Detail

During 8 days from October 28 to November 4, the 10th Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Convention on Wetlands will be held in Changwon, Gyeongsangnam-do Province, Korea. Called an environmental Olympic, the RAMSAR conference is an international environmental meeting designed to asses preservation status and to develop common policies regarding the earth’s wetlands. This conference is held every 3 years on a rotational basis by continents. The upcoming 10th RAMSAR conference will be participated by more than 2,000 representatives from about 165 contracting parties, international organizations, NGOs, etc., who will hold discussions under the theme of “Healthy Wetlands and Healthy People.” The importance of wetlands has been recognized and started to be discussed only relatively recently. Wetlands are known to have various positive influences on our environment such as reducing damage from floods and drought, preventing soil erosion, purifying waters, preserving the nature of coastal regions, etc., as well as to produce twice as mush organic matter than the most fertile, hay-producing meadow. In addition, as habitat to various flora and fauna, the wetlands’ ecological value is extremely prominent. These highly valuable wetlands are showing a marked tendency to be decreasing across the world due to various sources of pollution, such as development of residential areas, agricultural irrigation, fishing, cutting down of trees, and erosion of soil, etc. To address this crucial issue, an international environmental convention was signed in 1971 in Ramsar, Iran, to systematically preserve the wetlands as a natural ecological system on a global level. A new stamp is issued, featuring the Upo Wetland that was included in the Ramsar List as Korea’s largest natural in-land wetland in the hope that this upcoming 10th Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Convention on Wetlands would serve as an opportunity to heighten interest in efforts to conserve the earth’s wetlands among the people in Korea as well as across the world.