Kohima, February 1 (MExN): The Research, Demonstration & Training Centre, Sechü-Zubza under the Soil & Water Conservation Department, Nagaland has appealed to save wetland. Wetlands are low lying areas of land that are saturated with water permanently or seasonally with wild plants in it.
According to a press note from the centre, wetlands act as a natural sponge that trap and slowly release surface water and control flood. It is a natural filter and conserver of the world. Wetlands are rich with biodiversity and are a habitat for a dense variety of plants and animal species. It includes all lakes, rivers, swamps, marshes, wet grasslands, mangroves, coastal areas, coral reefs and all human made sites such as fish ponds and rice puddles etc.
Natural wetlands have been referred as “Earth’s Kidney” because of their high and low term capacity to filter pollutants from the water that flows through them, it stated.
Feb 2 is World Wetland Day
Every year February 2 is celebrated as World Wetland Day by countries across the world for the conservation of natural resources. World Wetland Day is observed to raise global awareness of significant role of wetlands in life of people and our planet and conserve it. This day also marks the date of the adoption of the convention on wetlands on February 2, 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar. It also serves as a platform for people to express their love and concern for wetlands, it stated.
Many wetlands are being lost by human construction, pollution, misuse of nature, over population and climate change. It causes loss of Wetlands habitat for migratory water birds and endangering various plant species.
‘Wetlands action for people and nature’
Each year a theme is selected to focus attention and help raise public awareness about the value of wetlands. This year theme is ‘wetlands action for people and nature,’ stressing the need of taking action to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands for human and planetary health. It is an appeal to invest financial, human and political capital to save the world’s wetlands from disappearing and to restore those we have degraded.
Wetlands are critically important ecosystems that contribute to biodiversity, climate mitigation and adaptation, freshwater availability etc. Therefore to prevent the loss of biodiversity in wetlands, it is equivalent to conserving all species of plants and animals that live in water.
We should conserve wetlands because of its social and environmental benefits as the survival of several biodiversity depends on the conditions of such places. Wetlands are homes to so many creatures that they make an important part of our ecosystem. Let us save them as we celebrate World Weltlands Day,” it appealed.
