Sudan wins rare praise for wetlands protection

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2006

NAIROBI (AFP) — A country facing intense global criticism for the conflict in Darfur, Sudan won rare international praise from environmentalists for moving to protect Africa's biggest wetland. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) lauded Sudanese authorities for entering the massive Sudd marshes in southern Sudan on the list of protected areas covered by the 1971 Ramsar treaty, which aims to preserve the world's wetlands.

The Sudd, a 30,000-square-kilometer (11,583-square-mile) patch of swamp and floodplain in south Sudan's Bahr el Jebel state, was certified as Ramsar protected on Tuesday at a ceremony in the southern Sudanese capital of Juba. This "is an important symbolic achievement that now hopefully will be followed through with practical measures to assist in the...