Loss of wetlands could be devastating: experts

WETLANDS are still being systematically destroyed in the Mekong River region despite wide international consensus that it is humanity’s best chance to avert a climate apocalypse, experts said.
On Saturday, the world celebrated World Wetlands Day with this year’s theme being “Wetlands and Climate Change”. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands has emphasised the important roles of the flooded and often-overlooked ecosystems in reversing global warming, lessening the impacts of flood, drought, and extreme weather events, sustaining biodiversity, and providing food security.
“As people come together to celebrate World Wetlands Day, it is an ideal moment to reflect on the value of wetlands and how we can harness the natural power of this ecosystem to turn the tide on climate change,” said Ramsar Convention secretary-general Martha Rojas Urrego.
In her statement on this year’s World Wetlands Day, which is celebrated on February 2 every year, Urrego said that the survival of many species and the future of our next generations are in great danger from climate change.
However, she pointed out that it was still not too late for us to turn the tide and reverse climate change by preserving wetlands, as they can absorb far larger amounts of CO2 than the other forested ecosystems. At the same time, they can also be a strong protective shield against more destructive extreme-weather events, which are occurring more often due to a shift in the global climate patterns.
“Peatlands, for example, cover just three per cent of our world. Yet they store nearly a third of all land-based carbon. This is twice as much as all the world’s forests,” she said.
“Coastal wetlands such as salt marshes, mangroves and sea grass beds are also some of the most carbon-dense ecosystems on earth.”
Urrego further noted that coral reefs and mangroves also act as a natural defence, which absorb the shock of storm surges and tsunamis in coastal areas and shield 60 per cent of the world’s population that lives and works along coastlines.
Wetlands are also lessening the severity of floods and droughts in the inland areas, she said, as inland wetlands work as a natural sponge by soaking up rain and reducing floods. In the arid period, they release water, which helps delay the onset of droughts. So wetlands are critical for climate adaptation and building resilience. “Yet more than a third of all of our wetlands were lost in just 45 years. Today, wetlands are disappearing three times faster than forests,” she lamented.
“Wetland loss and degradation is a major concern, as it contributes to global warming by transforming these natural carbon sinks into emission sources, as burning and draining of peatlands accounts for a tenth of annual fossil fuel emissions, while wetland degradation also contributes to nearly a quarter of global methane release.”
According to Ramsar’s Global Wetland Outlook in 2018, natural wetlands globally were on a constant progressive decline at the average rate of 0.78 per cent annually. Up until now, 35 per cent of the world’s wetlands have either been permanently degraded, or transformed by human activities since 1970, while the remaining natural wetlands are only around 13 per cent remnants of the former extent of global wetlands in 16th century.
Pianporn Deetes, Thailand and Burma Campaigns Director of International Rivers, also revealed that the wetlands in the Mekong region were suffering a similar declining trend from the damage caused by harmful development projects of transnational corporations and the authorities.

Harmful projects
“During these recent years large swathes of wetlands in Lower Mekong River Basin countries – Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam – have been destroyed by the impacts of dams, river embankments, water diversion projects and other impactful projects, which often do not include proper Environmental Impact Assessment and public participation during the consideration of these projects,” Pianporn said. “The loss of wetlands has caused a severe impact for the local people and biodiversity that depend on the wetland’s ecosystems services, as we can easily see many examples of the communal and environmental breakdowns throughout the Mekong River Basin as a result of the construction of harmful projects.”
She pointed out that for people in Southeast Asian countries, wetlands are their lifeline, which sustain their livelihood, as the people can get food, water, and other vital resources from the wetlands. If the wetlands were destroyed, their livelihoods would be destroyed as well. “The authorities often view wetlands as wasteland, because they do not understand the influential roles of these ecosystems and their ecosystem services, so wetlands conservation efforts in this region is weak and easy to be harmed,” she commented.
“They should learn from the catastrophic impacts of their harmful projects. Before they start a new project, they must ensure that the local people are genuinely taking part in the consideration process and the environmental impacts are properly studied.”
Meanwhile, Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP) secretary-general Raweewon Bhuridej said her agency was well aware of the numerous benefits of wetlands. ONEP also planned to widen the protection status to cover larger wetlands areas in Thailand. “We are delighted to reveal that Thailand may have a new 15th Wetlands of International Importance [Ramsar Sites] within this year, as ONEP is currently in the registration process to the Ramsar Convention,” Raweewon said. As of now, there are 14 Ramsar Sites in Thailand, covering 399,714 hectares.
World Wildlife Fund revealed that the proposed new Ramsar Site was a wetlands and flooded forestland along the entire 420-kilometre length of the Songkhram River in the upper northeastern region, which is one of only a few tributaries of the Mekong River that are still not partitioned by dams.
On Friday, many Chiang Rai citizens submitted a petition to the Chiang Rai governor proposing the registration of pristine flooded forestlands along the Ing River to be the country’s new Ramsar Site as well.