For the past 32 years, the Ramsar Convention has been the principal instrument for international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. Adopted in Iran in 1971, it was the first of the modern global conservation treaties, and is still the only one dedicated to a particular ecosystem type. Parties to the Convention have committed themselves to designating all of their “suitable wetlands,” based upon criteria developed over the years, for inclusion in the List of Wetlands of International Importance (the “Ramsar List”) and maintaining their ecological character through management planning for their conservation and sustainable use.
As the Ramsar List has grown (presently to about 1,400 recognized sites of International Importance), certain types of wetlands, as loosely defined in the Ramsar Classification System for Wetland Type, have been identified by the Contracting Parties as having been neglected in favour of other, more common and obvious types. Numerous Resolutions and Recommendations over the years have called for greater attention to these under-reported wetland types, and in Resolution VIII.11 (2002) the Parties provided guidelines for the designation of peatlands, wet grasslands, mangroves, and coral reefs in particular. In addition, a few other wetland types have been put forward as requiring special attention, including mountain and Andean wetlands, seagrass beds, and temporary pools.
There is a page now on the Ramsar website intended to provide an up-to-date entry into Ramsar and related materials on the Convention’s progress in bringing renewed conservation attention to these so-far under-represented wetland types. To learn more, surf to: http://ramsar.org/types_index.htm
There you will also find a link to a new page dedicated to peatlands within the Ramsar framework (http://ramsar.org/types_peatlands.htm). This page collects all relevant peatland related Ramsar information. Besides a listing links to those Ramsar Resolutions and Recommendations that are most directly related to peatlands, you will find relevant Ramsar guidance documents, peatland related news items, and some statistical information on peatlands under the Ramsar Convention.