12 February 2012: The Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands has reported that the Government of the Netherlands has designated four new coastal and near-coastal Wetlands of International Importance on the Netherlands Antilles island of Curaçao, in the Leeward Antilles, bringing the total number of sites for this country to 53.

According to the Ramsar Secretariat, the four sites are Important Bird Areas. The first site, Malpais/Sint Michiel, features two freshwater lakes and the hyper-saline St. Michiel lagoon that is connected to a bay. The site provides refugee for various birds, including IUCN Red Listed species, as well as species protected under the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS). The site, which plays a role in groundwater recharge, is threatened by the landfill and runoff from a pig farm situated in its vicinity.

The second site, Muizenberg, has an intermittent shallow lake and supports a species that is near-threatened under the IUCN Red List, a species conserved under CMS, as well as resident and migrant waterbirds. The Muizenberg dam is the largest freshwater reservoir on the island and is designated as a Natural Park. Threats to the site include illegal dumping of garbage, pollution, drainage of surrounding wetlands and recreational disturbance.

The third site, Northwest Curaçao, comprises a great variety of ecosystems such as coral reefs, coastal lagoons, freshwater dams, natural springs and dry deciduous shrublands. The site includes parts of the Shete Boka and Christoffel Natural Parks and provides nesting and foraging sites for threatened sea turtle species.

The fourth site, Rif-Sint Marie, consists of a salt mash surrounded by mud flats, shrubland and forests. It supports flamingos and several waterbirds. The site also provides habitat for various threatened coral species, endangered turtle species and threatened fish. The site is threatened by recreational disturbances.

The Netherlands’ designations contribute to one of the goals contained in the Ramsar Convention’s Strategic Plan for 2009-2015, which is to reach a protected area of 250 million hectares by 2015. [Ramsar Press Release]