The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

World Wetlands Day 2000

What is World Wetlands Day? 2 February each year is World Wetlands Day. It marks the date of the signing of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar, on the shores of the Caspian Sea. WWD was celebrated for the first time in 1997 and made an encouraging beginning. The second, in 1998, was organized around the suggested theme of the importance of water to life and of wetlands to the supply of water. Government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and groups of citizens at all levels of the community took advantage of the opportunity to undertake actions aimed at raising public awareness of wetland values and benefits in general and the Ramsar Convention in particular. The Convention’s Web site posted reports from more than 50 countries of WWD ‘98 activities of all sizes and shapes, from lectures and seminars, nature walks, children’s art contests, sampan races, and community clean-up days, to radio and television interviews and letters to newspapers, to the launch of new wetland policies, new Ramsar sites, and new programmes at the national level.

The suggested theme of World Wetlands Day 1999 was "People and Wetlands: the Vital Link", and once again, government agencies and citizen groups at all levels seized the occasion to bring to public notice the vital importance of wetland benefits for human well-being. At wetland sites large and small, in both the southern and northern hemispheres, and even in the frozen far north, activities of all sorts were carried out in at least 60 countries on and around 2 February in celebration of the values, benefits, and beauty of wetlands. The governments of many Ramsar member countries used WWD ‘99 to help make their citizens aware of what they are doing to assure the health of the nation’s wetlands and to implement the Convention’s cornerstone "wise use principle", synonymous with sustainable use. And, at the same time, school classes, nature clubs, birdwatching societies, and park managers at the local level found imaginative ways to involve their communities and bring wetland values into public focus.

The suggested theme of WWD 2000

The suggested theme for World Wetlands Day 2000 is "Celebrating Our Wetlands of International Importance". One of the texts being offered by the Ramsar Bureau in honor of WWD 2000 is an interpretation of this theme in terms of the "Vision for the List" -- the Convention's newly-adopted Strategic Framework for developing a global network of mutually reinforcing important wetlands by assisting nations in the task of planning their designations for the List of Wetlands of International Importance strategically.  You can read this text here on this site, download the original brochure itself in PDF form, or ask for any number of hard copies to be sent to you in the post.

Reporting on World Wetlands Day 2000

Reporting on World Wetlands Days of the past

Since 1997, the Ramsar Bureau has welcomed news from everyone of their plans for World Wetlands Day activities and reports of their activities afterward, and has endeavored to post them all on the Ramsar Web site.   Government agencies and private citizens from all over the world have sent us their news, and these reports make an excellent archive of ideas for future celebrations. 

Activities reported for World Wetlands Day 1999

Activities reported for World Wetlands Day 1998

Activities reported for World Wetlands Day 1997

Here is what the Ramsar Bureau offers the Wetland Celebrants for February 2000

For further information about World Wetlands Day or the Convention on Wetlands, 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 ramsar@ramsar.org). Posted 19 November 1999, updated 26 January 2000, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.