Safeguards Enfold Wetland Treasures Around the World

GLAND, Switzerland, February 2, 2004 (ENS) - One of the main breeding refuges for grey whales, a hypersaline coastal lagoon on the Baja Peninsula in an area once earmarked for commercial development as a saltworks, was today designated as a wetland of international importance by the government of Mexico to celebrate World Wetlands Day.

February 2 each year is World Wetlands Day, marking the signing of the Convention on Wetlands on February 2, 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar. The treaty now has 138 participating governments, which have designated a total of 1,366 wetlands, covering a surface area 119,588,432 hectares (461,733 square miles). The Ramsar Secretariat says it is, by far, the largest protected area network in the world.

Gray whales in the Ojo de Liebre lagoon on the central Baja Peninsula (Photo courtesy UNESCO)

The report, "The Economic Values of the World’s Wetlands," is the first comprehensive overview of the economic values of the world’s wetlands. It analyzes the 89 existing valuation studies and uses a database covering a wetland area of 630,000 square kilometers, putting the annual value of wetlands at a very conservative US$3.4 billion.

More than half of the world’s wetlands have disappeared since 1900 as a result of human population increase and development. The WWF report shows that amenities and recreation, flood control, recreational fishing, and water filtration are the most valued functions of wetlands.

"Decision-makers often have insufficient understanding of the values of wetlands and fail to consider their protection as a serious issue," said Dr. Kirsten Schuyt, WWF International’s resource economist and co-author of the report. "Wetlands are often perceived to have little or no economic value compared to land use activities which may yield more visible and immediate economic benefits."

The World Wetlands Day Ramsar anniversary provides an opportunity for governments, wetlands site managers, nongovernmental organizations, and citizens to celebrate and raise public awareness about wetlands. This year World Wetlands Day is being celebrated in 80 countries around the world with TV screenings of the Ramsar video in local languages, art contests and raft races for children, cleanup days, seminars and open houses, newspaper articles, birdwatching and guided wetland tours.

In Mexico today, 34 new wetlands were set aside for conservation, in the process setting a world record for the number of Ramsar sites designated in a single day, according to Dwight Peck of the Ramsar Secretariat.

On the central Baja peninsula, grey whales use the coastal lagoons of Ojo de Liebre and San Ignacio for pairing, breeding and raising their young. Mexico today protected Ojo de Liebre under the Ramsar Convention.

It is not the first form of protection for the lagoon. A 1972 Federal Decree declared Laguna Ojo de Liebre a marine refuge zone for whales. But oil drilling poses a serious potential problem to the region, according to the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

In addition, the over-exploitation of the area for fishing, and waste disposal, as a consequence of the fishing activities, disturb the ecosystem. An aquaculture facility produces commercial oysters, and five fishing co-operatives operate in the area.

The constant passing of cargo ships through the lagoons also is a problem, and tourism has also had a significant impact on the whale population as power boats disturb coastal waters.

Ojo de Liebre harbors a wide variety of birds along the river and in the islands in the lagoon - a total of 94 species were counted between 1995 and 1996. The harbor seal, California sea lion, northern elephant-seal and blue whale can also be found sheltering in the lagoons, which are also home to four species of endangered marine turtles. They will all receive a higher degree of protection under the new Ramsar designation.

Ramsar Secretary General Peter Bridgewater is in Mexico for the designation of the 34 new Ramsar Sites, a vast array of wetland types ranging from highland lakes to coastal lagoons and offshore coral reefs.

Laguna de Términos is a biodiversity hotspot, full of rare species and at risk of pollution and industrial development. (Photo courtesy SEMARNAT)

The largest coastal lagoon on the Mexican shore of the Gulf of Mexico, Laguna de Términos, was one of the 34 sites designated as a wetland of international importance today. Mangrove forests inhabited by jabiru storks, horseshoe crabs, and endemic amphibians and reptiles are features of this site.

The industrial port of Ciudad del Carmen, with a population of almost 100,000, is located on the barrier island of the lagoon. Fishing, agricultural and livestock raising activities are done in the site, causing problems of sedimentation, pollution, deforestation and reduction of stocks. Conflicts have arisen with the oil pipes that traverse the area.

Mexico's newly designated sites will include almost all the different wetland types defined under the Ramsar Convention, from mountain lakes to coral reefs, from salt marshes to turtle breeding beaches, or underground hydrological systems, known as karsts.

Bala'an K'aax in the state of Quintana Roo on the Yucatán peninsula is a karstic example of a newly designated Ramsar site. Flooded low everlasting forests shelter the many endemic plant and animal species in the inaccessible region. The area's vegetation supplies water for the region and also to other wetlands closer to the coast.

Because of the karstic nature of the ground, a complex subterranean system is present together with "unique and unknown biodiversity," the Ramsar Secretariat says. This site contains some 601 vertebrate species, of which nearly one-third are threatened, under special protection or endangered according to international or national lists. Changes in land property and planning for development are the main threat to the area.

See the full list of Mexico's newly designated Ramsar sites online at: http://ramsar.org/wwd2004_rpt_mexico1.htm

Several other countries are celebrating World Wetlands Day by designating their most important wetlands as Ramsar sites.

The Inner Niger Delta in Mali is a vast floodplain situated in the middle of the dry African Sahel. The image was photographed from space aboard a NASA satellite. (Photo courtesy SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE)

It is the largest inland wetland in West Africa and the second largest wetland in Africa, after the Okavanga Delta in Botswana. Nearly one million people and their livestock live on the resources of the delta ecosystems.

It is a refuge for many migratory birds, hosting more than 350 species, with 103 waterfowl species listed between 1998 and 2001. Each year more than one million birds come from more than 80 countries to use the delta. The delta is also a gathering place for some Ethiopian species which breed there between migrations.

The hippopotamus and the manatee, both species registered on the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species, still exist in the delta, although their survival is now threatened.

Nassima Aghanim of Ramsar says the main threats to the Inner Niger Delta come from climate change, reduction of the volume and duration of the floods, the sedimentation that is responsible for the non-flooding of the left bank lakes, and the management practices of the Sélingué dam. The building of new dams, still at the stage of projects, may well have some negative impacts on the socio-economic aspects of the ecosystems, Aghanim says.

The Inner Niger Delta site is a major step in efforts by Mali, Ramsar, and WWF's Living Waters Programme to bring integrated wetland management to the Niger Basin. A ceremony to mark the designation of the Inner Niger Delta is taking place in Mopti, Mali today.

A workshop in Mopti today involves all the countries of the Niger Delta - Cameroon, Mali, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Benin. Inspired by a WWF proposal, the seminar aims to set the basis for a regional network for the preservation of the Niger delta.

In Europe, Austria has designated five new Ramsar sites, four mire complexes in the Salzburg region and a limestone Alpine national park, the Kalkalpen National Park. Part of the northern limestone alps, most of the site is karstified and has a tight network of gorges and canyons, natural, pure brooks and some 800 springs which represent hotspots of biodiversity.

The Kalkalpen National Park in Austria contains high mountain wetlands. (Photo courtesy Ramsar Secretariat)

The largest forested reserve in Austria, Kalkalpen hosts the brown bear and the lynx, and brown trout. Although forestry activities have influenced the area, since 1997 it is under a strict management plan which prohibits any economic use. The Austrian National Park administration runs a water analysis laboratory and has developed a karst research program including the monitoring of springs and meteorology.

A World Wetlands Day event was organized by the MedWet Coordination Unit in Athens, Greece. The Greek Minister of Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works Vasso Papandreou opened the event, while the opening speech was given by the Deputy Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention Dr. Nick Davidson.

The MedWet Initiative, guided by the Mediterranean Wetlands Committee (MedWet/Com) of the Ramsar Convention, is a long term, collaborative effort towards the conservation and wise use of Mediterranean wetlands.

MedWet brings together all the 25 governments of the region, the Palestinian Authority, the United Nations Development Programme, the European Commission, the Barcelona, Bern and Ramsar Conventions, and eight international NGOs and wetland centres.

Finland is today announcing the intended designation of 49 more Ramsar sites for protection.

In South America, Argentina today designated a large floodplain complex along the Paraná and Paraguay Rivers in the Chaco region surrounding the city of Resistencia. The landscape is a complex of open water, aquatic vegetation, grasslands, and gallery forests.

Endangered species inhabit the humid site, including the marsh deer, the Neotropical otter, the bare-faced curassow, several crocodile species, the Coscoroba swan, and the South American lungfish, which is found here and nowhere else on Earth. Since the 1960s, dam building in the Upper Paraná in Brazil, deforestation, and an increase in rainfall have changed the water flow of this site.

Many countries that are not designating wetlands today, still are celebrating the wetlands they already have. In Jamaica, the National Environment and Planning Agency in collaboration with the Negril Environmental Protection Trust and the Ridge to Reef Watershed Project have organized several displays, a poster competition, environmental storytelling and a composting demonstration.

Jamaica's Black River Lower Morass was listed as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention in 1998. It supports some 94 species of flowering plants, including 27 rare species and seven species found only in Jamaica. Agostinho Pinnock of the National Environment and Planning Agency says the variety of habitats in the area, mangrove forests, sedge marshes, swamp and riparian forests, peat lands and limestone islands, contribute to the uniqueness of the site.

The mighty Mekong River flows from the mountains to the sea through six Asian countries - China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. For World Wetlands Day 2004, IUCN-The World Conservation Union in cooperation with the governments of the four nations in the Lower Mekong Basin have organized educational and awareness activities at wetland sites within the Mekong Basin.

Cambodia's first World Wetlands Day celebration will include smart games involving the police, military, teachers and students, a local press forum, television interview and broadcasting at local and national levels, a traditional dance competition, and public as well as official site visits by mMinisters, provincial governors, department directors, and wetlands managers.

These activities also mark the start of a five year Mekong Wetlands Biodiversity Conservation Programme jointly organized and funded by the Global Environment Facility and the UN Development Programme.