The Tana River Delta in Kenya's Coast Province has been officially recognised as the world's latest Ramsar site. In a statement from the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands' Secretariat, the Assistant Advisor for Africa, Ms. Ako Charlotte Eyong described the Tana River Delta as is the second most important estuarine and deltaic ecosystem in Eastern Africa, comprising a variety of freshwater, floodplain, estuarine and coastal habitats with extensive and diverse mangrove systems, marine brackish and freshwater intertidal areas, pristine beaches and shallow marine areas, forming productive and functionally interconnected ecosystems. The rich biodiversity of the delta includes coastal and marine prawns, shrimps, bivalves and fish, five species of threatened marine turtles and IUCN red-listed African elephant, Tana Mangabey, Tana River Red Colobus and White-collared Monkey.
Kenya presently has six Ramsar Sites, covering an area of 265,449 hectares.
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The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971, is an intergovernmental treaty that embodies the commitments of its member countries to maintain the ecological character of their wetlands by providing a framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of these fragile ecosystems and their resources.
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