{"id":122461,"date":"2013-02-01T06:00:56","date_gmt":"2013-02-01T06:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/uncategorized\/february-2nd-is-world-wetlands-day\/"},"modified":"2013-02-01T06:00:56","modified_gmt":"2013-02-01T06:00:56","slug":"february-2nd-is-world-wetlands-day","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/natural-resources\/february-2nd-is-world-wetlands-day","title":{"rendered":"February 2nd is World Wetlands Day!"},"author":4911,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":""},"categories":[22771,23051],"tags":[24981,39281,22821,31821,32891,39341,37771,23411,39351,29621],"industry":[],"product":[],"class_list":["post-122461","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natural-resources","category-water","tag-hydro","tag-lake","tag-oceans-and-maritime","tag-river","tag-stream","tag-swamp","tag-water","tag-water-resources","tag-waterbody","tag-wetlands"],"acf":{"short_description":"by Daniel Siegel, Hydro Team, Esri\n\n\n\nOn this date, 42 years ago, the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance was adopted in t...","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<p><strong>by Daniel Siegel, Hydro Team, Esri<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Ramsar\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ramsar.org\/cda\/en\/ramsar-activities-wwds-wwd2013index\/main\/ramsar\/1-63-78%5E25913_4000_0__\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-25010\" style=\"line-height: 18px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Fig14.jpg\" alt=\"World Wetlands Day: Feb. 2, 2013\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>On this date, 42 years ago, the <strong>Convention on Wetlands of International Importance<\/strong> was adopted in the Iranian town of Ramsar. It had been in development since 1962, when ecologists began to worry that the global push towards \u201creclaiming\u201d swamps would have a catastrophic effect on bird populations. The <strong><a title=\"Ramsar Convention\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ramsar.org\/cda\/en\/ramsar-wwd13-home1index\/main\/ramsar\/1%5E26035_4000_0__\">Ramsar Convention<\/a><\/strong> was the first modern treaty between nations aimed at protecting natural resources, and today we celebrate its legacy. The 163 signatories have designated <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_Ramsar_wetlands_of_international_importance\">2,083 sites<\/a> as wetlands of international significance, putting 488 million acres of land under the treaty\u2019s protection.\u00a0 The United States has 34 designated sites, including the Everglades National Park, the Upper Mississippiu River Floodplain, and the Izembek Lagoon National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.<\/p>\n<p>The theme of this year\u2019s World Wetlands Day is: <em><strong>Wetlands take care of water<\/strong>.<\/em> As Anada Tiega, Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention explains it: \u201cthis year is the chance for all of us working for wetlands to convince those who manage water that wetlands are not <em>competitors <\/em>for water but rather they are <em>essential components of water infrastructure<\/em>, providing a clean source and store of freshwater.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>To participate<\/strong>, send someone a free World Wetlands Day <a href=\"http:\/\/community.ramsar.org\/ecard2.php\">eCard<\/a>, and consider donating to the <strong>Ramsar Convention\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ramsar.org\/cda\/en\/ramsar-activities-grants-rsgf-ramsar-sgf\/main\/ramsar\/1-63-68-159%5E21043_4000_0__\">Small Grants Fund<\/a><\/strong>. If you work on wetlands-related issues in GIS, make sure to check out the new <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/resources.arcgis.com\/en\/communities\/hydro\/01vn00000021000000.htm\">Wetlands page<\/a><\/strong> in our <strong>Hydro Resource Center!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Fig22.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-25012\" src=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Fig22.jpg\" alt=\"www.ramsar.org\" width=\"407\" height=\"603\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n"}],"authors":[{"ID":4911,"user_firstname":"Caitlin","user_lastname":"Scopel","nickname":"Caitlin Scopel","user_nicename":"coscopel","display_name":"Caitlin Scopel","user_email":"CScopel@esri.com","user_url":"","user_registered":"2018-03-02 00:16:31","user_description":"Senior Project Manager for the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World Environment Team. Caitlin works on projects that utilize environmental data from local, state, national and global institutions.","user_avatar":"<img data-del=\"avatar\" src='https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2019\/04\/G68235_CaitlinScopel_22-150x150.jpg' class='avatar pp-user-avatar avatar-96 photo ' height='96' width='96'\/>"}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>February 2nd is World Wetlands Day!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/natural-resources\/february-2nd-is-world-wetlands-day\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"February 2nd is World Wetlands Day!\" \/>\n<meta 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