Recommendations of the Cagliari Conference

Recommendation 1.6 on Assessment of wetland values

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

Recommendation 1.6: [Assessment of wetland values]

The Conference

INFORMED by the Contracting Parties that many listed Ramsar sites and other wetlands of international importance are under threat because of certain human activities;

NOTING that, globally, many wetlands are being eliminated by, inter alia, filling, drainage, reclamation, intensive agriculture and aquaculture, and industrial activities or are seriously endangered by pollution and eutrophication;

RECALLING that wetlands may, directly or indirectly, have a potential value exceeding that obtained from transforming them into other types of land;

RECOMMENDS that, in case of any projected large-scale wetland transformation, the decision is not taken until an assessment of all the values involved has been made, and that ecologists be included in the planning process;

RECOMMENDS further that international funding agencies and bilateral and multilateral development aid should also finance such assessments.

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 11 March 2000, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.