Tue, Oct 16, 2012 -
An Estimated 50 Per Cent of Wetlands Lost
During the 20th Century
Hyderabad (India), 16 October 2012 - The
key role that rapidly diminishing wetlands
play in supporting human life and biodiversity
needs to be recognized and integrated into
decision-making as a vital component of
the transition to a resource-efficient,
sustainable world economy, according to
a new TEEB report released today.
Water security is widely
regarded as one the key natural resource
challenges currently facing the world. Human
drivers of ecosystem change, including destructive
extractive industries, unsustainable agriculture
and poorly managed urban expansion, are
posing a threat to global freshwater biodiversity
and water security for 80 per cent of the
world's population.
Further Resources
Download Full ReportThe Economics of Ecosystems
and Biodiversity (TEEB)UNEP and Ecosystem
ManagementTowards a Green Economy. Pathways
to sustainable and poverty eradicationGlobal
and local water cycles are strongly dependent
on healthy and productive wetlands, which
provide clean drinking water, irrigation
for agriculture, and flood regulation, as
well as supporting biodiversity and propping
up industries such as fisheries and tourism
in many locations.
Yet, despite the high
value of these ecosystem services, wetlands
continue to be degraded or lost at an alarming
pace, according to The Economics of Ecosystems
and Biodiversity (TEEB) for Water and Wetlands
report, released for consultation today
at the 11th meeting of the Conference of
the Parties to the Convention for Biological
Diversity.
Half of the world's
wetlands were lost during the twentieth
century - due mainly to factors such as
intensive agricultural production, unsustainable
water extraction for domestic and industrial
use, urbanization, infrastructure development
and pollution. The continuing degradation
of wetlands is resulting in significant
economic burdens on communities, countries
and businesses.
The report also highlights
that the restoration of wetlands and their
water-related services, also offers significant
opportunities to address sustainable and
cost-effective solutions to water management
problems.
"Policies and decisions
often do not take into account the many
services that wetlands provide - thus leading
to the rapid degradation and loss of wetlands
globally," said UN Under-Secretary
General and UN Environment Programme Executive
Director Achim Steiner.
"There is an urgent
need to put wetlands and water-related ecosystem
services at the heart of water management
in order to meet the social, economic and
environmental needs of a global population
predicted to reach 9 billion by 2050,"
he added.
The report - initiated
by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands with
financial support from the Norwegian, Swiss
and Finnish Governments and developed by
the Institute for European Environmental
Policy (IEEP), together with the Secretariat
of the Ramsar Convention, the Secretariat
of the Convention on Biological Diversity,
Wetlands International, the Helmholtz Centre
for Environmental Research (UFZ), and the
International Union for Conservation of
Nature (IUCN) - lays out a raft of recommendations
that would slow and ultimately halt the
degradation of wetlands.
Taking account of the
value of water and wetlands in public policy
and private decisions; fully integrating
the management of wetlands and securing
their wise use in water management; and
prioritizing the further loss and conversion
of wetlands through strategic environmental
assessments are among the many steps that
must be taken, according to the report.
"In 2008 the world's
governments at the Ramsar Convention's 10th
Conference of Parties stressed that for
water management carrying on 'business as
usual' is no longer an option", said
the Ramsar Convention's Deputy Secretary
General, Nick Davidson.
"This report tells
us bluntly just how much more important
than generally realized are our coastal
and inland wetlands: for the huge value
of the benefits they provide to everyone,
particularly in continuing to deliver natural
solutions for water - in the right quantity
and quality, where and when we need it.
If we continue to undervalue wetlands in
our decisions for economic growth, we do
at our increasing peril for people's livelihoods
and the world's economies," he added.
Rapid Wetland Loss
Inland wetlands cover
at least 9.5 million km² (about 6.5
per cent of the Earth's land surface), while
inland and coastal wetlands together cover
a minimum of 12.8 million km².
Between 1900 and 2003,
the world lost an estimated 50 per cent
of its wetlands, while recent coastal wetland
loss in some places, notably East Asia,
has been up to 1.6 per cent a year. This
has led to situations such as the 20 per
cent loss of mangrove forest coverage since
1980.
The main pressures on
wetlands come from:
Habitat loss, for example
through wetland drainage for agriculture
or infrastructure developments, driven by
population growth and urbanization;
Over-exploitation, for
example the unsustainable harvesting of
fish;
Excessive water withdrawals
for use in, for example, irrigated agriculture;
Nutrient loading from
fertilizer use and urban waste water, which
can lead to eutrophication - the excessive
growth of algae that deprives other species
of enough oxygen and can create dead zones;
Climate change, which
can change ecosystem conditions through
rising temperatures;
Pollution, remarkably
through extractive industries, invasive
species and siltation.
Such pressures threaten
wetlands' natural infrastructure, which
delivers a wider range of services and benefits
than corresponding man-made infrastructure
at a lower cost.
The Benefits of Wetlands
Water
Wetlands are a key factor
in the global water cycle and in regulating
local water availability and quality. They
contribute to water purification, denitrification
and detoxification, as well as to nutrient
cycling, sediment transfer, and nutrient
retention and exports. Wetlands can also
provide waste water treatment and protection
against coastal and river flooding.
For example, The Catskill
/ Delaware watershed provides about 90 per
cent of the water used by New York City
citizens. In 1997, a study showed that building
a new water treatment plant would cost between
US$6 and US$8 billion, whereas ensuring
good water quality through measures to reduce
pollution in the watershed would only cost
US$1.5 billion. This study led to programmes
to promote the sustainability of the watershed.
Food Security
Wetlands play a key
role in the provision of food, and habitats
and nurseries for fisheries. One example
is the Amu Darya delta in Uzbekistan where
Intensification and expansion of irrigation
activities left only 10 per cent of the
original wetlands. Yet a pilot restoration
project initiated in the delta - with the
support of community, government and donors
- led to increased incomes, more cattle,
more hay production for use and sale, and
an increase in fish consumption of 15 kilogrammes
per week per family.
Job Security
Wetlands can be important
tourism and recreation sites and support
local employment. For example In the Ibera
Marshes in Argentina, conservation-based
tourism activities have revived the economy
of Colonia Carlos Pellegrini, near the Ramsar
Site "Lagunas y Esteros del Iberá",
creating new jobs and allowing local inhabitants
stay employed in the town rather than migrate
to cities to look for work. Around 90 per
cent of the population now works in the
tourism sector. In order to favour local
employment, the site managers provide local
rangers and guides with training on working
with guiding tourists. In addition, local
communities receive support to establish
municipal nature trails.
Biodiversity
Wetlands are some of
the most important biologically diverse
areas in the world and provide essential
habitats for many species. Coral reefs,
peatlands, freshwater lakes, waterbirds,
amphibians and wetland-dependent mammals
such as hippopotamus, manatees and river
dolphins are among those examples of biodiversity
covered by the global Ramsar Convention
network of "Wetlands of International
Importance", which comprises over 2,000
sites covering over 1.9 million km.
Examples of major wetlands
in the Ramsar network include: the Danube
Delta in Romania and the Ukraine; the Pantanal
wetlands across Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay;
and Lake Chad across Chad, Niger and Nigeria.
Climate change
Wetlands provide climate
regulation, climate mitigation and adaptation,
and carbon storage - for example in peatlands,
mangroves and tidal marshes.
Peatlands cover 3 per
cent of the world's land surface, about
400 million hectares (4 million km2), of
which 50 million hectares are being drained
and degraded, producing the equivalent of
6 per cent of all global Carbon Dioxide
emissions. While vegetative wetlands occupy
only 2 per cent of seabed area, they represent
50 per cent of carbon transfer from oceans
to sediments, often referred to as 'Coastal
Blue Carbon'.
Recommendations
At the global level
there is a need to ensure that the role
and value of water and wetlands are integrated
into implementation of the Strategic Plan
for Biodiversity 2011-2020, the Ramsar Strategic
Plan 2009-2015, the UN Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the Millennium
Development Goals, among other international
agreements.
The report also issued
specific practical recommendations for actors
at all levels, some of which are detailed
below.
National and international
policy makers should:
Integrate the values
of water and wetlands into decision making
- for policies, regulation and land-use
planning, incentives and investment, and
enforcement;
Regulate to protect
wetlands from pressures that do not lead
to improvements in public goods and overall
societal benefits;
Regulate to ensure that wetland ecosystem
services options and benefits are fully
considered as solutions to land- and water-use
management objectives and development;
Commit to and develop
improved measurement and address knowledge
gaps - using biodiversity and ecosystem
services indicators and environmental accounts.
Local and regional policy-makers
should:
Assess the interactions between wetland
ecosystems, communities, man-made infrastructure
and the economy, and integrate this knowledge
into river basin and coastal management;
Ensure participation
of communities, including indigenous peoples,
and ensure that traditional knowledge is
duly integrated into management solutions.
Researchers should:
Systematically contribute to filling the
gaps in knowledge on the values of water
and wetlands, on improved governance solutions,
and on measures and tools to support the
development of environmental accounts;
The development cooperation
community should:
Integrate the appreciation
of the multiple values of wetlands and potential
cost savings to meet the objectives of development
cooperation.
Businesses should:
Assess the dependency
of their businesses on water- and wetlands-related
ecosystem services from the short to long
term;
Assess the risks to
operation inputs, eventual liabilities,
risk to reputation, and license to operate
from both resource availability and impacts,
including pollution pressures.
About TEEB
The UNEP-hosted Economics
of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) is
a major international initiative to draw
attention to the global economic benefits
of biodiversity, to highlight the growing
costs of biodiversity loss and ecosystem
degradation, and to draw together expertise
from the fields of science, economics and
policy to enable practical actions moving
forward. TEEB is hosted by the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP).
About the Ramsar Convention
on Wetlands
The Convention on Wetlands
(Ramsar, Iran, 1971) - called the "Ramsar
Convention" - is an intergovernmental
treaty that embodies the commitments of
its member countries to maintain the ecological
character of their Wetlands of International
Importance and to plan for the "wise
use", or sustainable use, of all of
the wetlands in their territories.
Notes to Editors:
The executive summary of the report can
be downloaded at: www.teebweb.org
