World Wetlands Day 1998 in Belgium
What is World Wetlands Day? At the 19th meeting of the Standing Committee, in late October 1996, World Wetlands Day was officially designated for 2 February of every year, the anniversary of the signing of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in 1971, as an opportunity for governments, organizations, and citizens to undertake big and small actions intended to raise public awareness of wetland values and benefits in general and the Ramsar Convention in particular.
This page is part of a series of reports on activities held on and about WWD '98 in various countries of the world, as reported to the Bureau. If you should know of any other activities not mentioned on these pages, send us a note (ramsar@hq.iucn.org) and we'll add it to this list.
Belgium
"Virelles-Nature (Belgian NGO) has informed us of activities it was planning on 2 February of this year as well as activities it organizes annually to promote the wise use of wetlands and public awareness about the value of wetlands. These activities include: facilitating a reed management exercise by volunteers during three weekends in January and February; announcing a training programme on wise use for teachers; inviting teachers to bring school children at the Virelles pond and information centre; guiding visits of the Virelles pond to highlight the values of wetlands for local communities; obtaining television coverage of these activities. At the end of 1999, the NGO plans to organize an event to promote the value of extensive fish-farming and of local fish products." -- reported by Maryse Mahy, Ramsar.
