The Ramsar Convention
Learn about what a Ramsar Protected Site is and how they are essential to preserving biological diversity.
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The Ramsar Convention, also known as The Convention on Wetlands, is aimed at preventing the loss of wetlands around the world, especially wetlands that are representative, rare, unique or wetlands that are essential to preserving biological diversity. The sites that are protected by this convention are known as Ramsar Sites.
© Australian Museum
The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance was developed during the 1960s by various countries and non-governmental organisations that had developed concerns about the health of wetland habitats, especially in regards to how this affected migratory waterbirds. It was developed and implemented in 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar and came into full force in 1975.
Australia was also one of the first countries to name a Wetland of International Importance in 1974: the Coburg Peninsula. Since then, Australia has gone on to name sixty-six Wetlands of International Importance, which covers an area of around 8.3 million hectares.
The Australian Government has implemented the Ramsar Convention within its Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), which outlines guidelines and frameworks for managing Ramsar Sites.
Additional resources:
- Ramsar
- Department of Climate Change, Energy the Environment and Water: The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands
- Department of Climate Change, Energy the Environment and Water: Australian Ramsar management principles
- https://www.dcceew.gov.au/water/wetlands/publications/australian-ramsar-site-nomination-Department of Climate Change, Energy the Environment and Water: Australian Ramsar site nomination guidelines
- Department of Climate Change, Energy the Environment and Water: Criteria for identifying Wetlands of International Importance
