World Wetlands Day
World Wetlands Day was adopted by the UN in 2021 marking the anniversary of the first World Wetlands Convention in 1971. It is a day to reinforce the importance of wetlands for the world’s biodiversity, its climate, and human livelihoods.
Wetlands are hugely important ecosystems that cover just 6% of the planet’s surface but support 40% of all plant and animal species. They are water dominated ecosystems such as rivers, lakes, peatlands, swamps and estuaries all of which support huge amounts of life and human communities. Wetlands are one of the world’s greatest carbon stores with peatlands alone storing two times more carbon than all of the world’s forests combined.
Unfortunately, 50% of the world’s wetlands have been lost since the 1970’s; this threatens the stability of our climate and the integrity of whole ecosystems. That’s why it’s more important than ever to protect and restore wetland habitats. This day is an important educational tool to remind your students of this.
