On
2 February 2011, on World Wetlands Day, the international
community will also be celebrating the 40th anniversary
of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Over the past 40 years
the Ramsar Convention has contributed greatly to the conservation
and wise use of wetlands around the world through local
and national action and international cooperation.

With the launch of the 40th
anniversary campaign logo in Oman on 7 June 2010, the Ramsar
Secretariat is inviting all who care about wetlands - governments,
NGOs and civil society – to begin planning their contribution
to next year’s festivities in celebration of 40 years
of wetland action.

In a recent interview conducted
on the sidelines of the 15th Anniversary of AEWA, Ramsar’s
Deputy Secretary General, Nick Davidson reflected on the
link between wetlands and waterbirds, highlighting that
maintaining and reversing the declines in wetlands is also
key to halting the alarming declines in waterbirds. In his
statement he emphasized that this could only be done by
engaging all relevant sectors.

“We need to work with
the water sector, the energy sector, the food sector because
their business depends as much on water and the wetlands
that deliver them as does ours and, of course, maintaining
the wetlands and reversing the declines in wetlands means
waterbirds will continue to be able to use them” underlined
Davidson.

To mark the 40th anniversary
of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, a number of special
activities and events are being planned. These include a
commemorative book, a photo competition to celebrate Ramsar
Sites, a number of special events to be held in Geneva on
2 February 2011 as well as a series of events leading up
to the day in a number of countries.

Given the close link between
wetland and waterbird conservation, the AEWA Secretariat
plans to support the Ramsar anniversary campaign through
public awareness activities and would like to encourage
all AEWA stakeholders to also take note of and plan events
to mark the 40th Anniversary of the Ramsar Convention on
Wetlands.

The AEWA and Ramsar Secretariats,
BirdLife International and Wetlands International also used
the 15th
Anniversary of AEWA Symposium in The Hague,
which took place 14-15 June 2010 to sign a historic
collaborative agreement to redouble their efforts
to work together to conserve migratory waterbird species
and their critical habitats in Africa and Eurasia. This
agreement builds on and is a result of the successful cooperation
between these organisations in the framework of the UNEP-GEF
Wings Over Wetlands (WOW) Project.

Further Information

Please see the Ramsar
Convention website and the press
release on the launch of the 40th Anniversary
Ramsar logo for more information.

Or contact: Ms
Oana Penea, Communications Officer, Ramsar
Secretariat