Wetlands guarantee our existence but we have already lost 85% of them
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We have already significantly degraded nearly 90% of the world’s wetlandsUnep even calculates both more than 85% of lagoons, rivers, ponds, lakes, marshes and peat bogs have been lost, which continue to decline at three times the rate of forests. World Wetlands Day, which is celebrated today (on 2 February 1971 the Ramsar Convention was adopted for their protection), is therefore more important than ever to draw attention to ecosystems that host over 40% of the world’s animal and plant species. The importance of wetlands for biodiversity is immense, but if it were not enough to underline their value as a natural heritage, their economic value, because in no other ecosystem are the fates of people and nature so strongly intertwined.
The importance of wetlands
Indeed, wetlands offer many fundamental ecosystem services and are crucial for combating climate change. They are indispensable for the regulation of hydrogeological phenomena, since they mitigate the effects of river floods, favor the recharge of aquifers, are natural “nutrient traps”, reducing the organic load deriving above all from agricultural and livestock activities. Lagoons and coastal lakes are also important for thefish farming or the shellfish farming and are essential habitats for the reproduction of fish and consequently for the fishing. Wetlands are essential for the carbon fixation present in the biosphere, resulting in mitigation of the effects of climate change. Above all, as mentioned, there is the importance of wetlands for the biodiversity characteristic of these habitats, among the richest ever together with coral reefs and tropical forests.
Cop15 on biodiversity last December also set quantitative targets for the first time, within which wetlands have finally received the recognition they deserve, specifically mentioned together with other important habitats, such as forests and oceans, in important objectives on the protection and restoration of ecosystems. The next decade is widely recognized as humanity’s last chance to reverse ongoing lossesbuild a healthier relationship with nature and achieve the United Nations 2050 vision of “living in harmony with nature”, a vision within which wetlands have a central role.
The intervention
Drought transforms the life sources of amphibians into sludge of death
by Nicola Bressi*
Recovering, restoring and expanding wetlands is precisely the focus of this year’s world day, in accordance with the objectives of the United Nations decade on “Ecosystem restoration (2021-2030)”, of the European Strategy for biodiversity for 2030 and of the “Restoration Law” proposal now under discussion in Europe.
“After the great reclamations carried out between the second half of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, a further 35% of wetlands in the world has been lost in the last 50 years alone. – remember the WWF on the occasion of world day – This is an enormous loss that has put the biodiversity of these habitats in crisis: it is no coincidence that among the most threatened faunal groups there are freshwater mussels (bivalve molluscs), i freshwater crayfish (crustaceans), le dragonflies (odonati), i freshwater fish they amphibiansall groups closely linked to the fate of inland waters. Freshwater vertebrate populations plummeted by 83%“.
The situation in Italy
According to reports from Ispra, the wetlands of international importance recognized and included in the list of the Ramsar Convention for Italy are currently 57, distributed in 15 Regions, for a total of 73,982 hectares. In addition, Ministerial Decrees have been issued for the establishment of a further 9 areas and, at present, the procedure for international recognition is underway: the Ramsar zones in Italy designated will therefore be 66 and will overall cover an area of 77,856 hectares.
However, as Legambiente recalled, in addition to the wetlands established pursuant to the Ramsar Convention, all the wetlands of the country must be protected, since it is their whole that constitutes an ecological network essential for maintaining correct ecosystem balances. The Pan-Mediterranean Plan for the inventory of wetlands (which, however, dates back to 2011) had identified 1520 wetlands in our country and according to the environmental association, all these ecosystems should be subject to interventions for correct management, with attention to all possible implications, techniques and policies, along the lines of the National Biodiversity Strategy.
Actions to protect wetlands
In recent years in Italy, the WWF has been one of the most active associations for the protection of wetlands. Among the projects for redevelopment and protection that could be replicated in the rest of the country is the renaturation of the Po, which involves the recovery of many perifluvial wetlands, proposed by WWF and ANEPLA and included in the PNRR by the Ministry of the Environment for 357 million euros. “This is the first important example of an integrated project, which involves different regions and which could and should be replicated and adapted to other large rivers, or portions of them, such as the Adige, Arno, Tiber, Garigliano, Volturno and many others. – he says the WWF – Together with the Universities of Parma, Ferrara and Urbino we have put forward a proposal for the abatement of excess nitrates to be promoted, together with farmers and reclamation consortia, in the most vulnerable areas, through careful management of the surface water network and the redevelopment and expansion of relict wetlands”.
Biodiversity
We are losing the amphibians and with them the poisons that could cure us
by Cristina Nadotti
As numerous Ispra reports have pointed out, among the greatest threats to wetlands there are in fact plant protection products and one of the strategic priorities of the rural regional development plans is precisely that of helping to preserve, restore and enhance the ecosystems connected to agriculture through the promotion of production methods capable of guaranteeing a correct and lesser use of plant protection products.
However, together with the action to combat pollution, it is essential to expand the portions of protected wetlands. “In recent years, also following the “ONE Million Ponds” campaign and Life projects, such as “Gestire 2020″, – recalls the WWF – hundreds of small ponds have been created in our Oases for amphibians, invertebrates and for many species of aquatic plants which have now become rare in nature”. Precisely on the occasion of World Wetlands Day, this weekend in the WWF Oases numerous events are planned to learn more about the specificity of these precious ecosystems.
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