What happens if a Ramsar site, SPA or SAC is threatened?
National designations • Sites of Special Scientific Interest • National Nature Reserves and Marine Nature Reserves. International designations explained Ramsar Sites • An international meeting on wetlands and waterfowl, held in the Iranian town of Ramsar in 1971, first recognised the need for cooperative wetland conservation worldwide. An international Convention was devised, requiring the government signatories to agree to identify and protect their most significant wetlands for wildlife, especially waterfowl. The UK signed this Convention in 1973 and there are currently 133 territories worldwide which have also signed. • Under the Convention, each government must select its best wetlands according to very clear criteria, and these Ramsar Sites are then protected from development in all but the most exceptional cases. • Criteria include a wetland should be considered internationally important if it regularly supports 20,000 or more waterbirds and a wetland should be considered interna
