13/03/2019
Shadegan International Lagoon is one of the greatest wetlands in Iran. This Lagoon is located in the south of Shadegan County in Khuzestan Province. In the conference of wetlands held in Ramsar, it was decided that the three wetlands of Shadegan, Musa Estuary and Alamieh Estuary should be known as Shadegan lagoon.
Ramsar Convention is an international contract that was signed in 1971 to protect wetlands. A list of the world’s important wetlands is provided in this convention which is known as “Ramsar List”. Britain with 164 wetlands in quantity and Canada with 130 thousand square meters of wetland in extent are pioneers in the list. The permanent headquarter of the convention is in Gland, Switzerland. It is said that building dams and not meeting wetland water needs, draining contaminated wastewaters like that in sugarcane fields, breeding fish and steel in Khuzestan, passage of oil pipes, activities of 30 petrochemical units and disposal of urban garbage have entered this unique wetland in red list of international wetlands (Montro List) since 1372.
The water from this wetland which used to be in world rank five according to previous records of UNESCO is supplied by Persian Gulf tides which according the seasonality of its fresh water, the salty water of the wetland is permanent due to its attachment to the estuaries and the Persian Gulf.
