Wetlands top the list of endangered ecosystems. According to the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia, the planet loses them three times faster than forests. The ministry said that over the past 50 years, the surface area of the wetlands has decreased by 35 percent.
“At the same time, many species were under threat including 23 percent of species living in marine and coastal ecosystems, and 25 percent of species of continental wetland,” the department said.
Wetlands are the most diverse and valuable ecological systems of our planet. They are found everywhere - from the tundra to the tropics. Rivers, lakes, swamps, delta complexes, shallow waters, mangroves, coral reefs and other wetland systems serve as habitats for 40 percent of the Earth’s biological species.
On the occasion of the World Wetlands Day, which took place on February 2, the Secretary-General of the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar), Marta Rojas Urrego, addressed the peoples and governments of the member countries of the convention urging them to stop the destruction of these ecosystems and ensure their restoration.
“The time has come to recognize the critical importance of wetlands for biodiversity conservation, as well as their role in addressing climate change and achieving sustainable development goals,” the statement said.
The threat of biodiversity loss has been recognized for several decades as one of the main environmental problems of the modern world. Despite efforts to address it, ecosystem degradation continues, and the number of species on the verge of extinction has reached a million.
Wetlands of Russia are highly diverse.
The Ministry of Natural Resources noted that in Russia the Russian-German project “Restoring peat bogs in Russia in order to prevent fires and mitigate climate change” has made a significant contribution to the restoration of natural ecosystems that humans have violated over the past 10 years. It aims to prevent the drainage of peatlands in the European part of the country.
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