145 articles
Khor Abu Habil Inner Delta
Khor Abu Habil Inner Delta: Sudanese inland wetland (Ramsar Site no. 2485, 946,409 ha, designated 10 April 2022) 400 km southwest of Khartoum, formed by a seasonal river from the Nuba Mountains, with mayas pools and migratory waterbirds.
Lagoon
Lagoon: a shallow body of water separated from the sea or ocean by a barrier; two types, atoll lagoons inside coral rings and coastal lagoons behind sand barriers, with salinity from fresh to hypersaline.
Laguna de Llancanelo
Laguna de Llancanelo, Ramsar site 759 in Malargüe, Mendoza, Argentina, is an endorheic saline wetland designated in 1995 and extended to 91,365 ha in 2020, famed for over 100,000 waterbirds and Chilean flamingos.
Laguna de Tamiahua
Laguna de Tamiahua, a shallow coastal lagoon in northern Veracruz, Mexico; Ramsar site 1596 (2005), 88,000 ha, third largest coastal lagoon in Mexico, with major mangrove forests, oyster fisheries, and protected turtles, fish, and seahorses.
Lake Argyle
Lake Argyle, Western Australia's largest and Australia's second-largest freshwater lake, is an Ord River reservoir created by the Argyle Dam (opened 1972), storing 11,000,000 megalitres for irrigation, hydroelectricity, and the Ramsar-listed Lakes Argyle and Kununurra wetlands.
Lake Burullus
Lake Burullus (بحيرة البرلس), Egypt's second-largest coastal lagoon in the Nile Delta, a hypereutrophic Ramsar wetland fed by agricultural drains, connected to the Mediterranean through the narrow El-Boughaz inlet, and under rehabilitation since 2018.
Lake Ellesmere / Te Waihora
Lake Ellesmere / Te Waihora, also called Te Waihora, is a shallow, brackish coastal lake-lagoon in Canterbury, New Zealand, separated from the sea by Kaitorete Spit.
Lake Galilee (Queensland)
Lake Galilee is a 29,659-hectare intermittent, internally draining lake in the Desert Uplands of central Queensland, part of the Lake Eyre Basin, a DIWA nationally important wetland and Key Biodiversity Area supporting up to 10,000 pelicans.
Lake Kaņieris
Lake Kaņieris (Kaņiera ezers) is a shallow lagoon-origin lake in Ķemeri National Park, Latvia; 1,122 ha, 13th largest in Latvia, Ramsar site since 1995, rich in birds and pike.
Lake Macquarie (New South Wales)
Lake Macquarie (Awaba) is a large coastal saltwater lake on the Hunter coast of New South Wales, Australia, just south of Newcastle and about 90 km north of Sydney.
Lake Maracaibo
Lake Maracaibo (Lago de Maracaibo), Venezuela's large brackish estuary and South America's largest lake, heart of the country's oil industry since 1914, now heavily affected by oil spills and eutrophication.
Lake Wairarapa
Lake Wairarapa, also part of Wairarapa Moana, is a shallow 7,850 ha freshwater lake in the southern North Island of New Zealand, the Wellington Region's largest lake, supertrophic, protected by a 1989 water conservation order and a 2020 Ramsar designation.
Lake Warden system
Lake Warden system, a Ramsar-listed (7 June 1990) complex of saline lakes and marshes near Esperance, Western Australia, covering about 1,999 ha, important for hooded plover, chestnut teal and 25 migratory waterbird species.
Lakes Argyle and Kununurra
Lakes Argyle and Kununurra: Ramsar-listed artificial freshwater wetlands on the Ord River in the East Kimberley, Western Australia, formed by the 1963 Diversion Dam and 1972 Argyle Dam; Lake Argyle is Australia's second-largest freshwater lake and a major freshwater crocodile and waterbird refuge.
Lätäseno-Hietajoki Mires
Lätäseno-Hietajoki Mires (Lätäsenon-Hietajoen suot), Ramsar Site 1520 in Enontekiö, Lapland: a 43,367 ha palsa mire and river complex protected since 1988, part of Käsivarren erämaa Natura 2000 area.
Little Waterhouse Lake
Little Waterhouse Lake is a 56-hectare Ramsar wetland site (Site No. 260, listed 16 November 1982) in northeast Tasmania: a brackish coastal freshwater lagoon between dunes, home to dwarf galaxias, green and gold frog, and rare clubsedges.
Logan Lagoon
Logan Lagoon (Ramsar site no. 252) is a 2,257-hectare coastal estuarine wetland on Flinders Island, Tasmania, listed 16 November 1982; a migratory shorebird refuge meeting Ramsar criteria 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6.
Luangwa Flood Plains
Luangwa Flood Plains: 250,000 ha Ramsar site (no. 1660, designated 2 February 2007) in Eastern Province, Zambia, along the unregulated Luangwa River; spans South Luangwa, North Luangwa, and Luambe national parks and three game management areas, with over 50 mammal and 400 bird species.
Macquarie Marshes
Macquarie Marshes: ~200,000 ha intermittently flooded wetland complex on the lower Macquarie River, NSW, Australia; Ramsar-listed (19,850 ha, 1986/2000/2012); degraded by river regulation since Burrendong Dam (1967).
Mai Po Marshes (米埔湿地)
Mai Po Marshes (米埔湿地) are a 380-hectare wetland nature reserve at Inner Deep Bay, Hong Kong, managed by WWF since 1983, Ramsar-listed in 1995, famed for gei wai shrimp ponds, mangroves, and wintering waterbirds including the black-faced spoonbill.
Marais poitevin
Marais poitevin is a man-made wetland in western France, reclaimed from the former Gulf of Pictons; at about 100,000 hectares it is France's second largest wetland.
Marismas Nacionales
Marismas Nacionales: Mexican Pacific wetland complex in Sinaloa and Nayarit; Ramsar site 732 (1995, 200,000 ha) and Nayarit Biosphere Reserve (2010); seven rivers, vast mangroves, and hundreds of thousands of migratory birds.
Marsh Island
Marsh Island, Louisiana: a ~71,000-acre brackish marsh island in Iberia Parish between Vermilion Bay and the Gulf, donated by Margaret Sage in 1920 and managed by LDWF as a wildlife refuge.
Martimoaapa - Lumiaapa - Penikat Mires
Martimoaapa-Lumiaapa-Penikat Mires, also called Martimoaapa mire reserve, is a 14,086 ha Ramsar site no. 11 and Natura 2000 SAC/SPA in Simo and Keminmaa, Sea Lapland, Finland, designated in 1974, established as a mire reserve in 1981, with nearly 100 nesting bird species.
Medicine Lake Wetland Management District
Medicine Lake Wetland Management District, officially the Northeast Montana Wetland Management District, is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service unit protecting waterfowl habitat in northeastern Montana.
Mesopotamian Marshes (أهوار العراق)
The Mesopotamian Marshes (أهوار العراق), also called the Iraqi Marshlands or Ahwar, are a large wetland system in southern Iraq where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers meet, the largest freshwater wetland in the Middle East.
Muddus National Park
Muddus National Park (Sámi: Muttos), Norrbotten, Sweden: 49,340-ha national park founded 1942, Sweden's largest forest national park, with 700-year-old pines, the 42 m Muddus Waterfall, and Laponia World Heritage membership since 1996.
Muir-Byenup System
Muir-Byenup System, Ramsar site 1050 in south-west Western Australia near Manjimup: a 10,631-hectare complex of lakes and peat swamps, listed 2001, important for waterbirds, endemic fish and threatened orchids.
Nal Sarovar Bird Sanctuary
Nal Sarovar Bird Sanctuary (Nalsarovar, નાળ સરોવર) is a 12,000-hectare shallow freshwater lake and Ramsar site (no. 2078, designated 2012) in Gujarat, India, the largest natural wetland of the Thar Desert province and a Central Asia Flyway stopover hosting over 200 bird species.
Neiriz Lakes & Kamjan Marshes
Neiriz Lakes & Kamjan Marshes (Neyriz Lakes and Kamjan Marshes), Ramsar site no. 39 in Fars, Iran, designated 1975: saline Lakes Bakhtegan and Tashk plus freshwater Kamjan Marshes, 108,000 ha, on the Montreux Record since 1990 and shrinking from drainage, dams, and drought.