Ghar el Melh, Africa’s First Ramsar Accredited City

Tunisia’s Ghar el Melh lagoon, located in Bizerte, Tunisia, is a Wetland of International Importance and home to a relatively unique Mediterranean wetlands ecosystem. The city of Ghar el Melh – an Arabic name meaning, “the cave of salt” – has a unique natural and cultural heritage based largely around the resources the wetlands provide. It was declared Africa’s first Ramsar City in 2018, four years before Cape Town, along with Ifrane in Morocco and the wetlands of Kigali, Rwanda, received similar accreditation in 2022.

One of the goals of Wetland City accreditation, which is a voluntary system that encourages cities to value their natural or human-made wetlands, is to build international recognition and positive publicity for a city’s efforts to support conservation wetlands.

Urbanisation poses particular threats to the health of wetlands. Anyone familiar with South Africa’s most built-up Ramsar Site, Zeekoevlei, the largest seasonal wetland of the Cape Flats, will know the struggles associated with keeping this body of water clear of pollutants including sewage. Similarly, with greater intensity in the last 10 years, Tunisia’s Ghar el Mehl lagoon has suffered from intensive development pressures whose impact is also exacerbated by climate change and the heating of the Mediterranean Sea. Urgent efforts are underway to save this precious ecosystem and the vital services it provides to local communities.

There are many lessons to share between Ghar el Mehl and Cape Town. Both places have a lot of work to do to boost the recognition of coastal wetlands’ many social, cultural, economic, and environmental benefits, and of the threats affecting them. In both cities, key policy processes are needed to support their effective and sustainable use, management and conservation. And citizens in each city need support to be actively engaged with their cities’ wetlands.

An exciting collaboration has been formed between Mycelium Network members based in Cape Town and Ghar el Mehl, and we’ll be bringing you more on this story in the coming months.