Recommendations of the Cagliari Conference

Recommendation 1.4 on Criteria for identifying Wetlands of International Importance

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

Recommendation 1.4: [Criteria for identifying Wetlands of International Importance]

The Conference

RECOGNIZING that the use made by Contracting Parties of the Heiligenhafen criteria in identifying wetlands has ensured the designation of wetlands of major significance for the List;

NOTING that a revision of the Heiligenhafen criteria has been made at the present conference;

RECOMMENDS to Contracting Parties that the criteria as revised at Cagliari be used for identification of wetland suitable for designation for the List;

FURTHER RECOMMENDS that to monitor progress in completing the network of wetlands of international importance, a "shadow" list (such as the Directory of Western Palearctic Wetlands or the IWRB Preliminary Inventory) of wetlands qualifying under the criteria be maintained by appropriate international organizations, both for Contracting Parties and for States which are not yet Contracting Parties;

CALLS ON the appropriate international organizations to develop guidelines on selection of sites for designation from among those identified by the criteria as revised at Cagliari, and on the management of sites once designated;

RECOMMENDS that appropriate international organizations keep the criteria under review, in particular as regards northern breeding sites, vital for production of waterfowl which are widely dispersed when breeding.

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 30 March 2000, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.