On February 2 of each year we celebrate World Wetlands Day, a date that commemorates the signing of the Ramsar Convention in 1971 and protects wetlands of international importance. This year, under the slogan “Action in favor of wetlands for people and nature”, the aim is to highlight the importance of the conservation of these ecosystems and their use in a sustainable and rational way.

On February 2 of each year we celebrate World Wetlands Day, a date that commemorates the signing of the Ramsar Convention in 1971 and protects wetlands of international importance. This year, under the slogan “Action in favor of wetlands for people and nature“, the aim is to highlight the importance of the conservation of these ecosystems and their use in a sustainable and rational way.

Wetlands are ecosystems of fundamental importance since they promote the protection of biodiversity, provide most of the fresh water, contribute to economies as they are the livelihoods of one billion people in the world and help in mitigating the impacts derived from climate change and adapting to it. In this way, peatlands, mangroves and seagrass meadows act as effective carbon sinks by storing it naturally. Wetlands also help reduce natural disasters by protecting coastal communities from phenomena such as hurricanes and tsunamis. These ecosystems also contribute to human well-being by providing mental health benefits, derived from interaction with nature.

Since 1970, 35% of the world’s wetlands have been lost, with the disappearance of these ecosystems being three times greater than that of forests. Today, one in three freshwater species and 25% of all wetland-dependent species are at risk of extinction due to the decline of these ecosystems. In addition, about 40% of the world’s plant and animal species live or breed in wetlands, making it vital to improve their protection and conservation.

At the national level, with the incorporation of the Maritime-Terrestrial National Park of the Atlantic Islands of Galicia into the Ramsar List , the number of enclaves of international importance in Spain rises to 76, with an area of up to 316,789 hectares. This makes our country the second in the European Union in number of declared spaces, behind the United Kingdom, with 174 spaces.

The Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge has supported more than 50 projects that contribute directly or indirectly to improving the state of conservation and protection of wetlands through our calls for grants. With this objective, various actions have been carried out, such as the improvement of scientific knowledge or the proposal of measures that allow the mitigation of the impacts derived from climate change on these ecosystems. Actions have also been carried out to improve the state of these spaces, in order to recover their biodiversity or stop the decline in populations of species such as the marsh bunting, a bird that currently breeds in all wetlands included in the Natura 2000 Network. We have allocated more than 2.5 million euros to support these initiatives since our inception and we have worked with 20 third sector entities, 10 city councils, four universities and three research centres, whose work has been key.

In addition, since 2021 we have been coordinating the LIFE Marbled Teal project, which aims to recover at least 3,000 hectares of wetlands to reverse the risk of extinction of the critically endangered species in Spain and the most endangered duck on the European continent. The marbled teal depends on the presence of water in wetlands to be able to reproduce successfully, so habitat loss and degradation is one of its greatest threats and endangers its survival.

To conserve these ecosystems, nearly 55 hectares of wetlands have been acquired in the El Hondo Natural Park (Valencian Community) and the purchase of another farm, planned for this year, will increase the figure to 141 hectares of protected wetlands. These farms are one of the main enclaves for the marbled teal in Spain, as they have come to host in some years between 20 and 30% of the breeding population of the species in our country when flooding conditions have been favourable.

The acquisition of priority farms is accompanied by other measures to restore and improve these ecosystems, such as the development of a reference guide for the management of the species’ habitats, the improvement of water management and tasks to control its natural and unnatural threats.

The project also carries out captive breeding and population reinforcement actions. Along these lines, and also coinciding with World Wetlands Day, 18 specimens of marbled teal bred at the La Granja centre in El Saler (Valencia), bred within the framework of LIFE Marbled Teal and transferred within the framework of collaboration with the LIFE Marbled Duck project, which works for the recovery of the species in Italy, have been transferred to Sicily.