The Wetland Wanderer: Celebrate World Wetlands Day Today!

by Brenda Zollitsch, Policy Analyst, ASWM

Blog content adapted from Ramsar International materials (Wetlands: A Natural Safeguard against Disasters; Five Wetlands that Help Us Cope with Extreme Weather Events; Wetlands Sustain Lives: How Can We Take Care of Them?)

World Wetlands Day is held annually on February 2^nd. In 2017, wetland agencies, organizations, centers and partners around the world are joining together to celebrate the important role healthy wetlands play in helping us cope with extreme weather events. Events are planned around the globe this month to promote the protection of wetlands.

According to Ramsar, “the frequency of disasters worldwide has more than doubled in just 35 years, driven by climate- and weather-related hazards like flooding, tropical cyclones and droughts. UN Water estimates that 90% of all natural hazards are water-related. And the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts even more extreme events going forward. The human toll is tragic: 1.35 million people died as a result of disasters between 1996 and 2015. Low- and middle-income countries account for 90% of fatalities. In material terms, weather-related disasters caused US$3.3 trillion in damage between 1980 and 2014.”

But what does this have to do with wetlands?

Wetlands are a natural safeguard against disasters and help communities cope with extreme weather events:

Along the coastline, wetlands act as a natural protective buffer. For example, they helped avoid more than $625 million in damages from Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
Inland, wetlands act as a natural sponge, absorbing and storing excess rainfall and reducing flooding.
During the dry season, wetlands release the stored water, delaying the onset of droughts and reducing water shortages.
When well managed, wetlands can make communities resilient enough to prepare for, cope with and bounce back from disasters.

Wetlands can help communities in low-lying areas prepare and prevent damage from extreme weather. To minimize impact ahead of time, communities can designate flood- and storm-prone areas as protected wetlands to strengthen nature’s own buffer. When an extreme event hits, healthy wetlands can absorb some of the shock, cushioning the damage in local communities. Wetlands can also speed up the recovery and help to “build back better” after a disaster, acting as natural water filters. Maintaining healthy wetlands and restoring degraded ones means that a community has the potential to deal with a disaster even better next time.

How Do Wetlands Prevent and Reduce Damage?

Well managed wetlands help communities become more resilient. Wetlands play key roles in slowing floodwaters, buffering shorelines, reducing fire hazards, and storing carbon:

If wide silted river floodplains are left intact or restored, with their related inland lakes and swamps functioning, they can act as a giant reservoir. During sudden floods, they can spread and store flood water over a wide area, reducing damage downstream.
When rivers flow into a wide, flat inland before reaching the ocean, an inland delta is formed. In extremely arid areas, these seasonal flows are a strong natural safeguard against drought.
Peatlands store more than twice as much carbon as all of the world’s forests combined, playing an important role in mitigating some effects of climate change.
Mangrove roots bind the shoreline and each kilometer of mangrove forest can reduce a storm surge, blunting the impact of cyclones/ hurricanes and tsunamis. Every hectare of mangrove and coastal marsh is worth up to $ 15,161 a year in disaster-related services. Mangroves also store carbon dioxide, helping to fight climate change.

Disappearing Wetlands: A Huge Cost to Disaster Preparedness

Healthy wetlands can reduce the damage caused by disasters and speed recovery. Yet worldwide, wetlands are in alarming retreat; at least 64% of them have disappeared since 1900. In the United States, approximately half of all wetlands have been lost in the lower 48 states (Dahl, 1989). Unfortunately, canalizing rivers, separating them from the floodplain and increasing drainage reduces the natural floodplain sponge effect and makes flood surges more powerful. Draining or filling in wetlands for agriculture and development removes their function as a natural sponge against flooding. Clearing mangroves to create shrimp fisheries and salt pans removes the natural coastline buffer and reduces carbon storage, while burning and draining peatland releases CO2 in large quantities.

What You Can Do to Help Wetlands

Here are some tips about what you can do to help conserve and promote sustainable use of wetlands:

Find out how the wetlands in your area are being used (or overused) and who depends on them. Learn how wetlands protect your area during extreme events.
Adopt practices that ensure long-term sustainability of your local wetlands for everyone. Measures might include discouraging construction around a wetland; creating plans to protect against invasive species, stormwater pollution and other threats; or regulating the type of activities allowed in the wetland by season.
Organize or join a wetland clean-up. Clear trash from wetlands and unblock streams and rivers.
Use water more sparingly and avoid toxic products that drain into wetlands.
Participate in actions to conserve and restore wetlands.

What Governments Can Do to Capitalize on Protections Provided by Wetlands

While individual actions will lead to the call for government action, there are many actions governments can take to protect wetlands in general, and specifically those that can function in ways that reduce the damage caused by extreme weather events. Government can include wetlands in strategies for coping with disasters. State or local efforts can include designating wetlands as protected areas in flood- and storm-prone zones, restoring degraded wetlands that can act as protective barriers, working with local stakeholders to promote sustainable natural resource use, supporting the monitoring and assessment of wetlands (condition, functions and values) over time, wise land use planning that includes consideration of wetlands and their ecosystem services, and adopting cross-sectoral policies, especially in agriculture and water to help protect wetlands.

To learn more about what your state is doing to protect and restore wetlands, contact your state wetland program or check out ASWM’s State Wetland Program Summaries, which will connect you with information resources in your state and an overview of what wetland work has been done in your state.

Additional resources to support your celebration of World Wetlands Day 2017:

The Convention on Wetlands, called the Ramsar Convention, is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. Ramsar coordinates the international umbrella event for National Wetlands Day, with countries, states and local centers providing site-based celebrations. To learn more about Ramsar, go here.