Fact Sheet

Convention
on Wetlands

Wetlands:
why should I care ?
Humans often equate wetlands with wasteland ;a place to be drained, filled in, burnt off andre-purposed. In fact, scientific studies show that 64 %of the world’s wetlands have disappeared since 1900.
Measured against 1700, an estimated 87 % havebeen lost.
Why is this such an alarming trend? And why are wetlands actually
essential to sustainable development for the human race ?

Wetlands are
everywhereWetlands guarantee
our food supply

Wetlands are land areas that are
saturated or flooded with water
either permanently or seasonally.

Humans consume 19 kg of fish eachyear on average. Most commercial
fish depend on coastal wetlands forpart of their life cycle.
Rice, grown in wetland paddies,is the staple diet of nearly threebillion people, and accounts
for 20 % of the world’s nutritional
intake.

Inland wetlands include
marshes, ponds, lakes, fens, rivers,
floodplains, and swamps.
Coastal wetlands include saltwater
marshes, estuaries, mangroves,lagoons and even coral reefs.
Fish ponds, rice paddies, and salt
pans are human-made wetlands.
Wetlands range in size fromless than a single hectare to thePantanal in Brazil, Bolivia andParaguay, which covers an area
three times the size of Ireland.

Wetlands ensure fresh
water for all of us
Less than 3  % of the world’s
water is fresh, and most of that isfrozen. Yet every human requires
20-50 litres of water a day for basic
drinking, cooking and cleaning.
Wetlands provide our water needs
and help replenish the groundwateraquifers that are an importantsource of fresh water for humanity.
www.ramsar.org
Fact Sheet 1.1

Wetlands purify
and filter harmful wastefrom water
Some of the pollutants frompesticides, industry and mining,
including heavy metals and toxins
are absorbed by wetland sediments,
plants and marine life.
Almost two billion people in Asiaand 380 million Europeans dependon groundwater aquifers for theirwater supply.

1

Wetlands are nature’s
shock absorbers

Wetlands are criticalfor biodiversity

Peatlands and wet grasslands inriver basins act as natural sponges,
absorbing rainfall, creatingwide surface pools and reducing
floods in streams and rivers.
This storage capacity also helps
safeguard against drought.

Wetlands are home to more than
100,000 known freshwater species
alone, and this number is growing
all the time. From 1999 to 2009,
some 257 new species of freshwater
fish were discovered in the Amazon.

Mangroves, saltmarshes and coral
reefs all reduce the speed andheight of storm surges. Their rootsbind the shoreline, resist erosion
by wind and waves, and increase
resilience against climate change.
Total world land area

3%

Peatlands

Carbon stored worldwide  30%

Peatlands

Wetlands store carbon
Peatlands alone cover an estimated
3 % of the world’s land area, butthey hold 30 % of all carbon stored
on land. This is twice the amountstored in all the world’s forests.
But when they are burned ordrained for agriculture, they gofrom being a carbon sink to
a carbon source. CO2 emissions
from peatland fires, drainage
and extraction equate to 10 % of
all annual fossil fuel emissions.

Wetlands are essential for many
amphibians and reptiles, as well as
for bird breeding and migration.
Individual wetlands often holdendemic species; forms of life thatare unique to one particular site
such as Lake Baikal in Russia or
the Rift Valley lakes of East Africa.

Wetlands create
sustainable products
and livelihoods
61.8 million people earn theirliving directly from fishing andaquaculture. Including theirfamilies, more than 660 million
people depend on these sectors.
Sustainably managed wetlands
provide timber for building,vegetable oil, medicinal plants,
stems and leaves for weaving
and fodder for animals.

Source: TEEB: The Economics of Ecosystems
and Biodiversity for Water and Wetlands

The Ramsar Convention

This Fact Sheet is made available by theRamsar Convention on Wetlands. Statistics
are drawn from a variety of publications andwebsites which are listed in the Reference
Sources sheet, available for download
separately. While we strive to provide
accurate and carefully researched
information, this publication is provided
with no warranty of any kind.
Fact Sheet 1.2

The Convention on Wetlandsof International Importance,
commonly known as theRamsar Convention, is a
global intergovernmental treaty thatprovides the framework for nationalaction and international cooperation
for the conservation and wise useof wetlands and their resources.
It is the only global treaty to focus
on one single ecosystem.