The ecological importance of wetlands

The ecological importance of wetlands

The imperative of the dominant culture of recent decades has been to modify, fill, reclaim and erase entire habitats to make way for crops, building land and various public and private works. Which, in spite of all the environmental, urban and landscape regulations issued in recent times, is proceeding at a crazy speed. It is enough to travel by car in the outskirts of our cities to see subdivisions, bulldozers demolishing, construction sites, while entire historic centers are increasingly depopulated and internal areas are abandoned, even from an agricultural point of view.
A similar and, even more horrifying, discussion concerns the wetlands of the world and of our country.
Unfortunately, even though 50 years have passed since February 2, 1971, that is, since, for the first time, wetlands were officially recognized as places of vital importance to be protected. Place where animals, plants, microorganisms, etc. they play a fundamental role in the ecological balance of our planet and in ensuring, therefore, the right to life.
Fifty years ago, in Iran, on the shores of the Caspian Sea – now threatened by climate change – representatives of seven countries signed the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, known throughout the world as the Ramsar Convention.
This is how the destruction of wetlands was curbed in Ramsar in 1971: representatives of Iran, Sweden, Norway, Australia, Finland, South Africa and Greece signed the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, which entered into force on 1975. Italy would ratify it two years later, in 1977. And with it, even in the following years, over 150 states entered into the agreement.
Today Italy is home to more than 50 wetlands recognized by the Convention, from the Comacchio Valleys to the Molentargius, from Lake Tovel to the Vendicari oasis.
But why do we need to preserve wetlands; these particular and fundamental habitats on Earth.
Wetlands play a crucial ecological role, offering a series of essential ecosystem services for the environment and human communities.
To summarize their role, which is however very complex, we can list the following functions:
– Flood control: Wetlands act like natural sponges, absorbing rainwater and reducing the risk of flooding. They slow the flow of water, decreasing erosion and destruction of surrounding areas.
– Recharge of aquifers: wetlands allow water to infiltrate the ground, contributing to the recharge of aquifers.
– Wetland plants and soil filter sediment, nutrients and contaminants from water, improving the quality of water flowing into rivers and lakes.
– Wetlands provide essential habitat for a wide range of plant and animal species, including many migratory birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles and insects that are crucial to the survival of many rare and threatened species.
– Wetlands are, on a planetary level, the most productive from a biological point of view, supporting complex food chains. Wetland plants grow rapidly and provide food and shelter for many species.
– Wetlands, especially peatlands, are effective in sequestering atmospheric carbon, contributing to climate change mitigation. They accumulate organic matter in the form of peat, which holds carbon for long periods.
– Wetlands influence the local microclimate, helping to maintain cooler temperatures and constant humidity in surrounding areas.
– Wetlands offer natural resources such as fish, medicinal plants and building materials. Furthermore, they are often places of great cultural and recreational value. Many commercial fish species depend on wetlands for breeding and feeding, thus supporting fisheries.
In summary, wetlands are real ecological buffers and, therefore, fundamental ecosystems for the maintenance of biodiversity, the protection of water resources, the regulation of the climate and the sustenance of human communities. This is why their conservation is essential for global ecological well-being.
In general, wetlands are biodiversity hotspots: among the birds at risk of extinction, for example, 146 species depend on wetlands, without counting, as mentioned, the species of amphibians, reptiles, fish and insects and other invertebrates that depend from these environments.
Unfortunately, we have a love-hate relationship with wetlands that has been going on for thousands of years. Civilizations were born in cradles rich in water, among rivers, meanders, marshy areas and large deltas: from America to Asia. In the Middle East, between the Tigris and the Euphrates there is the most famous “land between the rivers” in the world, today devastated by wars and guerrillas. On the other side of the fertile crescent, in Egypt, already 4000 years ago the Nile was expected to flood, depositing the precious silt on the fields. And then China with the Yellow River valley; Mesoamerica with the Usumacinta and the Rio Grande de Santiago; and Pakistan and Punjab (literally “land of the five rivers”) with the Indus: wetlands have been protagonists in the history of humanity. An earthly paradise, rich in drinkable water, navigable, rich in food – where to hunt and fish. Where to live, inhabit and cultivate, governing the waters: harnessing them and reclaiming them to obtain soil to plow or build on. To the point of transforming paradise into a desert, making some wetlands completely disappear.
For example, Lake Texcoco, in Mexico, was part of a system of five lakes that have now practically disappeared except for some residual salt pans. In this large Mesoamerican basin with marshy coasts, the Aztecs already built dams, locks and artificial cultivable islands: the chinampas. Tenochtitlán itself stood on an island on Lake Texcoco enlarged with chinampas. And today, Mexico City stands on that humid area which at the time of the Spanish conquest extended for over 2000 km2.
Without going far, the Etruscans themselves and then the Romans were the first to carry out large hydraulic engineering and reclamation works in Italy. Not just rivers and streams, but the wetlands themselves, swamps and deltas: after a temporary “abandonment” and return to natural conditions in the Middle Ages, the work of governance has continued more or less markedly until today. In the meantime, however, from areas rich in biodiversity and lush, the humid areas had transformed into “swamps”: swamps of the soul, dark, gloomy, muddy places, where people got sick with malaria. Infernal. So much so that it bothered Dante himself who defined the river Acheron as “the livid swamp” when he crossed it with Virgil: «”Caron, don’t worry:/you want it there where you can/what you want, and don’t ask for more”./ Hence the woolly cheeks outside are quiet/at the helmsman of the livid swamp/which had red flames around its eyes.”
To return to Italy, in the 1920s, major reclamation works went ahead, first and foremost those of the Agro Pontino and the Po Valley. While useful in defeating malaria, the cleanup has gone beyond what was necessary, causing habitat loss, which since 1950 has reached a rate never seen before in history.
A reclamation conducted without taking into account the safeguarding of some habitats, without which our country has become among the most fragile from an ecological, hydrogeological and social point of view in the whole of Europe.
Unfortunately a global phenomenon.
Over the last three centuries, on a global scale, wetlands have shrunk by more than 85%. A loss which, according to the report drawn up by the United Nations, is three times faster, in percentage, than the loss of forests and which has mostly occurred in the last century. Italy, as mentioned, is the country that has recorded the greatest losses: in this period of time it has lost 66% of its wetlands, especially coastal ones.
Obviously the cause of the loss of this heritage and its ecosystem services is one: the criteria with which man wants to create an economy. Then we can divide these multiple actions into direct destruction, reclamation for conversion to agricultural land, pollution and so on. Unfortunately, due to the fault of a few, and the interests of a few, a collective heritage of humanity is being lost.
Many species at risk of extinction need wetlands to survive: if we lose these environments we will lose 40% of the total animal and plant species. According to estimates by the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, 40% of species linked to aquatic environments are already in an “inadequate” state of conservation, 19% in a “bad” state, 11% even “unknown” and only 29% “favorable”.
If we lose these environments, we not only lose biodiversity but also a further shield against climate change; we lose carbon dioxide reservoirs and tools for regulating hydrogeological phenomena: we lose essential ecosystem services. We lose drinking water and the possibility of preserving aquifers. We lose wealth and also beauty: a common heritage that must be lived, enjoyed and strenuously defended by implementing prevention, mitigation and adaptation strategies that allow the protection and recovery of these areas.
Yet the recent denials on the Green Deal, the Nature Restoration Law, etc.; some citizens’ movements, farmers, political movements, etc. who demand a return to chemistry, to invasive practices, to an industrial system that is no longer viable, seem to tell us that the lesson that Nature is teaching us with its disasters, floods, global warming, etc. It hasn’t helped yet.
On social media we read posts by people who deny these events, by politicians who demand very dangerous restoration policies and in the meantime the decrease of Nature, in our lives, means only one thing: with it we are risking an ever-increasing decrease in human rights because these they are inextricably linked to the health of the Planet. A sick planet leads to global suffering, to a reduction in rights that deprives especially the weakest, be they human beings, animals or plants.
The arrogance of a few is the determining factor that deprives everyone’s rights. This is why politics must abandon economic-financial language and take on ethical and moral principles.

Guido Bissanti