… and why we need both

This past Wednesday, February 2, was World Wetlands Day.  It marked the 40^th anniversary of the signing of the Ramsar Convention, an international agreement to preserve and restore the world’s wetlands, river deltas and flood plains.  Though the day has come and gone, it’s never too late to remember how important these areas are to our health and safety.

This year’s theme is Wetlands and Forests, recognizing 2011 as the U.N.’s International Year of the Forest.  Whether forests and wetlands are neighbours or occupy the same area, each adds to the other’s value.

Both forests and wetlands give us important help to deal with climate change.  In the process of cleaning and storing ground water, they cool the air around them.  Their lush plant life takes in and stores carbon dioxide – the most common greenhouse gas, though not the most dangerous – and puts oxygen back into the air.

Forests – either dry or wet – help to keep the land in place.  Their shade keeps the sun from drying soil too quickly, their roots anchor soil against erosion by wind or water, and they slow the runoff from heavy rains.  This helps to prevent flooding and landslides, and it keeps rivers and streams from being choked with dirt and debris.

Wetlands are also a valuable defense against storms.  They give the runoff from seasonal rains a place to slow down, spread out, lose its accumulated trash and dirt, and sink into the ground as clean water for drinking and growing crops.  When storms come from the sea, coastal wetlands break up, slow down and spread out storm surges and big waves, protecting the lives and property of people living around them.

Healthy forests and wetlands are a rich store of biodiversity.  They have their own populations of plants, fish, frogs, insects, birds and animals.  They also provide a nursery for creatures that will spend their adult lives on land or in the sea.  Draining and filling a coastal mangrove swamp doesn’t just wipe out the frogs and mosquitoes.  It leaves generations of lobsters and snappers with no place to grow up.

These services have a dollar value.  Economists have estimated that a hectare of undisturbed mangroves in Thailand is worth at least US$1,000, compared to about US$200 if the area is cleared for shrimp farming.  In Canada, the value of a hectare of freshwater marsh is estimated at about US$5,800, compared to US$2,400 for the same area drained and filled for agriculture.

The Marine Park Trust marked Wetlands Day with an information presentation for local school and watersports groups at its Pier 1 office.  This was followed by replanting of mangroves on a section of the Bogue Lagoon shoreline where the original growth had been disturbed by construction.

The Lagoon, with its surrounding mangroves, wetlands and coastal forest, is a designated fish and game sanctuary.  It is an important nursery for marine life, including valuable commercial species like snappers and lobsters.  The surrounding area – the region’s last surviving mangrove forest -- is an internationally known bird-watching site.

Trust Chairman Blaise Hart notes “Both our wetlands and our schools are important stores of value.  If we take good care of them, we will reap the benefits for years to come.”