Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and
Communities, 2013 About the document The Convention on Wetlands
of International Importance (the Ramsar Convention) was signed
in Ramsar, Iran on 2 February 1971. The Ramsar Convention aims
to halt the worldwide loss of wetlands and to conserve, through
wise use and management, those that remain. The Convention
encourages member countries to nominate sites containing
representative, rare or unique wetlands, or that are important
for conserving biological diversity, to the List of Wetlands of
International Importance (Ramsar sites). Australia was one of
the first countries to become a Contracting Party to the
Convention and designated the world's first Ramsar site, Cobourg
Peninsula, in 1974.