The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

World Wetlands Day 1998 in the Russian Federation

What is World Wetlands Day? At the 19th meeting of the Standing Committee, in late October 1996, World Wetlands Day was officially designated for 2 February of every year, the anniversary of the signing of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in 1971, as an opportunity for governments, organizations, and citizens to undertake big and small actions intended to raise public awareness of wetland values and benefits in general and the Ramsar Convention in particular.

This page is part of a series of reports on activities held on and about WWD '98 in various countries of the world, as reported to the Bureau.  If you should know of any other activities not mentioned on these pages, send us a note (ramsar@hq.iucn.org) and we'll add it to this list.

See also our earlier list of activities reported as planned for WWD '98, a repository of inspiring ideas in itself.

Russian Federation

Ekaterina E. Tkachenko, Deputy Directory of the Biosphere Daursky root@daur.chita.su), sent this report of World Wetlands Day activities in eastern Russian Federation.

World Wetland Day in the Transbaykalia

This year WWD was celebrated in the Chita region for the first time. The main objective was to get everyone involved in education and public awareness for the wetlands.

The emphasis for this World Wetlands Day was on the mass media. The broadcast was organized in the regional radio with the help of the Chita Committee of Environment. There was given information on wetland values and about the wetland of international importance Torey Lakes. A short information pieceabout WWD was on Chita regional TV.

Two articles were published: one in the regional newspaper "Ononskaya zarya" - "Save wetlands", and one in the regional ecological newspaper "SOS" - "2 February is the World Wetland Day".

The chief of the department of the Chita Committee of Environment, Vladomir V. Semin, and the Director of the Biosphere Reserve Daursky, Valeriy A. Brinikch, took part and supported the celebration of WWD in the Chita region.

The Ramsar Convention Bureau, Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland (tel +41 22 999 0170, fax +41 22 999 0169, e-mail ). Posted 19 March 1998, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.