Fundamentals of Tropical Freshwater Wetlands - Chapter 23: Indigenous peoples’ participation and the management of wetlands in Africa: a review of the Ramsar Convention

Wetlands provide important habitat for a wide variety of animal and plant species, and are central to water storage and stream flow regulation. Significantly, wetlands conservation requires international cooperation. In view of this the Ramsar Convention was negotiated and came to force in 1975. While it has played a pivotal role in ensuring listing and conservation of Wetlands of International Importance, the convention does not embed emerging international law norms such as the right to public participation. Instead, it encourages state-centric, top-down decision-making approach. The present research seeks to examine implications of the Ramsar Convention’s silence on the procedural right to participation in the light of indigenous peoples and local communities’ rights in Africa. It aims at shading a new light on the understanding of the importance in the African context, of embedding the right to participation in the designation and management of Ramsar sites in the Ramsar text itself as opposed to including them in legally nonbinding documents that elude indigenous peoples’ capacity to engage with their governments.