Wetlands are a vital component of the freshwater cycle. Their conservation and sustainable use must be an integral part of any solution of the freshwater crisis. Wetlands are the provider of freshwater, both in quantity and quality, so maintaining healthy freshwater wetlands means securing water supply. Many other resources and services provided by our freshwater wetlands go well beyond freshwater supply, providing the basis for sustainable livelihoods in rural areas and thus a part of the solution to rural poverty

Wetlands are both providers and users of freshwater. As freshwater allocation becomes a challenging issue of national governments in their search for the elusive balance between agricultural, industrial and domestic demands for water, it must emphasized that wetlands need water if they are to maintain their structure and function. If they are to continue to deliver freshwater and contribute to sustainable lifestyles, they too need to be "allocated" water, and as a first priority.

According to RAMSAR Convention

What are Wetlands: Wetlands are areas where water is the primary factor controlling the environment and the associated plant and animal life. They occur where the water table is at or near the surface of the land, or where the land is covered by shallow water. The Ramsar Convention takes a broad approach in determining the wetlands which come under its aegis. Under the text of the Convention (Article 1.1), wetlands are defined as:

"areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six metres".

In addition, the Convention (Article 2.1) provides that wetlands:

"may incorporate riparian and coastal zones adjacent to the wetlands, and islands or bodies of marine water deeper than six metres at low tide lying within the wetlands".

As a result of these provisions, the coverage of the Convention extends to 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 occur in every country, from the tundra to the tropics. How much of the earth’s surface is presently composed of wetlands is not known exactly. The World Conservation Monitoring Centre has suggested an estimate of about 570 million hectares (5.7 million km2) – roughly 6% of the Earth’s land surface – of which 2% are lakes, 30% bogs, 26% fens, 20% swamps, and 15% floodplains. Mitsch and Gosselink, in their standard textbook Wetlands, 3d ed. (2000), suggest 4 to 6% of the Earth's land surface. Mangroves cover some 240,000 km2 of coastal area, and an estimated 600,000km2 of coral reefs remain worldwide. Nevertheless, a global review of wetland resources submitted to the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Wetlands in 1999, while affirming that "it is not possible to provide an acceptable figure of the areal extent of wetlands at a global scale", indicated a ‘best’ minimum global estimate at between 748 and 778 million hectares. The same report indicated that this "minimum" could be increased to a total of between 999 and 4,462 million hectares when other sources of information were taken into account.

Why conserve wetlands?

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 fresh water. 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.

More and more economists and other scientists are working in the field of the valuation of ecosystem services. This is a difficult task, still full of uncertainties, but there is no other choice than to progress in this direction. Some recent studies have indicated that ecosystems provide at least US$ 33 trillion worth of services annually, of which US$ 4.9 trillion are attributed to wetlands.

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, for example: water storage; storm protection and flood mitigation; shoreline stabilization and erosion control; groundwater recharge (the movement of water from the wetland down into the underground aquifer); groundwater discharge (the movement of water upward to become surface water in a wetland); water purification through retention of nutrients, sediments, and pollutants; and stabilization of local climate conditions, particularly rainfall and temperature.

Wetland Values & Functions

Wetlands provide tremendous economic benefits, for example: water supply (quantity and quality); fisheries (over two thirds of the world’s fish harvest is linked to the health of coastal and inland wetland areas); agriculture, through the maintenance of water tables and nutrient retention in floodplains; timber production; energy resources, such as peat and plant matter; wildlife resources; transport; and recreation and tourism opportunities.

In addition, wetlands have special attributes as part of the cultural heritage of humanity: they are related to religious and cosmological beliefs, constitute a source of aesthetic inspiration, provide wildlife sanctuaries, and form the basis of important local traditions.

These functions, values and attributes can only be maintained if the ecological processes of wetlands are allowed to continue functioning. Unfortunately, and in spite of important progress made in recent decades, wetlands continue to be among the world’s most threatened ecosystems, owing mainly to ongoing drainage, conversion, pollution, and over-exploitation of their resources.

More about Wetlands | Criteria for Identifying Wetlands | CEPA Programme