Ramsar sites

Un site à désignation internationale (SDI) est un site naturel reconnu au niveau par un mécanisme de désignation régional ou mondial. Parmi eux figurent 263 aires dans lesquelles différentes SDI se chevauchent, entièrement ou partiellement, ce qui double ou triple, voire quadruple les désignations internationales. Dans le cadre de cette publication, ces sites sont dénommés sites à désignations internationales multiples (SDIM).

An Internationally Designated Area (IDA) is a natural area internationally recognised by a global or regional designation mechanism. Among these, there are 263 areas where different IDAs fully or partially overlap thus carrying double, triple or even quadruple international designations.

IUCN is proud to host the Ramsar Convention at its headquarters near Geneva, Switzerland. Over the years, IUCN has collaborated with the Ramsar Convention in many ways, such as supporting countries in accession to the Convention, scientific assistance in the designation of Ramsar sites, providing help at site level management, and supporting the capacity to link local communities with government authorities to ensure the conservation of wetlands. Here are some brief highlights of IUCN's recent work in support of the Ramsar Convention.

In 2014, IUCN carried out a vulnerability assessment of the impacts of climate change on the Ramsar site at Beung Kiat Ngong in southern Lao PDR. The overall description of the wetland ecosystem and its components were drawn from the Ramsar profiles of the wetland and the recent biodiversity surveys.

A large number of approaches have been developed over the last four decades for identifying places of significance for biodiversity, but unfortunately this requires looking at multiple, disconnected databases and other information sources to understand the sites of importance in a particular area. To address this issue and provide a coherent, global approach, IUCN was asked to convene a worldwide consultative process to agree on an overarching methodology to identify Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) -- sites that contribute significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity.