Posted on 02 February
2010 - Gland, Switzerland – World Wetlands
Day is being celebrated with the full recognition
of Africa’s Lake Chad as a wetland of international
significance, fulfilling an agreement made
a decade ago by the four nations that share
it.
The declaration by the
Cameroon Republic that its portion of Africa’s
fourth largest lake is being declared a
wetland of international importance under
the 1971 Ramsar Convention on Wetlands follows
similar declarations by Niger and Chad (both
in 2001) and Nigeria (2008).
World's largest transboundary
wetland recognised by Ramsar
Cameroon’s announcement
will also clear the way for Lake Chad to
become the largest of the world’s few recognised
transboundary international wetlands, where
countries make a formal agreement for joint
protection and management of shared aquatic
ecosystems and their resources.
“Lake Chad’s inscription
as only the 13th transboundary formally
recognised wetland is highly significant
as 11 of the areas so far declared are in
Europe,” said Denis Landenbergue, WWF International’s
wetlands conservation manager. “Lake Chad
joins the Saloum Delta shared by Senegal
and Gambia as only the second such site
in Africa.”
Massive wetland is an
important habitat for many species
Lake Chad is the remnant
of a much vaster lake known as Mega-Chad
which 22,000 years ago drained a greener
Sahara and was three times the size of Lake
Victoria, now Africa’s largest lake. It
is now the focal point of life in a huge
expanse of arid Sahelian Africa. Technically
best described as an inland delta, the new
internationally protected wetland covers
2.6 million hectares vital to countless
birds as well as endangered otters, gazelles
and elephants. The Lake is also home to
hippopotamuses and Nile crocodiles.
This source of life
for millions of people is under threat
The Lake Chad basin
is home to over 20 million people with the
majority dependent on the lake and other
wetlands for their fishing, hunting, farming
and grazing. But the Lake Chad basin is
recognised as highly challenged by climate
change, desertification and unsustainable
management of water resources and fisheries.
“Lake Chad is one of
the largest and most important of the vital
watering points for migratory birds from
Europe and west Asia that each year cross
the Sahara and it is also where many of
them stop and stay for the winter” said
Landenbergue.
Other wetlands also
recognised
In another World Wetlands
Day highlight, Algeria moved to designate
several of the wetlands vital to many of
the same migrating birds on the northern
side of the Sahara. Ceremonies this Sunday
in Algeria will mark the designation of
five new Wetlands of International Importance
for the country.
In Cameroon, adding
the completing piece to the Lake Chad world
wetland is but the latest of a string of
Ramsar declarations over recent years.
“From the Mangrove forests
of the Ntem Estuary, curling through the
crater lakes of the Cameroon Highlands and
into Waza Logone flood plain and the Lake
Chad basin, Cameroon’s wetlands constitute
a haven for biological diversity,” said
Natasha Quist, head of WWF’s Central African
Regional Programme.
WWF, which partnered
with the Lake Chad Basin Commission, the
Ramsar Convention and the Global Environment
Facility on projects in Lake Chad and with
the governments on achieving the declaration,
said the challenge now was to “turn the
promise of protection for Lake Chad into
a reality for the millions that depend on
it.”
About the Ramsar Convention
World Wetlands Day celebrates
the signing of one of the Convention on
Wetlands on 2 February 1971 in the Caspian
Sea city of Ramsar, Iran. The Convention,
known generally as the Ramsar Convention,
followed rising concern over the fate of
migratory birds and was the first international
environment treaty.
For further information:
Denis Landenbergue,
Manager Wetlands Conservation
WWF International Freshwater Programme
