Just like people, wetlands come in all shapes and sizes. Freshwater or salty, tidal or inland – healthy estuaries, lakes, rivers, swamps and underground aquifers are vital for both healthy people and a healthy planet.
Wetlands and people are intimately interconnected and interdependent, and we all rely on them for our mental and physical well-being – that’s the theme of this year’s World Wetlands Day celebrated on 2 February.
‘We want to restore and upgrade wetlands around big cities because they are climate buffers and are hotspots for biodiversity,’ says Natalie Sterckx, a campaigner at Belgian environmental organisation Natuurpunt. ‘These wetlands ensure that heavy rain is collected, doesn’t cause floods and is released slowly during times of drought. We also partly depend on them for drinking water.’
Natuurpunt is part of the Belgian Biodiversity Alliance, which manages LIFE Wetlands4Cities – a five-year, EUR 7.7 million LIFE project which aims to create five new urban wetlands around Mechelen in Belgium and the Dutch city of Tilburg.
(LIFE is the French acronymn for L’Instrument Financier pour l’Environnement, the European Union’s funding instrument for the environment and climate action.)
‘They are fantastic places for people to come walking or just to enjoy nature,’ adds Natalie. ‘And they’re a kind of green air conditioning which ensures the cities are cooler and less humid.’
According to the EU’s Biodiversity Information System for Europe (BISE), there are more than 174,000 km2 of wetlands in Europe, most of which are “poor or degraded”, – partly due to a “profit-driven approach to wetland resources” such as peat extraction and intensive farming. BISE also points out that more than half of Europe’s wetlands are still deteriorating.
Besides LIFE Wetlands4Cities and LIFE MarshMeadows, there are currently dozens of LIFE projects across the EU helping to restore, manage and protect our wetlands. World Wetlands Day is a great opportunity for them to showcase their invaluable work and the part they play in the success of the EU Directives on habitats and on birds; the EU biodiversity strategy; the new EU Nature Restoration Law; the European Green Deal; and the EU Climate Change Adaption Strategy.