Precious heritage – Project quantifies the value of SA’s Ramsar wetlands

Abstract

WETLANDS In February 1971, when the Convention on Wetlands was signed in Iran’s resort town of Ramsar on the Caspian Sea shore, South Africa was one of 18 countries represented, along with a handful of intergovernmental agencies and international conservation non-governmental organisations (NGOs). It was agreed that the ‘Ramsar Convention’ would enter into force after accession by seven countries, and South Africa was one of those first seven, depositing its instrument of accession with UNESCO and designating two ‘wetlands of international importance’ – Barberspan and De Hoop Vlei – in March 1975. The Convention entered into force on 1 December 1975, but a year earlier the first criteria for identifying wetlands of international importance had been adopted.

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