The World Wetlands Day theme for 2012 is Wetlands and Tourism and is linked to the theme for the next meeting of the Conference of the Parties, COP11: Wetlands, Tourism and Recreation, which will take place in July 2012, in Bucharest, Romania.

World Wetlands Day 2012 will be the warm-up for the strong focus on tourism at COP11 – a chance for us to help all our WWD actors focus their attention on tourism in and around wetlands. WWD 2012 is an opportunity to use the campaign Wetlands and Tourism to look at the value of your local wetlands from the perspectives of tourists and local community members, and to examine the benefits of sustainable tourism on wetland ecosystems.

How can tourists contribute to local economies, conservation goals, education and raise awareness about the benefits of wetlands?
How can recreation encourage conservation?
How can local NGOs partner with wetlands managers for best practices to maintain or increase biodiversity and ecosystem health?
How many ways can wetlands managers and tourism planners integrate sustainable tourism and recreation into well-managed wetlands?