KAMPALA, Nov. 15 (Xinhuanet) — Wetlands, an essential part of the earth’s ecosystem got more spotlight as delegates from 147 countries convened in Ugandan capital Kampala for the past week onhow to protect and wisely use its resources.
Experts, conservationists and policy makers ended up the meeting with call for more efforts to protect wetlands, warning the continued loss of it will result in further degradation in human well-being, especially for the poor in less developed countries.
Wetlands, important habitats for the waterbirds, made up roughly 6 percent of the Earth’s land surface, estimated at about 5.7 million sq. km., according to the World Conservation Monitoring Center.
The eight-day conference with the theme “Wetlands and Water, Supporting Life, Sustaining Livelihoods”, concluded Tuesday and has passed 27 resolutions proposing possible ways to manage wetlands properly.
ECONOMIC CONFLICTS
One of the resolutions is about the conservation, production and sustainable use of fisheries resources, which called for urgent attention to ensure wider and better understanding of the importance of maintaining wetlands for the benefit of fisheries and humanbeing.
The resolution recognized the coral reefs in wetlands are “amongst the most species-rich and productive of marine ecosystems,covering less than 1 percent of the ocean’s area, yet home to one third of all marine fish species.”
Thus it strongly urged the contracting parties to enforce existing policies and legislation to suspend any promotion, creation of new facilities, or expansion of unsustainable aquaculture activities that is harmful to wetlands and its ecosystem.
“We should not ask more from wetlands and attach less importance to the protection,” said Cai Shuming, a Chinese scientist who has received the 2005 Ramsar award for his 40 years dedication to China’s wetlands protection.
“In China’s Yangzi River area, people over-exploited the wetlands resources by carrying out more and more fishing and agriculture growing activities, which damaged the econsystems,” hesaid in an interview.
“Economic development should coordinate with environmental protection for the long-term benefits of human welfare,” he said, noting great changes are now being taken to conserve the wetlands with the government’s better policies and the education for ordinary people.
PEATLAND MISMANAGEMENT
A new publication “Peatland. Do you Care?” was launched during the Ramsar conference, with purposes to promote awareness and action on the problem of peatland degradation among policy makers,experts and stakeholders.
“Peatland degradation is currently one of the world’s most serious environmental problems affecting the health and livelihoods of millions of people and pushing the world toward rapid global change,” said Senior Program Manager of NGO Wetlands International Marcel Silvius during the meeting.
Carbon emissions from peatlands released from degraded peatlands in the tropical region alone amount to more than the emission reductions to be achieved during the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, according to Faizal Parish, directorof the Malaysia-based Global Environment Center.
“The first meeting of Parties of the Kyoto Protocol will be held in Montreal in two weeks time, and we hope that it will consider the issue of peatland emissions within the development ofthe climate regime beyond 2012,” he added.
Peatland are one of the world major wetland types, and there isa lack of awareness of the huge environmental and socio-economic consequences of peatland loss, according to the Ramsar Coordinating Committee for Global Action on Peatlands (CC-GAP).
Peatlands are important for water supply and regulation, regulation of greenhouse gas emissions and global climate, high biodiversity and they are a source of livelihood for many communities. They are also used for forestry, agriculture, and a source of peat or horticulture.
WETLAND, NEW FRONTLINE AGAINST BIRD FLU
The contracting parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands also passed a resolution on avian flu, urging the member states toexpand the monitoring of waterbirds in a bid to limit the transmission of the flu between wild and domestic birds.
The Ramsar Convention is part of the Global Task Force on AvianInfluenza, which includes several biodiversity related conventionsand UN agencies, as well as international organizations such as Wetlands International, one of Ramsar’s International Organizationpartners.
“The 147 countries, members of the Ramsar Convention agreed on the need of an integrated approach, at both national and international level, to address the issue,” said the Secretariat in a statement.
The Ramsar Convention emphasized the importance of precautionary work to monitor the wild birds rather than mass culling them to prevent the wide transmission of the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus that caused the avian flu.
“Attempts to eliminate avian flu in wild populations through lethal responses such as culling are not feasible and may exacerbate the problem by causing further dispersion of infected birds,” said the statement.
“National contingency or action plans are highly necessary to prevent the disease’s transmission between wild birds and domesticbirds,” it added, recognizing the need for monitoring and scientific data to prevent the spread of the disease.
It called for high farming and aquaculture standards, and strategies that limit the risk of disease transmission between domestic and wild birds through enhanced biosecurity.