Water for the Future

Water for the environment

World Wetlands Day

World Wetlands Day is celebrated internationally each year on 2 February. It marks the anniversary of the signing of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar Convention) in Ramsar, Iran, on 2 February 1971.

World Wetlands Day was first celebrated in 1997. Since then government agencies, non-government organisations and community groups have celebrated World Wetlands Day by undertaking actions to raise public awareness of wetland values and benefits and promote the conservation and wise use of wetlands. These activities include seminars, nature walks, festivals, launches of new policies, announcement of new Ramsar sites, newspaper articles, radio interviews and wetland rehabilitation.

World Wetlands Day 2009

The international theme for World Wetlands Day 2009 is "Upstream-Downstream: Wetlands connect us all". This is in recognition of how interconnected we all are within river basins and the impact that activities upstream have on the lower parts of a river catchment.

Wetlands have numerous functions:

Sustainable river basin management is extremely important to maintain the functions and ecosystems services of a wetland. World Wetlands Day 2009 aims to raise awareness on how we can all support healthy rivers and assess how our actions affect those downstream.

Calendar of events

Organising a World Wetlands Day event?

If your local community organisation has an activity that they would like to be part of World Wetlands Day 2009, please contact wetlandsmail@environment.gov.au to have it added to the Calendar of events.

World Wetlands Day materials

To celebrate World Wetlands Day 2009 there are a range of products available from the Australian Government Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts including posters, bookmarks, magnets, stickers and postcards.

Wetlands Australia National Wetlands Update - 2009

Key

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