Ramsar Sites: Wetlands of International Importance

Wetlands -- ecosystems such as marshes, mangroves, lakes and floodplains where the land is either permanently or seasonally saturated with water -- are among the most ecologically productive and, at the same time, among the most threatened kinds of ecosystem on Earth, providing critical habitat for an enormous range of species, particularly migratory waterbirds, while also delivering major broadly utilitarian services such as flood regulation, groundwater recharge and natural water purification, described in general terms earlier in this chapter.

In recognition of how important, and how vulnerable, wetlands are, an international treaty called the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands was adopted in 1971 in the city of Ramsar, Iran, specifically to promote the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands worldwide. Under this convention, a wetland that meets internationally agreed ecological criteria -- for instance, regularly supporting very large numbers of waterbirds, or containing a significant proportion of a particular species' global population, or representing a rare or especially representative example of a particular wetland type -- can be formally designated a Ramsar site, officially termed a Wetland of International Importance. Once designated, a Ramsar site's home country undertakes a formal international commitment to maintain the site's ecological character and to manage it sustainably, giving the site a level of recognition and protection that goes beyond whatever purely domestic legal protection it might otherwise carry. …