By Ken Mwathe
On 2nd February every year, the world celebrates World Wetlands Day to raise awareness about conservation of wetlands and spotlight their value. This year’s campaign theme is Protecting wetlands for our common future highlighting the critical role of these ecosystems, and the need to protect them.
Although they cover about 6% of the earth’s land surface area, wetlands including rivers, lakes, floodplains, swamps, marshes and inland deltas among others are critical ecosystems.
About 40% of all plants and animal species including birds live or breed at these sites. Further, wetlands play a crucial role in combating climate change, through absorbing huge amounts of carbon, providing essential ecosystem services like flood control and water regulation. Crucially, wetlands support the livelihoods of more than one billion people across the world.
However, wetlands are disappearing at an alarming rate. It is estimated that the world has lost about 35% per cent of these critical ecosystems since the 1970s negatively impacting species including birds. Various factors including pollution, agricultural and infrastructure developments in addition to climate change are threatening wetlands.
In the Sahel region, for instance Lake Chad, bordering Niger, Chad, Nigeria, and Cameroon has shrunk by over 90%, from 26,000 square kilometers in the 1960s, to less than 1,500 square kilometers today.
Thus, protecting and restoring wetlands is critical. One of the ways through which this can be done is through collaboration and partnerships. A good example of such collaboration is in Asia’s East Asian Australasian Flyway which stretches from Siberia and Alaska to New Zealand and Australia.
In 2021, BirdLife International, in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the East Asian Australasian Flyway Partnership Secretariat (EAAFP), launched a $3 billion Regional Flyway Initiative (RFI). The initiative aims at protection and restoration of more than 50 key wetlands sites along the Flyway which are important sites for millions of migratory birds, in addition to supporting livelihoods of millions of people through fisheries and agriculture among others.
Equally important is the need for concerted efforts from various stakeholders including local communities, policy and decision makers to identify and implement relevant solutions to conserve these critical habitats.
From 23rd – 31st July 2025, Zimbabwe will host the 15th Conference of Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, which provides a good platform for policy makers to articulate to adopt resolutions for the protection of delicate ecosystems globally. These crucial discussions on conservation and sustainable use of wetlands including agreement on work programme for the next three years requires cooperation and coordination across national boundaries. As we celebrate World Wetlands Day, let us renew our efforts to protect these ecosystems for the present and future generations.
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The writer is the Policy, Climate and Communications Coordinator for Africa at BirdLife International, and can be reached on ken.mwathe@birdlife.org