How much wetlands have been lost

Wetlands serve as a source of drinking water and provide protection against floods and storms, yet they have been decimated to make space for housing, factories and farms or damaged by unsustainable water use and pollution. The report, compiled by an ongoing research project entitled TEEB, or The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, said coastal wetland losses in some regions, including Asia, have been happening at a rate of 1.

Wetlands are known to cover about 13 million square kilometres five million square miles of the Earth's surface, and are a natural sink for Earth-warming carbon dioxide , act as fish nurseries and are important tourist attractions. The report was released at a conference of the UN Convention on Biodiversity , where environment ministers will hold three days of talks from Wednesday to try and raise funds to stop the decline of Earth's natural resources.

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By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Share Twit Share Email. Home Earth Environment. And the benefits of restoration are 10 times higher than the costs, the report found.

There are many proven approaches to reversing these trends, including urban planning, replanting with native species, green infrastructure development, remediation of contaminated and sealed soils e.

Avoiding, reducing and reversing land degradation and restoring degraded land is an urgent priority to protect the biodiversity and ecosystem services vital to all life on Earth and to ensure human well-being. Land degradation through human activities is undermining the well-being of at least 3. Land degradation through human activities is pushing the planet towards a sixth mass species extinction. Widespread lack of awareness of land degradation as a problem is a major barrier to action.

Habitat loss through transformation, and the decline in suitability of the remaining habitat through degradation, are the leading causes of biodiversity loss.

Contacts Press Jobs. Home About. The Convention and its mission. Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary in the UAE — a network of highly biodiverse salt flats, lagoons, intertidal mud flats and mangrove swamps below the Dubai skyscrapers. Image: Francesca Negrini Ramsar. Over a third of natural wetlands have been lost globally since , a rate of decline which is three times that of global forest loss over the same period.

Wetlands are important habitats for wildlife, and provide a number of important ecosystem services to humans, including food security, flood protection and climate change mitigation. However, wetlands are being lost due to human development across the world, putting a quarter of the plants and animals which depend on them at risk of extinction.

These are some of the key findings of the new Global Wetland Outlook report , published by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands , an international treaty on wetland conservation. The report — the first global wetland inventory of its kind — has been published to coincide with the 13th Ramsar Convention of Parties , held this week in the United Arab Emirates.

Covering around Wetlands play a major role in the water cycle by storing, regulating and releasing water flows, and can also provide natural flood protection. However, widespread land use change and water regulation has reduced connectivity between many river systems and floodplain wetlands, according to the new report.

Many other global wetlands have been drained to provide land for agriculture and urban development. Mubarak Al-Kabeer Reserve — a Ramsar site in Kuwait where shallow salt marshes and small lagoons provide a key habitat for migratory birds. Image: Abdualreda Alramzi Ramsar. Wetlands also play important roles in nutrient and carbon cycles. Despite their value to humans and non-humans alike — the report suggests that wetland ecosystem services far exceed those from terrestrial environments — wetlands continue to be damaged and destroyed across the world.