The idea to establish a regional centre was first conceived in 2005 as a legacy for Uganda’s hosting of the 9th Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar COP9). RAMCEA is a regional initiative established under Article 5 of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and endorsed at the 10thConference of the Contracting Parties held in Changwon Republic of Korea in 2008. The Centre started its operations in 2009 and is hosted by the Wetlands Management Department in the Ministry of Water and Environment of the Republic of Uganda.
The Centre initially covers the five countries of the East African Community namely: Republic of Kenya, United Republic of Tanzania, Republic of Rwanda, Republic of Burundi, and Republic of Uganda, but will seek to establish links with other interested relevant Contracting Parties and non-Contracting Parties’ in the region such as Djibouti, South Sudan and Ethiopia.
RAMCEA will also seek to have links to other African regional and sub-regional wetland initiatives such as the Lake Victoria Basin Commission, Nile Basin Initiative, The Centre for African Wetlands of Accra Ghana, Kenya Wildlife Service Training Institute Naivasha and the network for wetland professionals based in UNESCO-IHE (Delft).
