The newly protected area includes buffer zones in which community activities can continue while degraded areas are restored. The three leaders promised to explore appropriate management methods for the sustainable use of the Prespa Lakes water. Since the launch of the WWF Living Waters Campaign in May 1999, governments have pledged to protect 2.6 million hectares of wetlands. WWF is hoping that other countries will follow suit. In an issues paper released today, WWF documented how the world's swamps, marshes and lakes are being increasingly converted for agriculture, housing and industrial use.
Wetlands also face mounting threats from invasive species and pollution.
Wetlands teem with plant and fish life and help clean and regulate freshwater supply. Current estimates show that while wetlands cover at least six per cent of the Earth's land surface, only some 50 million hectares, an area slightly smaller than France, are well conserved, according to the WWF paper. Solutions need to be as diverse as the threats. The key will be in finding solutions that view meeting people's needs and nature conservation as compatible, not conflicting, aims. We must act urgently to maintain the natural water cycle if future generations are to inherit a planet fit to live on.