Recommendations of the Cagliari Conference

Recommendation 1.1 on Expanding the Convention's Membership

The 1st Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties
Cagliari, Italy
24-29 November 1980

Recommendation 1.1: [Expanding the Convention's membership]

The Conference

RECALLING that the Preamble to the Ramsar Convention points out the fundamental ecological functions of wetlands as regulators of water regimes; their status as a resource of great economic, cultural, scientific and recreational value; the desirability of stemming encroachment on wetlands; the need to regard waterfowl as an international resource; andthe possibility of conserving wetlands by combining far-sighted national policies with coordinated international action;

RECALLING ALSO that Recommendation 99.l.b of the Action Plan for the Human Environment adopted at Stockholm in June 1972 recommends that Governments should, whenever appropriate, sign the Ramsar Convention;

CONVINCED after reviewing the achievements of the Convention that ratification of, or accession to, the Ramsar Convention constitutes a specially effective step for the conservation of wetlands and their flora and fauna, notably waterfowl;

NOTING that the 28 Contracting Parties to the Convention are mainly situated in the western Palearctic region, particularly in Europe, and that there are as yet very few Contracting Parties in the region covered by the Western Hemisphere Convention and in tropical regions;

RECOMMENDS that efforts should be made so that States which have not yet become Contracting Parties should do so as soon as possible, in particular in the Western Hemisphere and the tropics and those which would complete the network of Contracting Parties in the western Palearctic;

FURTHER RECOMMENDS that Contracting Parties use their good offices with other States, in particular in international including regional forums and meetings, with a view to obtaining their ratification of, or accession to the Convention.

For more information about the Recommendations of the Cagliari COP or the Ramsar Convention itself, please contact: the Ramsar Convention Bureau, Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland (tel +41 22 999 0170, fax +41 22 999 0169, e-mail ). Posted 5 March 1997, updated 24 May 2000, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.