Over the last century, 60 percent of the world’s lagoons and marshes have all disappeared. 90 percent of these were in Europe. Swamps, lagoons, marshes, ponds, bogs, and river deltas have been destroyed. These could have been assets and played an important environmental role. Wetlands capture sediments, help prevent floods, protect coastlines – among other things. Despite occupying only 6 percent of the planet’s surface, wetlands store 35 percent of global terrestrial carbon. Those that contain peat account for more efficient storage of carbon between terrestrial ecosystems. It retains double the amount of those in the forest biomass of the world, and keeps them for a longer time as well as compared to forests.
The causes of the disappearance of wetlands are many. 26 percent have been drained to make way for crops or to give space to urban development. Pollution, construction of dams, drawing from unregulated sources and aquifers, and the exploitation of resources did the rest. Rising of the sea level caused by global warming is also a certified cause of wetland disappearance. Destruction of wetlands would lead to grave consequences. According to current estimates, about 771 billion tons of greenhouse gases (mainly CO2 and methane) would be released from these areas if they were cleaned up.
Scientists from 28 nations have launched an urgent appeal for the protection of wetlands. There has been a major international agreement on the conservation of these areas, signed in 1971 in Ramsar, Iran. The International Convention on Wetlands, better known as the Ramsar Convention was agreed upon by 158 countries all over the world. There are still a total of 168 million hectares of wetlands to protect. The mission of the Convention is to actively preserve these environments.
