WWT Chief Executive Sarah Fowler leads team to vital international wetlands conference
The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust is sending a top team to a critical international wetlands conference in Geneva as the world gathers to discuss climate change, the environment, and nature across several locations over the next few weeks.
Chief Executive Sarah Fowler will lead our delegation to the Convention on Wetlands – also known as the Ramsar Convention COP14 – where she will talk of the hope that wetlands can offer and engage our international partners in the work that we do. Ramsar takes place 5-13 November and is hosted jointly this year by China and Switzerland, with virtual events taking part in Wuhan as well as the gathering in Geneva.
The Ramsar COP is just one of three important international meetings for the environment and nature happening over the next few weeks: world leaders and delegations are meeting in Egypt for the climate change COP27 (the follow up to COP26 in Glasgow last year) where wetlands like coastal saltmarsh need to be a part of discussions; and in December, delegates will gather in Canada to talk about the world’s biodiversity and how to protect nature at COP15.
Creating, restoring and protecting wetlands are a vital part of being able to implement the goals from all these important summits and WWT is looking forward to working with our international partners to help make sure this happens.
WWT’s Ramsar team also includes our head of conservation Dr James Robinson and Head of International Engagement Chris Rostron. We will be in the thick of the action in Geneva and are involved in several side events at the conference where much of the most important discussions will happen. These side events are a space to engage with governments and wetlands Non-Government Organisations (NGOs), both informing them of what we can do together and learning about their needs.
We are also looking forward to celebrating best practice at wetlands around the world with the presentation of 20 special awards which will act as a quality mark of excellence for tourists and locals alike. The Star Wetland Centres will be unveiled by Wetland Link International, a WWT-run support network for wetland centres around the world.
WWT’s Chief Executive Sarah Fowler said:
WWT and Ramsar have been intertwined for years and grown together as organisations as we work side by side to put wetlands centre stage in the fight against climate change and to save nature. It’s a very exciting time for both me, so new in my role as Chief Executive of WWT, and Ramsar’s new Secretary General Musonda Mumba who has also just taken up her new job.
Wetlands have been taken for granted and undervalued for centuries – it’s time to stop overlooking one of the planet’s most vital assets. We’re proud to be working with Ramsar to make sure this happens.
Ramsar facts
- The 170 countries that have signed the Ramsar Convention meet once every three years for discussion at the Conference of Parties to the Convention – known as COP
- Ramsar is not an acronym but rather the name of the place where the Convention was signed, the town of Ramsar in Iran
- Ramsar sites are wetlands of international importance
- Wetlands are the only habitat to have their own COP
- WWT’s founder, Sir Peter Scott was in Ramsar in 1971 and helped write the Convention.
- Ramsar is the oldest environmental agreement in the world
- Alongside the 170 countries, just six Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) hold special status in the convention – and WWT is one of them.
