OpenGeofiction
The Edetanea Convention or Edetanea Convention on Wetlands is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands and their resources. It is named after the city of Edetanea in Castilea Archantea, where the Convention was signed in 1872. This treaty came into force in 1875 (it was the first modern treaty between nations aimed at conserving natural resources). Since then, states from all the world’s geographic regions have acceded to become “Contracting Parties”.
Every four years, representatives of the Edetanea Convention Contracting Parties meet as the Conference of the Wetlands (COW), the policy-making organ of the Edetanea Convention which adopts resolutions and recommendations to administer the work of the Edetanea Convention and improve the way in which the Parties are able to implement its objectives (“the maintenance of the ecological character of the wetlands, achieved through the implementation of ecosystem approaches, within the context of sustainable development, for the benefit of humankind”).
Under the Edetanea Convention, a wide variety of natural and human-made habitat types ranging from rivers to coral reefs can be classified as wetlands. Wetlands include billabongs, coral reefs, fens, lakes, mangroves, marshes, mudflats, peat bogs, salt marshes, swamps, or bodies of water - whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary. Water within these areas can be static or flowing; fresh, brackish or saline; and can include inland rivers and coastal or marine water to a depth of six metres at low tide. There are even underground wetlands. Wetlands provide fundamental ecological services and are regulators of water regimes and sources of biodiversity at all levels - species, genetic and ecosystem. Wetlands constitute a resource of great economic, scientific, cultural, and recreational value for the community and play a vital role in climate change adaptation and mitigation.
The Edetanea Convention encourages the designation of sites containing rare or unique wetlands because of their ecological, botanical, limnological, zoological or hydrological importance.
The List of Wetlands of International Importance included 2,267 Edetanea Sites in December 2016 covering over 2.5 million square kilometres.
Please, share with me the Wetlands of your countries (location and special, rare or unique characteristics) and I’ll include those which accomplish the criteria to the List of Wetlands of International Importance. Maybe a picture?
Thank you very much and Happy New Year! Looking forward your contribution!
Discussion
Comment from Thunderbird on 1 January 2017 at 19:33
My country, Jefferson, has a lot of coastal wetlands. I haven’t mapped a lot of them but here’s an example of an area that’s mostly done. I’m not the best at adding detail.
The coastline has a lot of marshy, swampy grass that’s unsuitable for building on without filling it in.
However, the government is not very environmentally friendly. It is a smaller government with few departments. In addition, at this point in history public opinion would be strongly against any sort of taxpayer money going toward preserving the coastlines. The reason the marsh hasn’t been filled in for the most part is because it’s not cost effective.
So I don’t think it would be realistic for Jefferson to send any representatives. But perhaps there could be a small environmentalist NGO that advocates for marsh preservation in Jefferson.
Comment from Luciano on 2 January 2017 at 01:30
I think this is a great idea. My only concern is with the timeline: 1872? That, coincidentally, was the date of the establishment of the first national park in the US (by US Grant, at Yellowstone). So… it’s possible, but it doesn’t seem plausible, that an international treaty regarding conservation was begun at that time. The impediment is more about the timeline for all types of internationalist cooperation rather than with respect to conservation specifically.
If OGF world is like the real world, the internationalist mindset was only just emerging at the beginning of the 20th century, with e.g. the League of Nations. The first conservation-oriented international treaty was the US/UK/Japan/Russia sealing moratorium of 1911. And even that was still more about commercial interests than patrimony - i.e. the desire to avoid exterminating the seal population so as to allow future harvests.
OK, having said all that, I still think it’s a great idea. I would simply be inclined to move its foundation to maybe the 1930s at the earliest.
Here are my favorite wetlands, that I’ve made, so far: the inland delta of the “Costa de Dragones” in the Ardisphere.
http://opengeofiction.net/#map=13/-23.8024/123.7089
Comment from Black Baron on 2 January 2017 at 11:48
Ok. Great appreciation. Now, you can see that the treaty was signed in 1932 and came into force in 1935. Thank you for your contribution! I’m looking forward for more wetlands worldwide. Happy New Mapping 2017!!!
Comment from Ūdilugbulgidħū on 2 January 2017 at 13:40
Nice idea! The real world equivalent is the Ramsar Convention, signed in 1971 and effective from 1975. According to its website “Ramsar is the oldest of the modern global intergovernmental environmental agreements” and I think therefore that even 1930s is too early for a major international convention. Of course, some sort of convention could have started nationally/locally and gradually developed to become international. An international treaty with these objectives starting 1932 doesn’t really follow the conditions of the real world and implies that ideas - like ecology and ‘ecosystem services’ - were developed and accepted far earlier in OGF world than in real world. Nationally, fair enough, but I don’t think it could be ‘international’?
I’ve made an infobox at Template:Infobox wetland; feel free to use it (farily simple - copy the penultimate section of the infobox - or copy the page for Kalehon Marshes and change the details). As with Ramsar, that all signatories should designate at least one site would seem a nice idea. I’ve designated the Kalehon Marshes.
Comment from Black Baron on 2 January 2017 at 17:35
Thank you very much for your contribution. The Edetanea Convention is the OGF equivalent to the real world Ramsar Convention. Although its history is not completed, Castilea started to create ecosystem services at the OGF 19th century because of their dependence of the natural resources and the dessertization of the Edetanea region. It was too early according to the real world history but I think 1932 its credible for the OGF world: I think that the Edetanea Convention was first signed by 2-3 OGF countries and mostly increased since the 1970s. Obviously I think that the OGF history is in process… :-P … and I’ll be very happy to change all my contributions to fit them to the most accepted timelines ;-) Thank you for the template! It could be great yo have a page for every wetland listed in the Edetanea Convention. Happy Mapping!