WWD - nearly there - are you ready?

Greetings CEPA list members:

Below is a message from our Secretary General. Watch out for more next Wednesday on the 2nd! As you know all our WWD and related 40th anniversary materials are available here www.ramsar.org/WWD/ and here www.ramsar.org/40-Anniversary/

Best wishes, Sandra Hails, Ramsar Secretariat
*****************************************************

From the Secretary General, Anada Tiéga

World Wetlands Day is almost upon us, and I very much hope that the wetland community will join with me in celebrating this year’s theme with our slogan Forests for water and wetlands. Since it is the UN’s International Year of Forests, we have a valuable opportunity for those of us working for wetlands to articulate the Ramsar perspective on forests and ensure that wetlands and their links with forests are not forgotten.

We have selected our slogan to encourage a very broad look at forests, not focusing simply on the very relevant topic of forested wetlands such as mangroves, peat swamps, and freshwater swamp forests, but rather looking as well at the big picture of the interconnections between forests, water, wetlands and people. 

Our WWD leaflet this year was produced through collaboration with the UN Forum on Forests (UNFF), the lead UN organization for the International Year of Forests. With UNFF we have explored these interconnections under three main headings:

Forested wetlands and the special benefits they bring – their biological diversity, their role in freshwater supply, and their significant contribution to carbon storage, to list just a few of their important roles.

The role of forests – wet or not – in our lives, and why looking after them matters– freshwater availability on a global scale depends on our forests and so too, to a large extent, does freshwater quality. And

The role of forests in how our wetlands function– the health of our wetlands, whether forested or not, is linked to the health of forests in our catchments: losing and degrading forests means losing and degrading wetlands. 

Finally, I’m sure you’re aware that this year’s WWD is special because 2011 is also the Convention’s 40th anniversary year. At the Secretariat we have made a particular effort to provide materials for this occasion such as our animated 40th logo, a special booklet looking back at what we have achieved as a Convention and forward to where we are going, and more. We hope that this will encourage year-long celebrations, and we invite you to join with us in making a special effort to put wetlands on the map in your country for the next 12 months.

So let’s start the year on the 2nd of February, celebrating World Wetlands Day around the theme of forests, water, wetlands and people – and keep up the momentum to the best of our ability for the rest of the year by celebrating the Convention’s 40 years of caring for wetlands!
**************************************************************************************************************************************

Sandra HAILS
CEPA Programme Officer
Ramsar Convention Secretariat
Rue Mauverney 28, 1196 Gland, Switzerland
hails@ramsar.org
Tel: +41 22 9990176
Fax: +41 22 9990169
www.ramsar.org/CEPA-Programme/