Golden Jubilee Year of
Ramsar Convention on Wetlands
Wetlands are areas where water is the primary factor controlling the environment and the associated plant and animal lives. They occur where the water table is at or near the surface of the land, or where the land is covered by water. Wetlands are currently protected under different designations, including the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the UNESCO Man and Biosphere Programme and others.
Theme: "Wetlands and Water
The theme for World Wetlands Day 2021 is wetlands and water. It emphasizes the importance of wetland as a "Source of freshwater and encourages action to restore them and stop their loss". This year's theme of World wetlands Day is most significant as the UN Decades of Ocean Science and Ecosystem Restoration begins in 2021.
Ramsar ConservationThe Conservation on Wetlands is an intergovernmental treaty adopted on 2 February 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar, on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea. The day is celebrated annually as World Wetlands Day(first observed in 1997). It is the oldest convention to preserve the ecological character of selected wetlands across the globe and it came in to force on 1975.
The convention's headquarters is in Gland, Switzerland, and it works closely with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. On the 2nd of February 2021, the convention on Wetlands, also known as the Ramsar Convention, celebrated its 50th anniversary.
Ramsar is the first of the modern multilateral environmental agreements on the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, and compared with more recent ones, its provisions are relatively straight forward.
In addition, there are human-made wetlands such as fish and shrimp ponds, farm ponds, irrigated agricultural land including rice paddies, salt pans, dams, reservoirs, gravel pits, Wastewater treatment ponds and canals.
The Ramsar Convention has adopted a Ramsar Classification of Wetland Type which include 42 types, grouped into three categories:
1) Marine and Coastal Wetlands
2) Inland Wetlands
3) Human-made Wetlands
Need of Wetlands for a Healthy Planet
The ability of wetlands is to adapt to changing conditions will be crucial to human communities and wild life everywhere as the full impact of climate change on our ecosystem lifelines is felt.
- 40% of the world's species live or breed in wetlands
- Wetlands are "nurseries of life"-40% of animals breed in wetlands.
- Wetlands are "kidneys of the earth"- they clean the polluted environment.
- Wetlands "matter for climate change"- they store 30% of land-based carbon
- Wetlands "minimize disaster ricks"- they absorb storm surge.
Types of Wetlands
Wetlands are now recognized as ecosystems that are vital for biodiversity conservation, as well as for sustainable development, thus fulfilling the full scope of the Convention text. Following are the major wetland types;
Marine
Coastal wetlands, including coastal lagoons, rocky shores, sea grass beds and coral reefs.
Estuarine
Including deltas, tidal marshes and mudflats, and mangrove swamps.
Lacustrine
Wetlands associated with lakes.
Riverine
Wetlands along rivers and streams.
Palustrine
meaning "marshy"- marshes, swamps and bogs.
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