World Wetlands Day 2022: Wetlands are marshy, flooded areas and swamps which support a variety of life forms. Both natural and artificial wetlands help maintain and enhance biodiversity and ecological health. World Wetlands Day has been observed on February 2, each year since 1997. The annual event aims to raise awareness about the importance of wetlands, which apart from contributing to biodiversity, also help in mitigation of climate impact and availability of freshwater.
World Wetlands Day: History
World Wetlands Day was adopted as an international treaty called Convention on Wetlands on February 2, in the year 1971 in Ramsar, Iran. This year, the February 2 date was given official recognition by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) as it adopted Resolution 75/317 as World Wetlands Day on August 30, last year.
Public awareness activities and programmes regarding wetland preservation began in 1997. The Secretariat of the Convention on Wetlands shared outreach materials such as factsheets, various documents, posters and logos to educate the masses about the reasons why protecting wetlands is necessary.
To educate young people about wetland conservation, a month-long Youth Photo Contest has been organised every year since 2015, starting February 2. The contest is limited to those between the ages of 15 to 24. Participants are required to take the picture of a wetland and upload it to the World Wetlands Day website between February and March. The winner gets to visit a wetland of their choice.
World Wetlands Day: Significance
Wetlands are extremely significant and sensitive ecosystems that are biodiversity hotspots and help a wide variety of plant and animal life to thrive in their ecosystem. Destruction of wetlands by creating landfills or real estate projects over them destroys all of the ecologically sensitive functions they perform. World Wetlands Day, as a result, becomes an extremely significant event that reminds people why we need to save our wetlands.
World Wetlands Day 2022: Theme
The theme for this year’s celebration of World Wetlands Day is Wetlands Action for People and Nature. It is an appeal to all segments of society to save the wetlands from disappearing and to restore the degraded ones. The campaign highlights the need to invest capital, political and civil support to protect the wetlands.
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