Ramsar Convention

The Ramsar Convention s mission is the conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local, regional and national actions and international cooperation, as a contribution towards achieving sustainable development throughout the world. 

Ramsar. 2004. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, www.ramsar.org Raymond, J., Siefert, J.L., Staples, C.R. and Blankenship, R.E. 2004. The natural history of nitrogen fixation. Molecular Biology andEvolution 21, 541-554. 

Globally, wetlands can be found in all climates, from tropical to tundra, with the exception of Antarctica. Approximately 6% of Earth s land surface, which equals about 2 billion acres (approximately 800 million ha), is covered by wetlands. The United States alone contains about 14% of the world s wetlands, or about 274 million acres (111 million ha). The Convention on Wetlands, signed in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971, is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. There are presently 158 contracting parties to the convention, with 1723 wetland sites, totaling 160 million ha, designated for inclusion in the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance (http //www.ramsar.org/). 

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