Organization gave support to the idea believing that the event would contribute a great deal to public awareness of the importance of forests and agreed that it should be observed every year and so March 21, the autumn equinox in the Southern Hemisphere and the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere was chosen as the day to be celebrated offering information about protection, production and recreation of forests.
Every year, on this day people the world over take time to consider the benefi ts of forests, of goods and services obtained from the forests. People can learn about how forests can be/should be managed and used in such a way that we continue to get all these benefi ts (without any harm to the forest ecosystems) and save them for the future too.
2nd February - Wetlands Day
‘Upstream – Downstream’ Wetlands connect us all 2nd February each year is World Wetlands Day. It marks the date of the signing of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. WWD was celebrated for the fi rst time in 1997 and made an encouraging beginning. Each year, government agencies, nongovernmental
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 benefi ts in general and the Ramsar Convention in particular.
Number of designate ramsar sites: 1834
Total surface area of designated Ramsar sites:
170,427,084 hectares
The theme for 2009 ‘Upstream – Downstream’ Wetlands connect us all is an opportunity for people to look around at their own wetland and its interconnections with the environment around it
– how the wetland benefi ts the surroundings and, of course, how activities throughout the river basin may affect their wetland.
ENVIS Centre on Wetland Ecosystems
Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History is the ENVIS Centre on wetland ecosystems that aims to facilitate generation and dissemination of information on various facets of wetland ecosystems. The Centre work towards fulfi llment of the following objectives:
- Database creation on Wetland Ecosystems on internet with regional language interface.
- To establish and operate a distributed clearing house to answer and channel queries related to wetland ecosystems.
- To establish linkages with information users, carriers and providers from government, academic, business and Non-Governmental Organizations.
- Identifi cation of information/data gaps on wetland ecosystems.
For more information visit: http://www.wetlandsofindia.org/
Transboundary waters: shared water, shared opportunities
An international day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. The United Nations General Assembly responded
by designating 22 March 1993 as the fi rst World Water Day. The day is designated to draw attention on the importance of freshwater and advocate sustainable management of freshwater
resources. Each year, World Water Day highlights a specific aspect of freshwater. 2009 focuses on transboundary waters. The theme this year is ‘Shared Water - Shared Opportunities’.
Transboundary waster refers to lakes, rivers and aquifers (ground water) which are shared between more than one country.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the United Nations Educational, Scientifi c and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) are the lead agencies for World Water Day 2009.
For more information visit:
http://www.worldwaterday.org/
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