Every year on 2nd February, World Wetlands Day is celebrated to raise global awareness of the vital role of wetlands in maintaining the planet’s delicate ecosystems and the communities that depend on them. This year is particularly special – marking exactly 50 years since the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands in 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the Caspian Sea.

What is the Ramsar Convention?

The Ramsar Convention is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for the conservation and cooperation around sustainable governance of wetlands and their resources. 90% of UN Member states across the world are a part of the Convention. Ramsar sites, or Wetlands of International Importance, are protected areas that are recognized as being of significant value not only for the country of their origin, but for the planet’s ecosystem health and biodiversity.

There are currently over 2,400 Ramsar Sites around the world, covering 2.5 million km.2

 Through designating a wetland as a Ramsar site, national governments demonstrate their commitment to take the necessary steps to safeguard the sites ecological integrity. International cooperation and national commitment to sustainable management of wetland areas can make a big difference.

For example, in Lake Chilika – the first designated Ramsar site in India – an ecological restoration program founded on participatory basin management has led to rapid recovery of wetland resources and aquatic biodiversity. Notably, there has been an increase in the number of critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphins, from only 89 in 2003, to 158 in 2014.[1]

 What is ICEM doing to protect wetlands?

Despite growing international action to protect the wetland sites, the vision of the Ramsar convention faces new and complex challenges from the impacts of a changing climate. Managing the delicate balance between development and ecological conservation whilst furthering climate adaptation is at the heart of ICEM’s mission.

In 2021, we are expanding our portfolio to India, with the inception of a new GIZ-funded project at four Ramsar sites in India – Renuka Lake and Pong Dam in Himachal Pradesh, Bhitarkanika in Odisha and Point Calimere in Tamil Nadu.

Together with partners DEVOPSYS Consulting (Himachal Pradesh), the Regional Center for Development Cooperation (Odisha) and the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (Tamil Nadu), this project will examine the effects of climate change on these wetlands and propose ecosystem-based adaptation measures that help reduce their vulnerability.

 Projected changes in the climate are expected to increase temperatures, modify precipitation, raise sea levels, and increase extreme climate events. Wetland systems are vulnerable to changes in quantity and quality of their water supply, and it is expected that climate change will have a pronounced effect through alterations in hydrological regimes.

Through the concerted action and international cooperation enabled by the Ramsar convention, preserving wetlands and the communities that depend on them is made more achievable. However, a strong knowledge base of climate change risks is essential to improve the capacity of site managers to prioritise and plan appropriate adaptation and mitigation actions.

Today on World Wetlands Day, ICEM is proud to be supporting the Ramsar convention and eager to further sustainable development and conservation of wetland sites through our new initiative in India.

[1] Pattnaik, A. K., & Kumar, R. (2016). Lake Chilika (India): ecological restoration and adaptive management for conservation and wise use. The wetland book: distribution, description and conservation. Springer, Dordrecht, 1-14.