World Wetlands Day

On February 2, United States Embassies around the world will join their local communities to commemorate World Wetlands Day, an annual celebration of the vital importance of wetlands to the world's ecological health and of efforts to conserve these invaluable habitats. The day marks the anniversary of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, signed February 2, 1971 in Ramsar, Iran.

This year's theme, "Fish for Tomorrow?" emphasizes the crucial connections between wetlands and fisheries. One billion people rely on fish as their main source of protein, yet approximately half of commercially important marine fisheries and inland stocks are fully exploited, and another quarter are over fished, depleted, or recovering, while the demand for fish continues to grow.

Wetlands play a crucial role in healthy fisheries; near-shore coastal wetlands are the nursery grounds of some deeper ocean species and most of the coastal species that make up fish catches. Likewise, inland fisheries depend on healthy lakes and ponds. World Wetlands Day is an excellent way to highlight both wetland and sustainable resource issues.

Recognizing the importance of wetlands, the United States in 1987 joined the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty that aims to halt the worldwide loss of wetlands and to conserve those that remain. The treaty's 154 Contracting Parties have designated more than 1,600 wetlands sites totaling more than 300 million acres for inclusion in the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance. On Earth Day 2004, President Bush announced an aggressive new national initiative to move beyond a policy of "no net loss" of wetlands to an overall increase of wetlands in America. The President's goal is to create, improve, and protect at least three million wetland acres by 2009 in order to increase overall wetland acreage and quality. By 2006, the United States had restored, created, protected, or improved 1,797,000 acres of wetlands. Results as of 2007 will be announced on Earth Day in April 2007.

The United States currently has 22 Ramsar sites covering nearly 3.2 million acres. This includes three sites designated in 2005, two in California and one in Hawaii.

For further information, visit the State Department's Bureau of Oceans, Environment and Science Web site at http://www.state.gov/g/oes and the Ramsar Web site at http://www.ramsar.org.

2007/054

Released on January 29, 2007

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