Today is World Wetlands Day. It was the so-called “Ramsar Convention” (on Wetlands of International Importance, especially as waterfowl habitat) that established this celebration to commemorate the date of signature of this treaty (February 2, 1971, in Ramsar, Iran).

The convention was born out of recognition of the value of wetlands for all forms of life and society and the realization of the speed at which they were disappearing. It currently has 154 member countries and 1,636 wetlands included in its List of International Importance (almost 146 million hectares).

In Spain there are 63 wetlands included in the Ramsar list, which add up to a total area of more than 282,000 hectares. The Spanish territory presents a great variety of natural and semi-natural aquatic environments, some of them unique in terms of their hydrological functioning, geological and geomorphological formation, their social integration, the presence of numerous species of rare, endemic or threatened animals and plants, or as key places within the migratory routes of numerous birds.

In fact, Spain is the country with the greatest diversity of ecological types of wetlands in the European Union, including some unique ecosystems in the context of Western Europe. In addition, thanks to the position of the Iberian Peninsula between two continents and its geographical variability, Spanish wetlands generally maintain spectacular concentrations of wildlife.