|
Home>
Wetlands for Tourism
Wetlands for Tourism
Melo C. Ponce de Leon
“Wetlands and Tourism”, this is the theme of this year’s celebration of World Wetlands Day. It is celebrated internationally every 2nd day of February which marks the date of the adoption of Convention on Wetlands on February 2, 1971 in the city of Ramsar, Iran, to which, the Philippines is the 119th contracting party. All Contracting Parties to the Convention are committed to managing and protecting all wetlands in their country.
The Convention on Wetlands, also known as the Ramsar Convention, is an intergovernmental treaty that embodies the commitments of its member countries to maintain the ecological character of their Wetlands of International Importance and to plan for the "wise use", or sustainable use, of all of the wetlands in their territories.1
Here in the Philippines, we have four (4) wetlands declared as Ramsar Sites. These are the Olango Island in Cebu (1994), the Naujan Lake National Park in Oriental Mindoro (1999), the Agusan Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary in Agusan del Sur (1999), and Palawan’s very own Tubbataha Reefs National Marine Park (1999).
This year, the Philippines will push for the nomination the Puerto Princesa Underground River (PPUR) as a Ramsar Site to the Convention’s next Conference of Parties, which has a theme of Wetlands, Tourism and Recreation and will be held in June 2012, in Bucharest, Romania.
Through Resolution 427-2011 issued on December 22, 2011, the Puerto Princesa City government recommended to the DENR’s Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB) the park’s nomination to the Ramsar Convention because of its importance as a biodiversity conservation area. Once approved, PPUR will be the 5th protected area in the Philippines proclaimed as a Ramsar Site.2
Wetland tourism has benefits both locally and nationally for people and wildlife – benefits such as stronger economies, sustainable livelihoods, healthy people and thriving ecosystems. It is worth noting that tourism is only one of the services that wetlands deliver. Ensuring well-managed tourism practices in and around wetlands and educating tourists on the value of wetlands contributes to the health of the world's wetlands and the long-term benefits that wetlands provide to people, wildlife, economics, and biodiversity.3
1 http://www.ramsar.org/cda/en/ramsar-about-about-ramsar/main/ramsar/1-36%5E7687_4000_0__
2 http://businessmirror.com.ph/home/nation/22664-ppur-pushed-to-be-entered-in-wetlands-convention
3
http://www.ramsar.org/cda/en/ramsar-activities-wwds-wwd2012index/main/ramsar/1-63-78%5E25324_4000_0__
|
