Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
providing expert knowledge, overseeing the
implementation of new wetland resolutions, and
procuring funds for management through grants
disbursed by the Ramsar Convention (Ramsar
2010e).
Cooperation between member countries is
fostered through regular progress meetings.
These include reviews of wetland sites on the
list, conferences on wetland habitat manage-
ment, and data collection and cooperation with
other international conservation bodies. Finan-
cial contributions from member states support
the Convention and its administrative arm, the
Ramsar Bureau, which is located at the head-
quarters of the World Conservation Union in
Gland, Switzerland (Ramsar 2010f).
Criteria for identifying Ramsar wetlands of
international importance fall in two categories.
Group A Sites include areas containing repre-
sentative, rare or unique wetlands, and Group
B Sites include areas of international importance
for conserving biological diversity. Representa-
tive examples of wetlands on the List include
the more famous sites like the Pantanal in South
America, the Everglades in North America, the
Volga River delta in Russia (Fig. 14-1), the Oka-
vango in southern Africa, the inland Niger delta
in the Sahel, and the Sundarbans in South Asia.
However, most sites on the List include smaller
and lesser known, yet equally valuable, wet-
lands important for their local and regional con-
tributions (Ramsar 2010g).
14.3 Wetland policy in the developed world
At the national level, wetlands policy making
made signii cant strides in the latter half of the
twentieth century. However, progress in the con-
servation and sustainable management of wet-
lands is far from uniform. Countries across the
developed world have legislated and enforced
stricter regulations for the conservation of
these ecosystems, while developing nations,
constrained by other societal needs, have been
less inclined to promote legislation curbing
the development or alteration of wetland
environments.
Figure 14-1.
Volga River delta in the northern Caspian Sea, southern Russia (see Color Plate 14-1). MODIS true-
color image, acquired 11 June 2005. The river divides into
>
500 distributary channels forming a wetland web that
supports hundreds of plant and animal species. It is among the most productive i sheries in the world, including the
caviar-producing sturgeon. Image adapted from NASA's Earth Observatory
<
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov
>
.
