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in fertile soils, feeds underground aquifers and finishes in

springs or is stored in all sorts of wetland types. Almost

everywhere, our drinking water resources are delivered

through wetlands. And our local communities, as well

as urban societies, profit from specific wetland ecosys-

tem services, such as water purification, retention and

release, and the production of wetland food, fish and

fibre. Wetlands help with erosion control and sediment

transport, thereby contributing to land formation and

increasing resilience to storms. The final Rio+20 decla-

ration on ‘the future we want’, clearly recognizes the role

of ecosystems in the supply of water and its quality.

The Ramsar Convention in particular encourages and

obliges its member states to cooperate when it comes

to wetlands and river basins that are shared between

neighbouring countries, concerning shared species that

migrate from one country to the next, and concerning

development projects that might affect wetlands in a

neighbouring or third country. The Ramsar Convention

created and continues to support the global concern

and the recognition of a shared responsibility for these

ecosystems that provide us with multiple benefits for

large cities as well as rural communities. Over the years,

the Convention has elaborated operational tools on how

to integrate wetland site management for the benefit

of the functioning of specific ecosystems within broad-

scale environmental planning at the scales of entire

river basins and coastal areas. Tools designed to clarify

eventually led to the establishment of the first modern environmen-

tal cooperation treaty. Eighteen countries sent their plenipotentiary

governmental delegations to an international conference in the

Iranian seaside resort of Ramsar, at the shores of the Caspian Sea

(itself a globally important wetland), to sign an intergovernmental

text, based on the shared confidence that far-sighted national poli-

cies and coordinated international action are needed to maintain

and to manage in a sustainable way these important ecological

systems that were longtime neglected, drained and destroyed. The

new treaty with a global reach, signed in Ramsar on 3 February

1971 was the first of its kind. It is since colloquially known as the

‘Ramsar Convention on Wetlands’. Today, it is rapidly reaching

its full global coverage. Already, its member states have together

listed more than 2100 ‘Wetlands of International Importance’ (also

known as Ramsar Sites), in more than 165 countries, and covering

together well beyond 200 million hectares. The Ramsar Sites form

the largest network of protected areas across the globe.

Wetlands are the earth’s natural water infrastructure. They provide

a clean source and store of freshwater, thus assuring the security

of water supply in dry regions and during drought seasons, while

inversely also mitigating flood and storm damage through their water

retention capacities. During the international year of water coopera-

tion, the message on World Wetlands Day (2 February 2013) was

clear: wetlands take care of water – they provide the natural infra-

structure to capture, filter, store, transport and release water. Wetlands

are the critical arteries in the water cycle, the hydrological cycle that

keeps human societies supplied with water. Rain evaporates rapidly

and returns back into the atmosphere, as long as it is not soaked up

Confluence of the Morava with the Danube seen from Devin castle, Slovakia, part of the Transboundary Ramsar Site ‘Floodplains of the Morava-Dyje-Danube confluence’

Image: T.Salathé/Ramsar