Context: Every year, on the 2nd of February, we celebrate World Wetlands Day (WWD) to raise global awareness about the high importance of wetlands for people and our planet.

• Currently in India, 49 wetlands, with a surface area of over a million hectares are designated as wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.
• On the occasion of World Wetlands Day, Khijadia Wildlife Sanctuary in Gujarat and Bakhira Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh have been added to the Ramsar site. 
• India has a network of 49 such sites, the highest in South Asia, covering 10,93,636 hectares.
• The certification brings visibility to ecologically sensitive wetlands and helps in conservation.

Background

• WWD is also an occasion to commemorate the signing of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971.
• Because of the many benefits we get from wetlands, World Wetlands Day is observed on February 2 every year to raise awareness about their importance and the need to preserve them. 

Key Points

• This year is especially significant as World Wetlands Day 2022 will be observed as a United Nations international day for the first time
• The theme of World Wetlands Day this year is ‘Wetlands Action for People and Nature'. 
• It aims to highlight the importance of actions to conserve and sustain wetlands.

About Wetlands

• Wetlands are regions where water covers the soil for an extended period of time. 
• The prolonged presence of water produces ideal conditions for the growth of highly adapted plants and species. 
• They play a critical role in maintaining natural cycles and supporting a wide range of biodiversity. 
• They purify and filter waste from the landscape and regulate water and replenish our water. 
• For many, wetlands are the primary sources of fresh water, natural buffers against floods and droughts. Most importantly, wetlands minimize the impacts of climate change.

What loss of Wetlands mean?
For people:

• Water scarcity
• Exposure to flooding and extreme weather events
• Lost livelihoods and well-being
• Food insecurity

For the planet:

• Biodiversity decline
• Increased carbon and methane emissions
• Loss of natural freshwater filtration

TAKE THREE ACTIONS

• Value wetlands as biodiversity hotspots,  freshwater stores, carbon sinks and sources of livelihoods.
• Stop draining wetlands and use them wisely
• Rewet, reforest and restore wetlands

Key Significance

• Wetlands exist in every country and in every climatic zone, from the polar regions to the tropics and from high altitudes to dry regions. In India, around 4.63 per cent of the geographical area is wetlands. A total of 757,060 wetlands have been mapped in the country.

• While a lot of stress is laid on protecting forests, called the lungs of the Earth, not many know how wetlands contribute to maintaining a healthy ecosystem. 
• For instance, the world is losing wetlands three times faster than forests and nearly 90 per cent of the wetlands have been degraded in the past 300 years or so. 
• There is a need to rapidly increase awareness about them to help preserve and restore them. World Wetlands Day helps achieve that.

Let us explore the benefits of wetlands in detail:

• Wetlands purify our water: Wetlands are great filters. They trap sediments and remove pollutants, which helps to purify water. This certainly beats expensive, human-made filtration systems.
• Wetlands store our water to ensure supply during dry periods: Wetlands work like giant sponges. They store water and then slowly release it and this helps to deal with dry seasons with little rainfall.
• Wetlands can prevent floods: When rivers burst their banks, wetlands can store the excess water and slow it down so it distributes more evenly over a floodplain. The roots of trees and other vegetation also help slow the speed of flood waters.
• Wetlands recharge groundwater: In the past, city planners either filled in wetland areas or dammed them, adding pipes that would lead the water to the ocean as fast as possible. But now, we know that wetlands allow water to soak into the ground and to replenish the natural groundwater supply.
• Wetlands help to control erosion: Sediments are also trapped by wetlands. In a semi-arid country like South Africa, the role of wetlands in trapping sediments, before the sediment-laden water joins a river course and just washes away, is really useful.
• Wetlands provide shelter for juvenile fish: Fish larvae and fish fry (juveniles) use the calm, shallow waters of wetlands as a nursery.
• Wetlands provide homes for animals and plants: Biodiversity is high around wetland habitats. These areas provide food and shelter for many animals, in particular bird species such as herons, spoonbills and flamingos and amphibians such as frogs.
• Wetlands provide food for livestock: Wetlands provide good areas for grazing and the variety of grasses, along with a supply of running water, can be beneficial to farming livestock.
• Wetlands protect biodiversity: Many different kinds of creatures depend on wetlands — and on each other. The insects that are attracted to the plants, provide food for other animals like fish, frogs and birds, who in turn attract other predators. The biodiversity of wetlands has produced some incredible specialist species that are only found in these habitats.
• Wetlands provide locations for recreation: Wetlands provide people a place to visit, where they can enjoy nature walks, picnics, birding, fishing or even sailing. As more people flock to cities, these recreational spaces in nature become even more valuable.