Abstract
This chapter will examine the implications of another type of protected area regime; Ramsar Convention listed wetlands. The Ramsar governance regime is described and evaluated in this chapter using case study sites from the Australasian region. Through this analysis I argue for a greater reconciliation between the activities of the human communities subject to regulation with biodiversity and wetland conservation targets. Mechanisms by which global legal commitments to wetlands protection need to be reconciled with national and sub-national operational rules and such a reconciliation is now urgently required. Increasingly, an integrative approach to the conservation of biological and cultural diversity prevails. Integration requires that we understand the human dimensions of institutional and governance arrangements surrounding these crucial protected areas. In this chapter we consider case studies from Southeast Asia, the Tonle Sap (Great Lake) of Cambodia, from within Oceania (and we note this region’s under-representation) and the lower Murray Darling Lakes, the Coorong and Lake Alexandrina and Albert Wetland Ramsar Site in Australia.
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Gillespie, J. (2020). Wetlands: Protecting the World’s ‘Ugly’ Places. In: Protected Areas. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40502-1_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40502-1_5
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