Photos of Zambia's new Ramsar sites
Four new Ramsar sites and two site extensions for Zambia
Photos
The Zambia Wildlife
Authority has used the occasion of World Wetlands Day, 2 February
2007, to designate four large and rich new sites for the List of Wetlands
of International Importance, and to extend very significantly the areas
of two more. All six sites are all or mostly parts of National Parks and
Game Management Areas, and all are home to an incredible array of mammals,
birds, and fish, many of them rare or vulnerable and many of them endemic.
The four new Ramsar sites are Busanga Swamps
(200,000 hectares, 14°05'S 025°47'E) in Northwestern
Province; Luangwa Flood Plains (250,000
ha, 12°40'S 032°02'E) in Eastern Province; Mweru
wa Ntipa (490,000 ha, 
08°52'S
029°47'E), the lake of that name and surrounding flat wetland plains
in Northern Province; and the Zambezi Floodplains
(900,000 ha, 15°15'S 023°15'E) along the Zambezi River in Western
Province, the second largest wetland in the country. In addition, Zambia
has extended the areas of the Bangweulu Swamps
andKafue Flats Ramsar sites, both
designated in 1991, to 1,100,000 and 600,500 hectares respectively. The
WWF Global Freshwater Programme and WWF-Zambia were extremely
helpful to the government of Zambia in the preparation of the data for
these new designations and site extensions.
Bangweulu Swamps
Busanga Swamps
Kafue Flats
Mweru wa Ntipa
Zambezi Floodplains
-- Photos courtesy Zambia Wildlife Authority
For
further information about the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, please contact
the Ramsar Convention Secretariat, Rue Mauverney 28,
CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland (tel +41 22 999 0170, fax +41 22 999 0169,
e-mail 
).
Posted 9 March 2007, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.
