Wetland City Accreditation (WCA)

06.01.2024

Wetland City Accreditation (WCA) , Daily Current Affairs , RACE IAS : Best IAS Coaching in Lucknow 

 Why in the news?

Recently, three nominations from India have been submitted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change for recognition of Wetland Cities of Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) and Udaipur (Rajasthan) under the Ramsar Convention.

Important points:

• In June, 2023, IMC received certificates for two new Ramsar sites of Indore (Sirpur and Yashwant Sagar).
• These are the first three Indian cities for which nominations for WCA have been submitted based on proposals received from the respective State Wetland Authorities in collaboration with Municipal Corporations.

About the city nominated for Wetland City recognition:

Indore:

• Yashwant Sagar and Sirpur Lake are the major places for recognition of Wetland City from Indore.
• Sirpur Lake is a major site for waterbird conservation.
• And it is being developed as a bird sanctuary.
• A strong network of Wetland Mitras is engaged in sensitizing the local community for bird conservation and protection of sarus cranes.
• Sirpur Lake, Indore's first Ramsar site, has been chosen to host a festival on World Wetlands Day on February 2.
• Indore's second Ramsar site, Yashwant Sagar, was constructed in 1900 by Holkar dynasty ruler Tukojirao III to meet the water demand of the western parts of Indore.

Bhopal:

• Bhoj Wetland of Bhopal has been selected for recognition as Wetland City.
• Bhoj Wetland is a UNESCO Ramsar site.
• Bhopal Municipal Corporation has a dedicated lake conservation cell.
• It has proposed conservation areas around the wetlands in the draft City Development Plan 2031.

Udaipur:

• Located in Rajasthan, the city is surrounded by five major wetlands, Pichola, Fateh Sagar, Rang Sagar, Swaroop Sagar and Doodh Talai.

Purpose of nomination:

• Its main objective is to promote the conservation and wise use of urban and suburban wetlands as well as sustainable socio-economic benefits for the local population.

About Wetland City Accreditation:

• Recognizing the importance of wetlands in urban and peri-urban environments and taking appropriate measures to conserve and protect these wetlands..
• A voluntary WCA system was approved by the Ramsar Convention during COP12 held in 2015.
• Which recognizes cities that have taken extraordinary steps to protect their urban wetlands.
• It also underlines the importance of wetlands in urban and suburban environments and provides appropriate means for conservation and protection of these wetlands.
• The scheme aims to promote conservation and wise use of urban and peri-urban wetlands while also providing sustainable socio-economic benefits to the local population.
• Under this, for any city to be recognized as a candidate for WCA, it must meet the standards used to implement each of the six international criteria outlined in the operational guidance for WCA of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands .
• Following COP13, 43 cities in 17 countries have been officially recognized as "Wetland Cities".

                                                           Source: Business standard