The Ramsar Wetland Conservation Award was established in 1996 by Resolution VI.18 of the 6th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971) in order to recognise and honour the contributions of individuals, organisations, and governments around the world towards promoting the conservation and wise use of wetlands.

The Award has been given four times so far on the occasion of meetings of the Conference of the Contracting Parties (1999, 2002, 2005, and 2008). Information on these editions of the Ramsar Award and on the laureates is available at the bottom of this page.

Call for nominations for the Ramsar Wetland Conservation Awards 2012

The fifth edition of the Ramsar Wetland Conservation Awards will be presented at the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties in Bucharest, Romania, in July 2012. 

The Ramsar Award will be given to individuals or institutions with a proven record of achievements in one of these three areas: “Management”, “Wetland Science”, and “Education”. Nominees should have contributed significantly to the long-term conservation and sustainable use of wetlands. Special consideration will be given to those initiatives which might serve as inspirational and practical examples for others, and are replicable.

Criteria and procedures for the Award and nomination forms

Nomiations are closed for this year now.

The criteria and procedures are available here in PDF. Nominations should reach the Secretariat of the Convention on Wetlands by 31 May 2011 at the latest, using the form attached or available upon request from the Ramsar Secretariat award@ramsar.org.

Useful documents

• Criteria & procedures [PDF document]

• Nomination form [Word document]

Since its inception, the Award has been bestowed in three categories on each occasion, and all of the Award laureates have also received the Evian Special Prize, a cash prize of US$ 10,000, through the generosity of the Danone Group (France).