Biodiversity & Environment
World Wetlands Day
- 03 Feb 2020
- 4 min read
Why in News
- World Wetlands Day is celebrated every year on the 2nd of February. This day marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar.
- The theme for 2020 is ‘Wetlands and Biodiversity’.
- It was first celebrated in 1997.
Wetlands
- Wetlands are ecosystems saturated with water, either seasonally or permanently. They include mangroves, marshes, rivers, lakes, deltas, floodplains and flooded forests, rice-fields, coral reefs, marine areas no deeper than 6 metres at low tide, as well as human-made wetlands such as waste-water treatment ponds and reservoirs.
- Though they cover only around 6% of the Earth’s land surface, 40% of all plant and animal species live or breed in wetlands.
Significance of Wetlands
- Wetlands are a critical part of our natural environment. They mitigate floods, protect coastlines and build community resilience to disasters, reduce the impacts of floods, absorb pollutants and improve water quality.
- Wetlands are critical to human and planet life. More than 1 billion people depend on them for a living and 40% of the world’s species live and breed in wetlands.
- They are a vital source for food, raw materials, genetic resources for medicines, and hydropower.
- 30% of land-based carbon is stored in peatland.
- They play an important role in transport, tourism and the cultural and spiritual well-being of people.
- Many wetlands are areas of natural beauty and many are important to Aboriginal people.
Threats
- As per the IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services)’s global assessment wetlands are the most threatened ecosystem.
- Wetlands are disappearing 3 times faster than forests due to human activities and global warming.
- According to UNESCO, the threat to wetlands will have an adverse impact on 40% of the world’s flora and fauna that live or breed in wetlands.
- Major threats: Agriculture, development, pollution and climate change.
IPBES
- IPBES is an independent intergovernmental body established to strengthen the science-policy interface for biodiversity and ecosystem services for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, long-term human well-being and sustainable development.
- It was established in Panama City (US), in April 2012.
- It is not a United Nations body.
Status of Wetlands in India
- Recently, the Ramsar Convention declared 10 wetlands from India as Ramsar sites taking the total number of Ramsar Sites in the country to 37.
- Wetlands declared as Ramsar sites are protected under strict guidelines of the convention.
- There are currently over 2,300 Ramsar Sites around the world.
- India has over 7 lakh wetlands, covering 4.5% of the country’s area, yet none of the wetlands has been notified under domestic laws.
- Wetlands are regulated under the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017.
- The 2010 version of the Rules provided for a Central Wetland Regulatory Authority, but new Rules of 2017 replaced it with state-level bodies and created a National Wetland Committee, which functions in an advisory role.
- The newer regulations removed some items from the definition of “wetlands” including backwaters, lagoons, creeks, and estuaries.
- Under the 2017 regulations process to identify the wetlands has been delegated to the States.
