Bolivia leads the way in wetland protection

Published on March 14, 2013 09:27 by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Social

Bolivia continues to be a champion for Amazonian conservation. On February 2, 2013, Bolivia celebrated World Wetlands Day with the designation of more than 6.9 million hectares of the Llanos de Moxos to the Ramsar Convention's Wetlands of International Importance. In addition to being the largest Ramsar designation to date, Bolivia now claims 14.8 million hectares of protected wetland, making it the leading Contracting Party out of 164 participating countries in terms of Ramsar site surface area.

The Ramsar Convention is an intergovernmental treaty committed to preserving and ensuring the "wise" and "sustainable use" of wetlands. To qualify for a designation, a wetland is evaluated according to the international significance of its ecology, botany, zoology, limnology or hydrology. In the case of the Llanos de Moxos, the technical studies were conducted by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

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