Protecting Wetlands: Safeguarding Biodiversity, Water Resources, And Cultural Heritage |
The world is suffering social, economic, and environmental hardship resulting from the destruction and mismanagement of natural resources, including wetlands and water resources. This destruction, which continues at alarming rates, is contributing to escalating poverty, water supply issues, and food security problems, as well as depriving the planet of the biological diversity with which wetlands are endowed. Its causes are multiple, ranging from local actions and national policies to global issues.
Wetlands, as defined by the Ramsar Convention, cover a wide variety of habitat types, including rivers and lakes, coastal lagoons, mangroves, peatlands, and even coral reefs. In addition, there are human-made wetlands such as fish and shrimp ponds, farm ponds, irrigated agricultural land, salt pans, reservoirs, gravel pits, sewage farms, and canals.
Wetlands are among the world's most productive environments. They are cradles of biological diversity, providing the water and primary productivity upon which countless species of plants and animals depend for survival. They support high concentrations of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrate species. Of the 20,000 species of fish in the world, more than 40% live in freshwater. Wetlands are also important storehouses of plant genetic material. Rice, for example, which is a common wetland plant, is the staple diet of more than half of humanity.
The interactions of physical, biological, and chemical components of a wetland, such as soils, water, plants, and animals, enable the wetland to perform many vital functions. These include water storage, storm protection and flood mitigation, shoreline stabilisation and erosion control, groundwater recharge and discharge, water purification through retention of nutrients, sediments, and pollutants, and the stabilisation of local climate conditions, particularly........