World Wetlands Day, February 2nd 2011

Wetlands and Forests, this is the theme for World Wetlands Day 2011, especially chosen because 2011 is the UN International Year of Forests.
This year's slogan is simple – Forests for water and wetlands – allowing us to look at the ‘big picture’ of forests in our lives, including:

Forested wetlands and the special benefits they bring. Mangroves, peatswamp forests, freshwater swamp forests: biologically diverse, helping us manage our freshwater, and providing us with many other ‘services’ across the globe including vital roles in carbon storage – our allies in the face of climate change. Despite their utility, they are often under threat from development, from drainage and conversion.

The role of forests – wet or not – in our lives, and why looking after them matters. Vital to all human lives as well as biodiversity, freshwater availability on a global scale depends on our forests. So too, to a large extent, does freshwater quality.

The role of forests in how our wetlands function. It’s simple: the health of our wetlands, whether forested or not, is linked to the health of forests in our catchments. Losing and degrading forests means losing and degrading wetlands.

We cannot manage without forests, whether terrestrial forests or forested wetlands, given the critical roles that they play in our lives – for water, for food, for livelihoods, for recreation….and more.

Source: World Wetlands Day