We join in the celebration of World Wetlands Day, a date that commemorates the signing, on February 2, 1971, of the Ramsar Convention, an intergovernmental treaty that integrates the bases on which to establish and coordinate the main guidelines related to the conservation of wetlands of the different sectoral policies of each State.

This treaty has 170 contracting parties, 2,341 Ramsar sites, covering 252,479,417 hectares, and has become the most important international text on wetland conservation. In Spain, the third country in declared areas (behind the United Kingdom and Mexico), there are 75 sites of international importance within the framework of the Ramsar Convention, which occupy 304,564 hectares.

Although wetlands occupy only 3% to 5% of the planet’s surface, they provide 40% of the planet’s ecosystem services (water, food, disaster prevention, CO2 reservoir sink, etc.) each year. However, a very significant number of these spaces have disappeared: it is estimated that half of the wetlands have been lost since the beginning of the twentieth century, and up to 60% if extrapolated to the previous ones. Over the past 44 years, the world has lost 1% of wetland area each year.

This year, World Wetlands Day is celebrated under the slogan “Wetlands and climate change”, proposing these spaces as a natural solution to climate change. They are the most important sinks of greenhouse gases on the planet, when they are well preserved. In addition, they make a decisive contribution to mitigating the effects of floods, mitigating droughts and protecting the coast. Finally, they constitute a refuge for biodiversity.

At the Biodiversity Foundation we have been supporting projects related to wetlands since our inception, for which we have allocated more than 2 million euros to 45 projects.

“Adapting, which is gerund: preparing the Terras do Miño Biosphere Reserve for climate change” is an initiative of the Galician Association of Land Stewardship that aims to identify, assess and propose measures for adaptation to climate change in some of the most representative habitats of the lowlands of the Terras do Miño Biosphere Reserve.

The Geological and Mining Institute of Spain is developing “Check of the Tablas de Daimiel National Park: the wetland against the activity of invasive exotic species”, and works in the search for sustainable ecological restoration, studying the causes that originated this change of status, with the aim of addressing future corrective measures and thus recovering the usual biodiversity of the Tablas de Daimiel.

On the other hand, the National Association of Aggregate Manufacturers Entrepreneurs is carrying out the project “Gravel Pits: Living Wetlands. Diagnosis, categorisation and improvement for the functionality of gravel pits as naturalised wetlands and ecological corridors in Parque Sureste de Madrid” in which pilot actions are developed on the most relevant fauna and flora since an adequate management of the environment before, during and after extractive exploitation potentially reduces its impact.

In addition, Ecologists in Action Murcia Region, works on the recovery of the hypersaline wetland and nesting birdlife in the Rambla de Ajauque (SCI ES6200005, SPA ES0000195), where the reed bed is displacing the salt marsh and as a consequence the plant diversity of the wetland is decreasing.

Finally, the Global Nature Foundation is working on the restoration of the habitat for the spring and autumn migration of the aquatic warbler (Acrocephalus paludicola) through the Iberian Peninsula with the LIFE Paludicola project, which aims (through management and management actions of vegetation, purchase of peri-lagoon land and hydraulic works that improve flooding) to stop the decline of populations and improve the conservation status of this species of bird.