A key commitment of Ramsar Contracting Parties is to identify and place suitable wetlands onto the List of Wetlands of International Importance (also called 'Ramsar Sites'). Parties have made a further commitment to ensure the conservation and wise use of these Ramsar Sites so as to maintain the full range of benefits that the wetland can provide for people (e.g., livelihoods, health, culture) and the environment (e.g., in supporting biodiversity).
In this birthday year for the Ramsar Convention, we strongly encourage our Contracting Parties to designate more Ramsar Sites! Click here to see which one of the Ramsar regions in the world has the largest number of designations so far (January 2011 - July 2011).
What needs to be done next?
» Follow the link here to see our key message for this month and additional tools to expand on the message.
The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, called the Ramsar Convention, is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.
The Ramsar Convention is the only global environmental treaty that deals with a particular ecosystem. The treaty was adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971 and the Convention's member countries cover all geographic regions of the planet.
The Convention's mission is "the conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local and national actions and international cooperation, as a contribution towards achieving sustainable development throughout the world".
The Convention uses a broad definition of the types of wetlands covered in its mission, including lakes and rivers, swamps and marshes, wet grasslands and peatlands, oases, estuaries, deltas and tidal flats, near-shore marine areas, mangroves and coral reefs, and human-made sites such as fish ponds, rice paddies, reservoirs, and salt pans.
At the centre of the Ramsar philosophy is the "wise use" concept. The wise use of wetlands is defined as "the maintenance of their ecological character, achieved through the implementation of ecosystem approaches, within the context of sustainable development". "Wise use" therefore has at its heart the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands and their resources, for the benefit of humankind.
Renovation of the Ramsar Web site has been supported by the Danone Group.