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WATER
wetlands | conservation | socio-cultural value | economic value | economic value by type | economic value by function | wetland loss | agriculture | alien species | artificial water storage | repairing the loss


WHY CONSERVE
WETLANDS?


source: www.panda.org/downloads/
freshwater/wetlandsbrochurefinal.pdf

www.wetlands.org/RSDB/
default.htm

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conservation

Wetlands are among the world’s most productive environments and valuable ecosystems…
  • they are cradles of biological diversity providing the water and primary productivity upon which countless species of plants and animals depend for survival;


  • they support high concentrations of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish and invertebrate species.
It has been estimated that freshwater wetlands…
  • hold more than 40% of the 20,000 species of fish in the world and 12% of all animal species;


  • individual wetlands can be extremely important in supporting high numbers of endemic species*. For example, Lake Tanganyika in Central Africa supports 632 endemic animal species;


  • wetlands are also important storehouses of plant genetic material: rice, for example, which is a common wetland plant, is the staple diet of 3 billion people, about 1/2 the world’s population.

* Endemic species: a species, which is only found in a given region or location and nowhere else in the world.

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