The 2nd February 2011 marked the fortieth anniversary of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, which was signed in the town of Ramsar in Iran on that date. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands seeks to achieve the conservation and rational use of the 42 different types of wetlands as key assets for different sectors including agriculture and food security, forestry, energy, water supply, health, rural and urban settlements, industry, tourism, fauna, trade and transport, all of which contribute to sustainable socio-economic development.