World Wetlands Day was celebrated across the world on 2 February 2020.
Theme: The 2020 theme for World Wetlands Day was “Wetlands and Biodiversity”. The theme provides an opportunity to highlight wetland biodiversity, its status, why it matters and to promote actions to reverse its loss.
About World Wetlands Day
World Wetlands Day marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea.
What is Wetland?
- According to The Ramsar Convention, “wetlands are areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six metres.” Fish ponds, rice paddies, depollution and stabilization ponds, and saltpans are human-made wetlands.
Ramsar Convention Sites
- The world’s first Ramsar Site was the Cobourg Peninsula in Australia, designated in 1974.
- The largest Sites are Ngiri-Tumba-Maindombe in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Queen Maud Gulf in Canada; these Sites each cover over 60,000 square kilometres. Others are as small as one hectare.
- The countries with the most Sites are the United Kingdom with 175 and Mexico with 142.
- Bolivia has the largest area with 148,000 km2 under the Convention protection; Canada, Chad, Congo and the Russian Federation have also each designated over 100,000 km2.
- India has 37 Ramsar wetlands sites.
