Birdie | South Africa Biodiversity Data Pipeline for Wetlands and Waterbirds

Release version v1.0.0


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BIRDIE

An online platform for African wetland and waterbird data

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Ramsar and Waterbirds

The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands is an intergovernmental treaty for the conservation and wise use of all wetlands. South Africa is a signatory and must make regular reports on its Ramsar listed wetlands. BIRDIE provides waterbird information that is useful for reporting on several of the Ramsar criteria. This page is a summary of all the Ramsar sites in South Africa. The table shows information about the wetland, when it was declared and the criteria met. Importantly, it gives the latest Waterbird Conservation Value for each site, a measure of how important a wetland is for the population of waterbirds.

Waterbird Status per Ramsar Site (per most recent year of modelled species abundance ie 2022)

NOTE: click on the "Ramsar Site" column header to align columns

Explanation of the table

Water Conservation Value is a measure of how important a wetland is for the population of waterbirds. A site can be important because it hosts a great proportion of a single species, or large proportions of many species. A large value means that the wetland is important for waterbird populations. The value can change over time to show trends.


Waterbird Conservation Value categories
Index Range Description
Low 0-10 Site may support threshold populations for a few species; conservation value is low
Medium 11-24 Site supports important threshold populations for some species; conservation value is medium
High 25-49 Site supports important threshold populations for numerous species; conservation value is high
Very high 50+ Site supports significant threshold populations for numerous species; conservation value is significant

Explanation of the Ramsar criterion

Ramsar Criterion 2 identifies sites that support Critically Endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable species (all of which are considered to be threatened species [TSP]), including waterbirds.
Ramsar Criterion 4 identifies sites which provide critical life stage support to species, including waterbirds.
Ramsar Criterion 5 identifies sites that regularly support 20,000 or more waterbirds.
Ramsar Criterion 6 identifies sites that regularly support 1% of the individuals in a population of one species or subspecies of waterbird.