World Wetlands Day 2024

 

Friday the 2nd of February marked World Wetlands Day! 'World Wetlands Day is a United Nations International Day of Importance that celebrates the value and benefits of wetlands.' 
On the 2nd of February 1971, the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance was signed in Ramsar, Iran and so this year marked its 53rd anniversary.
Wetlands, areas either always covered by water or for part of the year including flooded or waterlogged areas, are extremely diverse and valuable ecosystems that are sadly overlooked and undervalued.
They make up a mere 6% of our Earth's surface and have drastically declined since the 1970s at a rate three times faster than the loss of forests! 
Over the years our wetlands have been underappreciated and misunderstood, used and abused, drained and filled in to provide solid ground for humans to continue their 'development' takeover. 

Wetlands have many benefits but to me, the most important is that they are a home to many creatures big and small. That is surely enough to protect them?
World Wetlands Day is an important day of recognition with aims to raise awareness for the conservation and wise use of these magical places and I was lucky enough to visit our local Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust on the day.  Below are the photos I took there.

Read more here about What are wetlands, and why are they so critical for life on Earth?

Where are all the photos?! Exactly my thoughts. On this particular visit, I met up with a new friend and so it would seem my photo-taking suffered...however, it was just nice to be able to spend World Wetlands Day at one of my favourite places, the Wetlands.

I have many more posts of photos from our last year as WWT members coming up and there is another about Washington Wetlands Centre here > A Year at WWT Washington.