What is the Ramsar Convention?
The Ramsar Convention (the Convention on wetlands) is an intergovernmental treaty, which provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. The convention was adopted and named after its birth place, the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971 and came into force in 1975. Ramsar Convention is the only global environmental treaty that deals with a particular ecosystem and member countries cover all geographic regions of the planet. The convention’s mission is “conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local, regional and natural actions and international cooperation, as a contribution towards achieving sustainable development throughout the world”. There are presently 141 Contracting Parties to the convention, with 1388 wetland sites, totaling 122.7 million hectares, designated for inclusion in the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance (as of November 2004). Wetlands of Asia Asia has 25
