WWN has collaborated on a project to enable municipalities in Latin America and the Caribbean to become recognised as Ramsar Wetland Cities. On our YouTube channel you will find videos on that subject, land the Ciudad Humedal website hosts the videos, infographics, and valuable advice in impressive presentation, all suitable to share with your local municipality. With World Wetlands Day fresh in their minds, it is the perfect time to approach them!
Welcome to Wetland City for Latin America and the Caribbean (Ciudad Humedal para América Latina y el Caribe), a website that highlights the benefits of urban and peri-urban wetlands for people and biodiversity in our region.
On this site we also introduce the context and step-by-step of the “Wetland City Accreditation of the Convention on Wetlands”, a scheme adopted in 2015 during the 12th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Convention on Wetlands (COP12), through Resolution XII.10.
The Wetland City Accreditation scheme emerges as a strategy to address the impacts of urbanization on wetlands, biodiversity and the quality of urban life. Wetlands are being threatened in two principal ways:
➢ Through the planned or unplanned conversion of wetlands into urban areas, leading to problems such as polluted drainage, direct habitat loss, and uncontrolled waste disposal.
➢ Through watershed-related impacts of urban development, including increased demands for water and heightened diffuse and point-source pollution.
- Latin American and Caribbean cities could contribute considerably to the City Wetland Accreditation scheme: they have led important citizen mobilization processes, have restored wetlands, and have conducted research to better understand these ecosystems. Progress has also been made in the creation of incentives for the preservation of urban wetlands. Find out more at www.ciudadhumedal.org. Click, enjoy and share!