MAPAMA has joined the celebration of World Wetlands Day with the aim of increasing awareness of its importance.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment has joined the celebration of World Wetlands Day today with the aim of helping to raise awareness and promote the sustainable use and restoration of our wetlands, and has done so by participating in an event in the lagoon complex of Cantalejo (Segovia). a singular and unique landscape in our country.
The general director of Environmental Quality and Assessment and the Natural Environment of the Ministry, Javier Cachón de Mesa, the Minister of Development and Environment of the Junta de Castilla y León, Juan Carlos Suarez-Quiñones, the sub-delegate of the Government in Segovia, Pilar Sanz García, and the mayor of the town, Máximo San Macario de Diego, among other authorities and neighbors, have visited the Cantalejo lagoon complex to see in situ the pilot project that is being carried out for the recovery and restoration of its important lagoons, which integrate habitats of priority community interest and are designated SPAs and SACs.
It is a project financed by the Ministry, through the General Directorate of Environmental Quality and Assessment and the Natural Environment, and in which the City Council of Cantalejo, the Junta de Castilla y León and the Duero Hydrographic Confederation (dependent on the Ministry itself) collaborate. A group of schoolchildren also participated in the event, after carrying out various school activities related to the lagoons throughout the week.
SPAIN, THIRD COUNTRY WITH THE MOST WETLANDS ON THE RAMSAR LIST
Javier Cachón de Mesa stressed that Spain is one of the countries in the world that has designated the most Wetlands of International Importance (included in the Ramsar List): “Our country has a total of 75 wetlands included to date in the Ramsar List, only behind Mexico and the United Kingdom in the world. which demonstrates the strong commitment of all the administrations of our country to conserve its main wetlands”.
The director general also recalled that “our wetlands are home to up to 40 percent of the waterfowl that winter in the western Mediterranean”.
In Spain, Cachón de Mesa continued, “a lot of work has been done in this field in recent years, as evidenced by the Spanish National Report on the application of the Ramsar Convention in the period 2015-2017, which demonstrates the important advances in wetland restoration in Spain. And all this has been promoted by very different actors, including administrations (national, regional and local), different organisations and other interested groups such as foundations and NGOs”.
ESSENTIAL WETLANDS
Wetlands are among the most complex, productive and dynamic, yet also the most fragile, ecosystems on the planet. They provide a series of irreplaceable global services, especially highlighting their contribution to the maintenance of the great variety of life that exists on our planet
It is estimated that more than 1,000 million people around the world depend directly on wetlands for their daily sustenance, since these spaces allow a great diversity of means of earning a living in activities such as rice cultivation, fishing, tourism, transport, or the manufacture of textiles.
WETLANDS FOR A SUSTAINABLE URBAN FUTURE
The theme chosen for this year’s World Wetlands Day (“Wetlands for a Sustainable Urban Future”) has been selected to highlight the importance of preserving urban wetlands in a healthy state, where they bring significant benefits to the inhabitants of these areas.
Half of humanity, some 4,000 million people, currently live in urban areas. That share will reach 66% by 2050 as people move to cities in search of better jobs and an active social life. Cities generate about 80% of the world’s economic output. The expansion of cities and the increase in demand for land bring pressures on wetlands, which are degraded, filled in and used as land for construction.
And in this context, it is important to be aware that urban or peri-urban wetlands that remain intact or are restored contribute to making cities more livable and offer numerous services to their inhabitants (reducing flood risk, improving the supply of drinking water and its quality, as well as air quality in populations with high levels of pollution, possibilities of use as green areas for recreation, etc.).
