{"id":4680,"date":"2022-01-29T14:17:09","date_gmt":"2022-01-29T14:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peninsulapartnership.org.uk\/?p=4680"},"modified":"2022-01-29T14:17:09","modified_gmt":"2022-01-29T14:17:09","slug":"world-wetlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peninsulapartnership.org.uk\/world-wetlands\/","title":{"rendered":"World Wetlands"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By the time most people read this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldwetlandsday.org\/\">World Wetlands Day 2022<\/a> will have been and gone. However this doesn't mean we should now put wetlands on a shelf to be looked at later. On the contrary, wetlands have a hugely important role to play in holding carbon and allowing us to envisage what will work for us and the marine environment in terms of nature based solutions. Estuary wetlands are important. Here is what Chichester Harbour Conservancy has to say:<\/p>\n<p>The RAMSAR Convention signed in 1971 lists all the wetlands in the world that are considered of international importance and Chichester Harbour is on this list.<\/p>\n<p>This was the first of the modern global environmental agreements and is the only one devoted to a specific ecosystem.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Some facts:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>35% of the world\u2019s wetlands have been lost since 1970, that is, in only 50 years.<\/li>\n<li>Wetlands are disappearing 3 x faster than forests.<\/li>\n<li>Wetland-dependent plants and animals are at risk of dying out.<\/li>\n<li>Human wellbeing, livelihoods and the health of the planet are threatened.<\/li>\n<li>Coastal wetlands sequester and store carbon up to 55 x faster than tropical rainforests.<\/li>\n<li>Historically, wetlands were seen as empty wastelands. Humans have degraded them in five ways:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol>\n<li>They drained them and infilled them. Remains of Victorian drainage pipes can be found on the Harbour shoreline.<\/li>\n<li>Over-extraction of water. \u00a0Water is extracted from the South Downs aquifer at such a rate that it will have affected the volume of water flowing down streams to the Harbour.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Historically, sewage treatment works were built near the towns and cities and drained into the nearest water course. \u00a0Waste water is screened for solids and some works have UV treatment. \u00a0Waste water is still diluted and let go with minimum screening when mixed with large volumes of storm water. Waste water still contains nutrients, medicines and other dissolved contaminants when discharged into the environment.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Fish are a vital part of the coastal inshore food chain. \u00a0For some years now the Fisheries Authority (IFCA) have designated Chichester Harbour a protected area for bass.<\/li>\n<li>People are heard saying that the seals eat all the fish. \u00a0However, thinking about it, if there were no fish there wouldn\u2019t be any seals.<\/li>\n<li>Climate change. \u00a0Sea level rise is a confirmed fact. \u00a0In the past few hundred years humans have built hard defences. \u00a0 \u00a0As sea level rises, the shoreline should be allowed to progress inland but in many places this can\u2019t happen due to the sea defences. \u00a0When the distance of inter-tidal habitat between high and low tide is shortened, the first habitat to get knocked out is the saltmarsh. \u00a0If nothing is done then the inter-tidal habitat disappears as it get covered by sea water all the time. \u00a0This means that wildlife such as waders and some wildfowl will no longer be able to feed on the mud and will disappear. \u00a0Most waders don\u2019t swim, they paddle, and they can\u2019t dive for their food.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>What actions should we take?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Value:<\/strong><br \/>\nWe must value the multiple benefits of wetlands and how they can offer nature-based solutions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Restore:<\/strong><br \/>\nWe must work to restore wetlands to revive the inter-tidal area, biodiversity and life.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Manage:<\/strong><br \/>\nWe must managed wetlands wisely and use them sustainably to conserve and maintain a healthy system.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>As biodiversity hotspots<\/li>\n<li>As carbon sinks<\/li>\n<li>As natural sea defences<\/li>\n<li>As sources of livelihoods and recreation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By the time most people read this World Wetlands Day 2022 will have been and gone. However this doesn&#8217;t mean we should now put wetlands on a shelf to be looked at later. On the contrary, wetlands have a hugely important role to play in holding carbon and allowing us to envisage what will work [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsulapartnership.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4680"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsulapartnership.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsulapartnership.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsulapartnership.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsulapartnership.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peninsulapartnership.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4681,"href":"https:\/\/peninsulapartnership.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4680\/revisions\/4681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsulapartnership.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsulapartnership.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsulapartnership.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}