Originally launched in 1971, World Wetlands Day was created to raise global awareness about wetlands and how the loss of a natural filter and conserver of our delicate water ecosystems could have a detrimental effect on our planet.
Overall, wetlands offer the most carbon-dense ecosystems, with peatlands being known for storing twice as much carbon as forests. In addition, coastal wetlands such as mangroves can sequester carbon up to 55 times faster than tropical rainforests.
For nearly 300 years, our global wetlands have been under threat due to climate change, population increases, agriculture and urbanizations. Threats such as water drainage, pollution, and sediment dumping from deforestation are further contributing to the loss of our wetlands.
According to the 2021 Global Wetland Outlook by the Ramsar Convention, a global treaty ratified by 170 countries to protect wetlands, approximately 35 percent of the world’s wetlands were lost between 1970-2015, and almost 90 percent have been lost since the 1700s.
This all points to the importance of this year’s World Wetlands Day, which has the theme of “Wetlands Action for People and Nature.” The overall goal is to highlight the importance of actions to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands for humans and planetary health.
In addition, there are other organizations that are helping to protect our wetlands. For example, RE-PEAT.earth is an international youth-led organization that was created to spread awareness of the importance of wetlands to the general public as well as to the European Union Assembly.
Global Land Programme (GLP.earth) has also issued a study that quantifies human and climate impacts on wetland ecosystems in the Lower Mekong River Basin. And, The Comon Foundation (Comon.earth) has partnered with Wetlands International to restore 30,000 hectares of mangroves in support of climate mitigation, adaptation, biodiversity and human well-being.
The .earth domain applauds all of the efforts behind World Wetlands Day 2022! If you run an organization aimed at preserving the Earth’s wetlands, and would like to use a .Earth domain name, please click here.
