 11th
Meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity to be held inIndia in October 2012.
Note: Two Asian Wetland Symposia have been held in 2011 to commemorate the 40th
Anniversary of the Convention on Wetlands. The AWS Sabah 2011 was held in Malaysia inJuly 2011, with the theme “Integrated Biodiversity Conservation: Linking Forests andWetlands”.

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