News from the Italian Parks
The Ramsar Convention - 40 years of caring for wetlands
The Ramsar Convention, celebrating today its 40th Anniversary, is the oldest global environmental treaty and it is specifically focused on one ecosystem – wetlands.
Under our definition these are very diverse in structure, function and location, occurring from the mountains to the sea on all continents and covering marshes, rivers, lakes, mangroves, coral reefs and even human-made wetlands such as rice fields and saltpans.
Managing wetlands is a global challenge and the Convention presently counts 160 countries as member countries, recognising the value of having one treaty dedicated to a single ecosystem.
Wetlands are vital for human survival. The problem remains that, with the impact of a growing human population, intense demands for economic growth, imperatives for poverty eradication and improving people’s livelihoods, these pressures continue to take precedence over maintaining our wetlands and a healthy wetland biodiversity.
So our present and future challenge remains the same as it was over 40 years ago in the development of the Ramsar Convention.
