The Ramsar Convention Manual,6th edition

About the Convention on Wetlands

The Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971) is an intergovernmental treaty whose mission is the conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local, regional and national actions and international cooperation, as a contribution towards achieving sustainable development throughout the world. As of January 2013, 163 nations have joined the Convention as Contracting Parties, and more than 2,060 wetlands around the world, covering over 197 million hectares, have been designated for inclusion in the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance.

What are wetlands?

As defined by the Convention, wetlands include a wide variety of habitats such as marshes, peatlands, floodplains, rivers and lakes, and coastal areas such as saltmarshes, mangroves, and seagrass beds, but also coral reefs and other marine areas no deeper than six metres at low tide, as well as human-made wetlands such as waste-water treatment ponds and reservoirs.

Copyright Ramsar Convention Secretariat 2013

Citation: Ramsar Convention Secretariat, 2013. The Ramsar Convention Manual: a guide to the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971), 6th ed. Ramsar Convention Secretariat, Gland, Switzerland.

Text and layout: Dwight Peck, Ramsar. Translators of the French and Spanish versions: Danile Devitre, Javier Casas.

Cover photo: Ramsar Advisory Mission to Greenland, 2009 (Tobias Salath, Ramsar)

The Ramsar ConventionManual

A Guide to the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971)

6th edition

Ramsar Convention Secretariat, 2013

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The Ramsar Convention Manual: a Guide to the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971), 6th ed., 2013

Copyright Ramsar Convention Secretariat 2013

Reproduction of material from this publication for educational and other non-commercial purposes is authorized without prior permission from the Ramsar Secretariat, providing full acknowledgment is given. Reproduction of material for resale or other commercial purposes is prohibited without the prior written permission of the Ramsar Secretariat.

Note: The designation of geographical entities in this Manual, and the presentation of the material, do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Ramsar Convention Secretariat concerning the legal status of any country, territory, or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

Citation: Ramsar Convention Secretariat, 2013. The Ramsar Convention Manual: a guide to the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971), 6th ed. Ramsar Convention Secretariat, Gland, Switzerland.

The Proceedings of the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties (2012) includes on CD-ROM the conference resolutions, report, information documents, and related materials.

Photo: D. Peck, Ramsar.

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Table of ContentsForeword to the 6th edition

1. The Ramsar Convention 1.1 What is the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands? 1.2 What are wetlands? 1.3 Why conserve wetlands? 1.4 Why an intergovernmental convention on wetlands? 1.5 Why do nations join the Ramsar Convention? 1.6 Who may join the Ramsar Convention? 1.7 What are the commitments of Parties joining the Ramsar Convention? 1.8 Further interpretation of the commitments 1.9 Reporting 1.10 The Ramsar Convention today 1.11 The Ramsar Strategic Plan and the three pillars of the Convention 1.12 Synergies with other environment-related conventions

2. A brief history of the Ramsar Convention 2.1 Background 2.2 The Paris Protocol and the Regina Amendments 2.3 A Ramsar chronology key events 2.4 Further reading

3. How does the Ramsar Convention work? 3.1 The Conference of the Contracting Parties 3.2 The Standing Committee 3.3 The Secretariat 3.4 The Administrative Authorities and diplomatic notifications 3.5 The Scientific and Technical Review Panel 3.6 The Ramsar Convention budget 3.7 The Ramsar regions 3.8 National Ramsar Committees 3.9 Cooperation with other organizations

4. Assisting the Contracting Parties

4.1 The Ramsar Handbooks

4.2 The wise use of wetlands 4.2.1 Establishment of national wetland policies 4.2.2 Knowledge of wetlands and their values 4.2.3 Action at particular wetland sites

4.3 Listed Sites 4.3.1 Criteria for identifying Wetlands of International Importance 4.3.2 The Information Sheet on Ramsar Wetlands 4.3.3 The Ramsar Sites Database 4.3.4 Classification System for Wetland Type 4.3.5 The Montreux Record 4.3.6 The Ramsar Advisory Mission 4.3.7 Article 3.2

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4.4 International cooperation 4.4.1 Cooperation with and between Contracting Parties 4.4.2 Transboundary wetland conservation 4.4.3 Transboundary species conservation 4.4.4 Regional cooperation and initiatives 4.4.5 Small projects assistance programmes 4.4.6 Project support and external support agencies

4.5 Reserves and training 4.5.1 Reserves 4.5.2 Training

4.6 Communicating the Ramsar message 4.6.1 The Communication, Education, Participation, and Awareness (CEPA) programme 4.6.2 Ramsar and the Internet 4.6.3 World Wetlands Day and WWD materials 4.6.4 The Wetland Conservation Awards 4.6.5 Ramsar Technical Reports and Briefing Notes 4.6.6 Ramsar Publications

5. How States may join the Ramsar Convention 5.1 The instrument of accession 5.2 Designating wetlands for the Ramsar List 5.3 The cost of joining the Convention

Appendices

1 Text of the Ramsar Convention

2 Resolutions and Recommendations of the Conference of the Contracting Parties

3 References

4 The Ramsar Handbooks series

5 Ramsar FAQs: trivia questions on the Convention on Wetlands

6 Glossary of Ramsar acronyms, abbreviations, and terminology

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Foreword to the 6th editionWhen the Ramsar Manual was first compiled by T. J. Davis and published in 1994, it was welcomed as an essential guide through the sometimes bewildering world of Ramsar resolutions, guidelines, and terminology. It grew out of date quickly, however, especially because the work completed by the Conference of the Contracting Parties at its 6th meeting (COP6), held in Brisbane in 1996, added a large number of new ideas and directions to the Conventions evolution. Accordingly, a second edition was published in 1997, incorporating all of the institutional changes of the preceding three years and including as annexes all of the major documents associated with the Convention.

Following COP7 in San Jos in 1999, however, the volume of Ramsar documentary material had already grown too large to be included as appendices to the Manual, and the first edition of then 9-volume Ramsar Handbooks for the wise use of wetlands was published separately in January 2000 in order to make available all of the major guidance adopted by the COP. The Handbooks have proved to be invaluable, and the 21-volume 4th edition, including the guidance documents emerging from COPs 8, 9, and 10 up to 2008, was published in 2010-2011 on the Ramsar website and free of charge on CD-ROM as well. The 5th edition of the Handbooks, incorporating the results of COP11, is due for publication in 2013.

A third edition of the Ramsar Manual was prepared in 2004, a fourth edition in 2006, and a fifth in 2011. This sixth edition brings the story up to date as of January 2013. For Ramsar documents and resources mentioned in the text without references, those links can be found in Appendix 3.

Note: Parts of the following text have been cross-referenced to other sections of the text by use of the symbol to indicate section numbers.

January 2013

2 February World Wetlands DayJoin the worldwide Ramsar community in commemorating the anniversary of the Convention.

Visit the Ramsar Convention on Facebook (www.facebook.com/RamsarConventionOnWetlands) and on YouTube (www.youtube.com under ramsar convention).

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1. The Ramsar Convention1.1 What is the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands?

The Convention on Wetlands is an intergovernmental treaty adopted on 2 February 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar, on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea. Thus, though nowadays the name of the Convention is usually written Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971), it has come to be known popularly as the Ramsar Convention. Ramsar is the first of the modern global intergovernmental treaties on the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, but, compared with more recent ones, its provisions are relatively straightforward and general. Over the years, the Conference of the Contracting Parties has further developed and interpreted the basic tenets of the treaty text and succeeded in keeping the work of the Convention abreast of changing world perceptions, priorities, and trends in environmental thinking.

The official name of the treaty, The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat, reflects the original emphasis upon the conservation and wise use of wetlands primarily as habitat for waterbirds. Over the years, however, the Convention has broadened its scope of implementation to cover all