Significance of Wetlands (Feature)

January 30, 2009
WORLD Wetlands Day is celebrated globally on February 2 each year. The day marks the anniversary of the signing of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar Convention) which took place in the city of Ramsar in Iran on February 2, 1971.
World Wetlands Day was first celebrated in 1997. Since then governmental agencies, non-governmental organisations , groups and institutions have celebrated the day by undertaking activities to raise public awareness of wetland values and benefits as well as promote the conservation and rational use of wetlands.
Wetlands encompass many different habitats including ponds, marshes as well as swamps. They are areas where land and water meet and are wet for an ecologically significant part of the year. Plants and animals found in wetlands are from land and water habitats and thus making wetlands highly productive environments.
As has already been pointed out, wetlands are lands where water covers the soil or is present either at or near the soil's surface all year or for varying parts of the year including during the growing season. The amount of water saturation at such areas is the main determining factor of how the soil develops and the types of plant and animal communities living in and on the soil.
There is great variation among types of wetlands because of soil differences both regionally and locally, topography, climate, hydrology, water chemistry, vegetation, and other factors including human disturbance.
Wetlands support both aquatic and terrestrial species, many of which are both numerous and unusual, because the prolonged presence of water creates conditions that favour the growth of specially adapted plants and promotes the development of characteristic wetland soils. Amphibians and reptiles are especially dependent on healthy wetlands because they need both wet and dry areas to breed.
It is important to acknowledge that any endangered species needs wetlands to survive.
To celebrate World Wetlands Day, many activities are organised each year throughout the world. These include seminars, nature walks, festivals, launches of new policies, announcement of new Ramsar sites, newspaper articles, radio interviews and wetland rehabilitation.
In Ghana, the institution responsible for the celebration of the Day is the Wetlands Division of the Forestry C Commission (FC) under the Ministry of Mines, Lands and Forestry.
This year the international theme for World Wetlands Day is "Upstream-Downstream: Wetlands connect us all" and the suggested slogan is – “Upstream – Downstream”.
This, according to international conservationists is in recognition of how interconnected mankind is within river basins and the impact that human activities upstream have on the lower parts of a river catchment. For this reason, World Wetlands Day 2009 aims to raise awareness on how people can support healthy rivers and assess how their actions affect those downstream.
Looking at the importance of wetlands, it has become necessary over the years to celebrate Wetlands Day to enable us remind ourselves of the numerous benefits we derive from those natural resources.
For their functions, wetlands provide habitat for plants and animals such as amphibians, fish, reptiles, mammals and birds
Wetlands help control flood waters by acting like a giant sponge, absorbing water during heavy rainfall then slowly releasing it back into the ecosystem.
Wetlands can assist in erosion control as they are often located between water bodies and high ground. The roots of the vegetation help to protect soil from high impact events such as wave action or heavy rainfall events.
They are important culturally and for recreational activities
and in addition, wetlands enhance water quality as they act like giant kidneys, purifying and processing nutrients as well as suspended materials and other pollutants.
In Ghana, one can easily find wetlands at the limited Ramsar sites which serve as the relaxation and feeding grounds for over 70 water bird species. The sites also serve as the breeding grounds for about three marine turtle’s species.
The sites include the Densu Delta Ramsar Site, the Sakumono Ramsar Site, and the Songor Ramsar Site.
People interested in managing water bodies will tell you that sustainable river basin management is extremely important to maintain the functions and ecosystems services of a wetland. That to some of us, was the main reason why the theme for this year is about river basins and their management.
It is important to note that we all live in a river basin or drainage basin, catchment, watershed, among others and most of the people are well aware of the challenges of managing these resources and particularly the challenge of making sure that the basin planners think of wetlands and not just water in their planning.
It is therefore important that as the world celebrates this year’s World Wetlands Day, there will be an opportunity for people to look around at their own wetlands and their interconnections with the environment around it, how the wetland benefits the surroundings and, of course, how activities throughout the river basin may affect their wetlands.
The suggested slogan for this year , “Upstream – Downstream” , captures this sense of how interconnected humans beings are within the river basin, how people can be impacted by the activities of those upstream and how their activities affect those downstream.
As we celebrate the day with the rest of the world today, it is the hope of environmentalists that Ghanaians will acknowledge the importance of wetlands and recognise the role they play to ensure our survival as humans.