Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
14
Wetlands governance and
public policy
14.1 Wetlands governance and policy
Wildlife Service 1993). While the original intent
of the Convention was primarily to provide a
habitat for water birds (as rel ected by its name),
the Convention later broadened its scope to
cover all aspects of wetland conservation and
wise-use practices. The Convention went into
effect in 1975 after seven countries ratii ed it,
and by 2010 there were 160 signatories to the
treaty with 1896 protected wetland sites com-
prising 185.4 million hectares of habitat (Ramsar
2010a).
The Ramsar Convention does not have regu-
latory mechanisms in place to enforce the treaty.
Rather, it relies on member nations to maintain
their wetland conservation and wise-use obliga-
tions by developing national wetland policies in
accordance with their overall natural resource
planning strategies. Furthermore, it underscores
the importance of establishing wetland nature
reserves; member nations are required to des-
ignate at least one wetland site within their
borders as a wetland of “international impor-
tance” in terms of its “ecology, botany, zoology,
limnology or hydrology” (Ramsar 2010d).
More recently, the Convention has initiated
National Ramsar Committees to provide support
for the Treaty's implementation at the national
level. These committees are to involve a wide
diversity of interested players including local
governmental agencies, scientists, and members
of non-governmental and community organ-
izations. The Committees are responsible for
managing Ramsar sites, identifying new sites,
Wetlands governance refers to the overall legis-
lative framework by national or international
institutions, which guides the conservation and
management of this resource. The governance
and management of wetland ecosystems is,
however, complicated by their multifaceted
character. Great geographic variability exists in
the types of wetlands, they provide numerous
services, they are valued differently based on
geography and socio-economic context, and
they extend across national boundaries so that
their management in one region may have direct
implications for their health in another. All these
factors must be kept in mind as governments
and international institutions devise context-
relevant ways to maintain and enhance these
resources.
14.2 International wetland policy
The emergence of the science of wetland ecology
has undoubtedly bolstered conservation legisla-
tion across the world. In 1971 the “Convention
on Wetlands of International Importance espe-
cially as Waterfowl Habitat”, also known as the
Ramsar Convention or the Convention on Wet-
lands, was signed in Ramsar, Iran. This intergov-
ernmental treaty outlined global cooperation
between individual states in wetland habitat
protection and conservation (U.S. Fish and
