02 Feb 2008 - WWF has
welcomed the World Wetlands Day announcement
of the world’s second largest internationally
recognized and protected
significant wetlands reserve in the Congo
“as a clear sign of the world’s increasing
interest in the green heart of Africa.”
“This underlines the
importance of the Congo region as an area
that is vital to global climate regulation,
biodiversity, and the rights and welfare
of indigenous peoples,” said WWF International
Director General James Leape.
Around 300,000 people
live in the 5,908,074 hectare Grand Affluents
RAMSAR wetland, with the four major tributaries
to the Congo flowing through it being the
origin of its name as well as making the
area an important transport network.
The world’s largest
RAMSAR wetland is the 6,278,200 ha Queen
Maude Gulf Migratory Bird Sanctuary in Canada.
Other Congo area RAMSAR
sites declared on World Wetlands Day included
wetlands on major Congo tributaries such
as the Libenga and the Sangha in The Cameroons
and two coastal wetland reserves important
to migrating birds at Cayo-Loufoualeba and
Conkouati-Douli.
"WWF lauds the
effort in this, the second driest continent,
to secure clean and abundant water for millions
of people. Wetlands are a critical source
of water and other countries would do well
to take Africa's lead," said Richard
Holland, WWF's Freshwater Director.
WWF International’s
wetlands manager Denis Landenbergue, a veteran
of the long and challenging process of achieving
the declarations, said they were “an outstanding
achievement” of the governments and agencies
concerned.
"This will help
secure water and livelihoods for millions
of people and the conservation of important
water features, forests and habitats,” he
said. “Areas of these wetlands are particularly
important dry time refuges for elephants,
hippopotamuses and buffalos and for many
migratory bird species.”
Note to editors:
World Wetlands Day commemorates the signing
of the Convention on Wetlands on
2 February 1971, in the Iranian city of
Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea.
