The intergovernmental convention aims to combat the "increasing
loss and degradation of wetland habitat for migratory
waterbirds," and "wise use" of wetlands for the "benefit of
humankind." But Bundala is now losing a war against invasive
plant species and the very nature of its water, which made it a
haven for migrating water fowl, has changed. "You cannot just
declare a site as Ramsar and go to sleep," says Sarath Kotagama,
a academic from Sri Lanka's Colombo University who is president
of the Field Ornithological Group of Sri Lanka, a bird
conservation group. "A unique site has certain characteristics.
If you want to preserve them you have prevent successional
change. "If you do not do something, a wetland will fill up and
be reduced to a narrow area where water will drain." Kotagama
says wetlands are under constant 'seral' stage change. In a
wetland, putrefying vegetation will settle at the bottom, create
peat and eventually fill up.Bundala is in Sri Lanka's lowland
dry zone, and is subject to flooding in