Wetland Cities gathered in Tata, Hungary for the 4th Roundtable of Wetland City Mayors held on 27-29 November 2025. The annual event was organized by the Tata City government, in cooperation with the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture and the Ramsar Regional Center – East Asia (RRC-EA) / Wetland City Network Secretariat. More than 100 representatives of Wetland Cities, national and local government offices, international and national non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, and wetland stakeholders participated in the event. These included the mayors, vice mayors and officials of 18 Wetland Cities from nine countries in Asia and Europe.
The three-day event kicked off with opening remarks delivered by foreign and Hungarian dignitaries: Member of Parliament for the Tata Basin, Mayor of Tata, Deputy Prime Minister of Hungary, Member of the Hungarian National Committee for the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, Deputy Secretary General of the Convention on Wetlands, and RRC-EA Executive Director. After the ceremony, participants observed the arrival of wild geese and joined dinner with local cultural performances.
The plenary session featured keynote and plenary speakers representing the Independent Advisory Committee (IAC) for Wetland City Accreditation, Hungarian Ministries of Agriculture and Energy, National Water Directorate of Hungary, BirdLife Hungary, Ramsar France Association, and Scientific and Technical Review Panel of the Convention on Wetlands.
Four breakout sessions were organized in various locations in Tata which covered topics on: (1) Promotion and Branding of Wetland Cities, (2) Wetland Education, (3) Public-Private Partnership, and (4) Wetlands and Climate Change. Session Chairs and rapporteurs facilitated the breakout sessions designed to highlight case studies of selected Wetland Cities. Members of the IAC, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and Hungarian Ramsar Committee served as session moderators. Officials from the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment of the Republic of Korea; Ministry of Agriculture of Hungary; and Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Geneva assumed the same role.
The meeting proper took place at the Town Hall of Tata, where Wetland City Mayors discussed network operations, endorsed new guidelines for selecting and hosting roundtables, and confirmed Valdivia (Chile) and Mechelen (Belgium) as hosts of the 6th and 7th Roundtable of Wetland City Mayors, respectively.
During the closing ceremony, Tata (Hungary) passed the ceremonial flag to the next host of the mayors’ roundtable, Niigata (Japan). The ceremony was followed by an international cultural program and gala dinner.
The 25th Tata Wild Goose Festival marked a significant milestone in the city’s history. The event coincided with the field program of the roundtable and helped further raise the profile of Tata as a globally recognized local government. During the festival, speakers from the Secretariat of the Convention on Wetlands, Wetland Cities and IAC Members delivered presentations on their advocacy for the wise use of wetlands. The Wetland City Network Secretariat also arranged bilateral meetings among participating Wetland Cities.
