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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEWS ReleaseWEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2 IS WORLD WETLANDS DAY
World Wetlands Day will be observed
on Wednesday, February 2, 2000 under the theme, “Celebrating Our Wetlands of International Importance”.
The day was designated by the Ramsar Standing Committee in commemoration
of the signing of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance
in the Iranian City of Ramsar on the 2nd of February 1971.
This year marks the 29th anniversary of the signing
of the Ramsar Convention, which has a membership of some 116 countries. A number of activities have been planned
to mark the event in Jamaica. The
Negril Area Environmental Protection Trust (NEPT) will extend its activities
from February 2 – 5. The
activities will include a Special Presentation
and Quiz for students (February 2), an exhibition at the Negril Community Centre (February 2-4), Special Talks at Community Meetings in Sheffield and Crawle (Negril) (February 2-3) and Wetland Clean-up activities in Crawle (February 4 –5).
The Natural History Division (NHD) will mount a display for children who visit the Institute
of Jamaica during the week on the importance of our wetlands and particularly
its Mason River Reserve in Clarendon, which contains the island’s only
inland bog. The Ramsar Convention (on Wetlands of
International Importance) is an intergovernmental treaty, which provides
the framework for international cooperation for the conservation of wetland
habitats. Because wetlands
are important for ecological processes as well as for their rich flora
and fauna, the broad objectives of the Convention seek to ensure their
conservation. The Convention’s
programme therefore focuses on conservation of the more than 1000 wetlands
designated for the Wetlands List and on national planning to maintain
wetland values and functions. To
meet its objectives, the Convention places general obligations on States
which are Contracting Parties relating to the conservation of wetlands
throughout the territory. Under the Convention there is a general
obligation for the Contracting Parties to include wetland conservation
considerations in their national land use planning. They are required to formulate and implement plans to promote,
as far as possible, the wise use of wetlands in their territory.
Contracting Parties are also required to promote the conservation
of wetlands in their territory through the establishment of nature reserves.
A specific obligation under the Convention is the designation of
wetlands for inclusion in a “List of Wetlands of International Importance.”
At least one site must be designated by each Contracting Party
upon accession to the Convention, with selection based on “international
significance in terms of ecology, botany, zoology, limnology or hydrology.” Jamaica became a Contracting Party to
the Convention on February 7, 1998 and according to the accession procedures
has designated the “Black River Lower Morass” as a wetland to be included
in the List of Wetlands of International Importance. The Black River Lower Morass, the largest
wetland in Jamaica has diverse fauna and flora, which includes endemic
(found only in Jamaica) and rare species.
There are ninety-two (92) species of flowering plants in the Morass,
twenty-three (23) are considered rare and eight are endemic to Jamaica. For More Information Contact: |