World Wetland Day is celebrated on 2nd February yearly to celebrate wetlands and advocate for their conservation. This day was first celebrated in 1997 after the Ramsar Convention officiated the day. World Wetlands Day is an attempt to help world leaders realize the significance of these land masses and spread awareness about them.
World Wetlands Day is celebrated to spread awareness about wetlands and their importance to the environment. Wetlands are known for being biologically diverse when compared to other landforms and therefore, require conservation. For the preservation of these land masses, spreading public awareness about them is also important. World Wetland Day aims to spread the word about wetlands and the fascinating vegetation that they house.
What are Wetlands?
Wetlands are areas of land covered with water at least seasonally, providing habitat for a vast diversity of plants and animals. They come in many shapes and sizes - from large lakes to marshes, swamps, rivers, and flooded forests.
Importance of Wetlands
● Storing carbon and regulating the effects of climate change
● Filtering pollutants out of waterways
● Reducing flood risk by holding back water
● Recharging groundwater supplies
● Providing food, medicine, and materials
● Supporting local livelihoods through fishing and tourism
● Offering opportunities for recreation such as birdwatching or boating.
Wetland Day Significance
● Wetlands can be found on every continent except Antarctica. They are incredibly diverse and vary widely in size, type, and location.
● Some wetlands occur naturally, but people have created many more through drainage or filling.
● The Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance now includes 2433 sites covering over 250 million hectares!
● Wetlands are also called the "kidneys of the landscape" because they filter sediments and pollutants from water.
● Healthy wetlands act like sponges that absorb floodwaters and slowly release them into streams and rivers.
● Wetlands help reduce erosion, provide natural water filtration and minimize damage caused by storms.
● Their preservation is essential for maintaining biodiversity
Wetlands around the World
Some of the most important wetlands in the world are:-
Pantanal: The Pantanal is the world's largest wetland among all kinds of wetlands. They are lying mostly in Western Brazil and also extend into Bolivia and Paraguay.
Sundarbans: Sundarbans are the largest littoral mangrove belt in the world. It has spread across Bangladesh and West Bengal of India.
Okavango Delta: Okavango Delta, is one of the great inland waterways found in Botswana.
Everglades: Everglades are a vast, shallow, slow-moving river of grass. They extended Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay, and are located in the state of Florida.
Kerala Backwaters: Lying parallel to the Arabian Sea coast in the Kerala state in southern India, these are a chain of lagoons and lakes.
Kakadu Wetlands: Kakadu National Park or Kakadu Wetlands are located in the Northern Territory of Australia.
Mekong Delta: The Mekong Delta is a region located in southern Vietnam.
iSimangaliso Wetland Park: This Wetland Park previously known as Greater St. Lucia Wetlands Park, is located in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province.
Wasur National Park: Wasur National Park is the gigantic wetland region in the Indonesian province of Papua, on the island of New Guinea.
The Camargue: The Camargue circumscribes the Rhone River delta in the southeast of France.
Some other important wetlands in the world include Kafue Flats, Danube Delta, The Sudd, WWT Caerlaverock, Kopački Rit, Mesopotamia Marshes, and Marais Poitevin.
Flora and Fauna found in Wetlands
There are many plants and animals (flora and fauna) which have wetlands as their habitats. These flora and fauna include a number of rare and endangered species. The flora that grows in wetlands provides shelter from predators for prey species and nesting areas for birds, while the water gives fish and shellfish a place to spawn. There are a number of animals which spend their whole shelter life in the wetlands, on the other hand, there are numerous animals which are called obligate species -- need to visit the wetlands to breed or raise offspring.
FLORA
There are three types of plants which grow in the wetlands:
a) emergent plants, which make up the majority of wetland plants.
b) plants that float on the water’s surface, and
c) submerged plants that grow underwater
Plants which can be found in bogs and fens are evergreen trees and shrubs, along with thick mats of sphagnum moss and species of carnivorous plants. Cyprus live in freshwater and mangrove trees live in saltwater swamps. The freshwater marshes contain grasses, wildflowers and shrubs, while saltwater marshes contain rushes.
FAUNA
There are a variety of animals that make their home in wetland habitat ranging from mammals, reptiles and amphibians to invertebrates. Mammals which might live in wetlands include: beavers, otters, bobcats, deer, minks, and muskrats. Reptiles and amphibians that live in wetlands are Alligators, snakes, turtles, newts and salamanders. Invertebrates, such as crayfish, shrimp, mosquitoes, snails and dragonflies, also live in wetlands, along with birds including plover, grouse, storks, herons and other waterfowl.
Benefits of wetlands
1. Improved Water Quality. Wetlands can intercept runoff from surfaces prior to reaching open water and remove pollutants through physical, chemical, and biological processes.
2. Erosion Control. Riparian wetlands, salt marshes, and marshes located at the margin of lakes protect shorelines and stream banks from erosion. The roots of wetland plants hold soil in place and can reduce the velocity of the stream or river currents.
3. Water Supply. Wetlands can positively impact water supply, serving as reservoirs for the watershed and releasing retained water into surface water and groundwater.
4. Habitat Enhancement. Wetlands can enhance habitat for game and nongame species.
WHY THEY ARE IN DANGER?
® Wetlands are among the ecosystems with the highest rates of decline, loss and degradation.
® Indicators of current negative trends in global biodiversity and ecosystem functions are projected to continue in response to direct and indirect drivers including the adverse impacts of climate change.
® Wetlands are disappearing three times faster than forests and are Earth’s most threatened ecosystem. In just 50 years — since 1970 — 35% of the world’s wetlands have been lost.
LAWS FOR PROTECTING WETLANDS: -
“CONVENTION ON WETLANDS OF INTERNATIONAL IMPORTANCE ESPECIALLY AS WATERFOWL HABITAT”- A protocol amended by UNESCO includes several contracting parties and different countries which come forward with their initiatives to conserve and develop WETLANDS by considering the following:
The Contracting Parties,
RECOGNIZING the interdependence of man and his environment;
CONSIDERING the fundamental ecological functions of wetlands as regulators of water régimes and as habitats supporting a characteristic flora and fauna, especially waterfowl
BEING CONVINCED that wetlands constitute a resource of great economic, cultural, scientific and recreational value, the loss of which would be irreparable;
DESIRING to stem the progressive encroachment on and loss of wetlands now and in the future;
RECOGNIZING that waterfowl in their seasonal migrations may transcend frontiers and so should be regarded as an international resource;
BEING CONFIDENT that the conservation of wetlands and their flora and fauna can be ensured by combining far-sighted national policies with coordinated international action.
There are several more important initiatives taken up by different countries in the world, to conserve wetlands. However, it depends on the extent to which those laws are implemented so as to see the desired uplifting developmental changes in wetlands growth and conservation.
FEW EXAMPLES: -
(1) WETLAND RESTORATION is the manipulation of a former or degraded wetland's physical, chemical, or biological characteristics to return its natural functions. Restoration practices include Re-establishment, the rebuilding of a former wetland; and Rehabilitation, repairing the functions of a degraded wetland. The above definition is provided by the US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency).
® In addition to restoring compromised wetlands, VOLUNTARY PROTECTION OF NATURALLY OCCURRING WETLANDS is a valuable part of voluntary wetland restoration and protection adopted by the US EPA.
(2) “REVIVE AND RESTORE DEGRADED WETLANDS” is the theme for 2023 highlighting the importance of wetlands restoration, taken up by the United Nations.
An urgent call to take action and to invest financial, human and political capital is this year's appeal to save the world’s wetlands from disappearing altogether — and to restore those we have already lost.
(3) CHINA passed its FIRST WETLANDS PROTECTION LAW over a decade after the legislation was proposed, marking a major step in saving the country’s impaired ecosystem, sometimes referred to as “the Earth’s kidneys". The law came into effect on June 1, 2022, to protect, utilise, and restore wetlands, as well as specify the accountability of government departments and punishments for violations.
(4) THE UNION ENVIRONMENT MINISTRY OF INDIA has been working for the past 4 years to create a regulatory framework to protect the country’s wetlands. In June 2008, it framed rules to protect wetlands. The draft was criticized by lawyers, environmentalists, activists and people dependent on wetlands. In December 2010, the ministry revised the rules under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, and called them Wetlands (Management and Conservation) Rules, 2010. DOWN TO EARTH sought comments on the rules from people involved in conserving wetlands.
References:
● https://en.unesco.org/about-us/legal-affairs/convention-wetlands-international-importance-especially-waterfowl-habitat
● https://www.epa.gov/wetlands/basic-information-about-wetland-restoration-and-protection
● https://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/towards-wetland-conservation-33192
● https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1009321/chinas-first-wetland-protection-law-aims-to-save-fragile-ecosystem
● https://www.un.org/en/observances/world-wetlands-day
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