Saturday, 2 February 2008 - World Wetlands Day

2 February each year is World Wetlands Day. It marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands* on 2 February 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar. Each year since 1997, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and groups of citizens at all levels of the community have taken advantage of the opportunity to undertake actions aimed at raising public awareness of wetland values and benefits in general and the Ramsar Convention in particular. The Convention's suggested theme for World Wetlands Day, 2 February 2008, is Healthy Wetlands, Healthy People.

On the basis of this theme, after the invitation from the Management Agency and with the support of local committees and NGO’s, we gathered all in the Centre of Culture & Environment of Malgara village. Key notes:

1. ‘The protection of the area is a personal matter’ - Mayor of Axios Municipality
2. ‘The measures taken for the protection of the area are not so effective, but the base for the creation of the Management Agency is co-operation, and that is what we must accomplish. – Head of the Management Agency
3. ‘Every evolution has its victims’ referring to the problems farmers have working inside the protected area in comparison with the farmers outside the area - Head of the Management Agency

I disagree on the last one. Every evolution has victims those that don’t want to go aboard train, the train of evolution. People should feel lucky for being born and live in the area and not unlucky for being “captured” inside it, as it was stated by one of the farmers of the region.

Recently a group of volunteers established a group named ‘Team Nature Delta’ for those who want to volunteer for the protection of the area.

*The Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar Convention), signed in Ramsar, Iran, on 2 February 1971, is an intergovernmental treaty which provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. There are presently 158 Contracting Parties to the Convention, with 1717 wetland sites, (total area: 159 million hectares), designated for inclusion in the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance. Greece was the 7th country to sign the convention. In 1974 a Greek law established the Convention and 10 sites (total area: 163501 hectares) where included in the ‘Ramsar list’, among them site ‘Axios, Loudias, Aliakmon Delta ‘(code: 3GR007). The area is also listed in the Natura 2000 network.

More info:

Management Agency - http://axiosdelta.blogspot.com/ (in Greek)
the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands - http://www.ramsar.org/ the Mediterranean Initiative of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (MedWet) - http://www.medwet.org/