RAS question
The Ramsar Convention was signed in which year and in which country?
Correct answer: (D) 1971, Iran.
The Ramsar Convention on wetlands was signed on 2 February 1971 at Ramsar in Iran.
Explanation
The Ramsar Convention is formally the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat. The UNESCO legal record gives its date and place of adoption as 2 February 1971, Ramsar, Iran, and the convention text itself says it was done at Ramsar on that date. This is why the correct pairing is 1971 and Iran, not a later environmental summit or protocol. The existing exam explanation also flags its significance: it is the oldest of the modern intergovernmental environmental agreements, and India joined it in 1982. For RAS, the trap is usually chronological: Ramsar belongs to the early phase of global environmental treaty-making, before Montreal 1987 and Rio 1992.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) 1987 and Canada point to the Montreal Protocol, whereas the Ramsar Convention was signed in 1971 at Ramsar in Iran.
- (B) 1992 and Brazil refer to the Rio Earth Summit, not the Ramsar Convention, whose adoption is recorded as 2 February 1971 in Iran.
- (C) 1975 is the year the Convention entered into force, and the place was Ramsar in Iran, not India.
Concept
This tests international environmental conventions: their dates, venues, and treaty purposes. It recurs in RAS because wetlands, biodiversity conservation, and treaty chronology are standard Environment and Ecology facts.