World Wetlands Day The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

World Wetlands Day 2006 in Namibia

Fact Sheet: World Wetland/Water Day 2006 - Wetlands and Water Supporting life and Sustaining livelihood.

World Wetland Day - 2 February

World Wetland Day is celebrated every year on 2 February since 1997. This day marks the signing of the International Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, alias the Ramsar Convention, in 1971 in the town of Ramsar in Iran. The World Wetland Day theme for 2006 is "Wetlands as a tool in poverty alleviation".

World Water Day - 22 March.

In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment declared the 22nd of March as World Water Day. Furthermore, 2005 - 2015 was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly as the International Decade for Action "Water for Life". World Water Day 2006 will be guided by theme "Water and Culture".

In the past, these two events' celebrations were combined due to the limited resources (time and money) and because of this a Namibian theme is formulated each year by combining the two themes of World Wetland Day and World Water Day. The World Wetland/Water Day committee decided upon "Water and Wetlands- supporting life, sustaining livelihoods" as the Namibian theme for 2006.

An art competition will be held this year to celebrate and emphasize the importance of water and wetlands in Namibia and its role in sustaining livelihoods in all communities. This competition comprises three categories, namely: paintings, essays, and poetry. Each category has age restrictions and only individual entries will be accepted. Grade 9's should enter paintings, grade 10's should submit poems and grades 11 and 12 should submit essays. All essays and poems should be in English and the closing date of the competition will be the 3rd of March 2006. A winner from each category of each region will be announced and he/she will have the opportunity to go to Walvis Bay to attend the World Water Day 2006 celebration and prize giving event on 31 March 2006. To make this a colourful event various activities are being planned to be held in Walvis Bay to form part of the World Wetland/Water Day celebrations.

For further information about World Wetlands Day or the 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 27 February 2006, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.