For the first time, the United Nations on Wednesday celebrates World Wetlands Day, recognizing that these fragile ecosystems make a crucial contribution to biodiversity, climate mitigation, freshwater availability, and economic resilience.

A broad definition of wetlands includes ecosystems such as lakes and rivers, underground aquifers, swamps, coral reefs, and many others; but also, human-made artificial sites such as fishponds or reservoirs. 

Though they cover only around 6 per cent of the Earth’s land surface, 40 per cent of all plant and animal species live or breed in them. 

Wetlands are also vital for human wellbeing and security. More than a billion people across the world depend on them for their livelihoods, about one in eight people on Earth.

‘Punching above their weight’

According to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), these ecosystems are also the unsung heroes of the climate crisis.

In fact, they store more carbon than any other ecosystem, with peatlands alone storing twice as much as all the world’s forests.

And inland wetland ecosystems absorb excess water and help prevent floods and drought, something critical to help communities adapt to a changing climate.

In the words of Leticia Carvalho, Principal Coordinator for Marine and Freshwater at UNEP, healthy wetlands “punch above their weight in terms of benefits.”

Protect wetlands

The theme for the very first World Day is “Wetlands Action for People and Nature”.

It serves as an urgent call to act and to invest financial, human and political capital, to save the world’s wetlands from disappearing altogether – and to restore those areas already lost.

Wetlands are disappearing three times faster than forests and are Earth’s most threatened ecosystem. In just 50 years – since 1970 – 35 per cent of the world’s wetlands have evaporated.

Human activities that have fuelled this include agriculture, construction, pollution, overfishing and overexploitation of resources; together with invasive species upsetting the balance, and climate change.

Some 85 per cent of wetlands present in 1700, were lost by 2000, many drained to make way for development, farming or other “productive” uses.

This is why, Ms. Carvalho explained, their protection is a priority for UNEP and a special focus of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

According to the expert, the UN Climate Conference (COP 26), last November, “started to shine a spotlight on the role of finance and political will.”

“[But] more of both need to be channelled towards wetlands, enshrined in countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and better integrated into development plans”, she said. 

Benefits

Teeming with different species, wetlandsare also a key ally in the fight to stop biodiversity loss.

Over 140,000 species, including 55 per cent of all fish, rely on freshwater habitats for their survival. Freshwater species are important to local ecosystems, provide sources of food and income to humans, and are key to flood and erosion control.

Despite this important contribution, wetland species are going extinct more rapidly than terrestrial or marine species, with almost a third of all freshwater biodiversity facing extinction.

According to UNEP, the good news is that protection, sustainable management and restoration of wetlands work, and this damage can be reversed. 

One project in the Baltic, for instance, aims to improve water quality in lagoons polluted by fertilizer run-off by using floating, vegetation-rich, wetlands to remove nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus.

In 2015, under Sustainable Development Goal 6, Target 6, all countries committed to protect and restore wetlands, by 2030. 

The World Day, 2 February, also marks the anniversary of the Convention on Wetlands, which was adopted as an international treaty in 1971.

The UN human rights office OHCHR, has said it is very alarmed over the continued disappearance of six people who were abducted in the Afghan capital Kabul, in connection with recent women’s rights protests.

“We are gravely concerned for their well-being and safety”, Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told journalists at a regular press briefing in Geneva. 

Despite the de facto authorities’ announcement on Saturday of an investigation into the disappearance two weeks ago of these individuals, “there is still no confirmed information on their whereabouts”, she added. 

Climate of uncertainty  

In the early evening of 19 January, Parwana Ibrahim Khil and her brother-in-law were abducted while travelling in Kabul.  

Later that same evening, Tamana Paryani and her three sisters were taken from a house in the city.  

On 16 January, both Ms. Khil and Ms. Paryani had taken part in peaceful demonstrations calling for the rights of women to be respected by the Taliban, who swept back into power last August. 

Since then, there have been reports coming in of house searches of other women who participated in protests.  

“The lack of clear information on the location and well-being of these and other individuals, perpetuates a climate of fear and uncertainty”, stressed Ms. Shamdasani. 

Worrying pattern 

These reports have also brought into focus what appears to be “a pattern of arbitrary arrests and detentions”, as well as torture and ill-treatment of civil society activists, journalists, and media workers, as well as former Government and security forces personnel in Afghanistan, she said. 

Moreover, as control over dissent appears to be tightening, OHCHR continues to receive credible allegations of other gross human rights violations.  

“We call on the de facto authorities to publicly report on the findings of their investigation into the abduction and disappearance of these women activists and their relatives, to take all possible measures to ensure their safe and immediate release, and to hold those responsible to account”, said Ms. Shamdasani. 

Hold those responsible accountable 

She also urged Taliban officials to “guarantee that all reports of this nature” are investigated promptly and effectively, and that those responsible for abductions and arbitrary arrests be held accountable, in line with international human rights law.  

“All those who may be arbitrarily detained for exercising their rights must be promptly released”, she spelled out.  

“We also urge the Taliban leadership to send clear messages to their rank-and-file that there must be no reprisals against people who demonstrate peacefully and exercise their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly”. 

Rwanda has achieved a strong economic recovery in 2021, according to the 18th edition of the Rwanda Economic Update (REU18) released today. Gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 11.1% in the first nine months of the year, reflecting a broad-based recovery from the 2020 recession. Industrial production expanded by 16.5% and agricultural output rose to 6.8% in the same year, while traditional exports (coffee, tea, cassiterite, wolfram, and coltan) increased by about 35% in the first nine months of 2021. 

However, the report observes that the level of unemployment continued to deteriorate despite the recovery, as the growth acceleration partly reflected a shift in employment to higher-productivity activities (manufacturing and construction). While the GDP got close to the pre-pandemic level, the unemployment rate remained more than 13 percentage points above levels at the beginning of 2020, with female employment deteriorating. 

“While the current recovery shows that Rwanda’s robust fiscal and medical responses to the crisis have had a notable impact on the economy, the government will need to continue its efforts to promote a more broad-based recovery that extends benefits to rural areas and protects the well-being of the most vulnerable members of society, including women,” said Rolande Pryce, World Bank Country Manager.  

In its special focus on Boosting Regional Trade Integration in the Post-COVID Era, the report underscores the importance of sustained growth in trade as a key driver for Rwanda to achieve its goal of becoming an upper-middle-income country by 2035.    

“Despite important progress, Rwanda has yet to fully achieve its trade potential with regional partners, notably, due to a relatively narrow export product base, discriminatory non-tariff barriers within the region, and persistent regional trade infrastructure gaps,” said Calvin Djiofack, World Bank’s Senior Economist for Rwanda.

The REU18 notes that Rwanda has benefited from regional cooperation to reduce drastically its trade cost in recent years on both Central and Northern corridors, thus greatly facilitating its access to international markets. However, persistent security concerns among East Africa community members, leading to temporary border closures, create uncertainties that impede trade and Rwanda’s potential as regional logistic hub. 

Some of the actions proposed by the report for Rwanda to fully achieve its regional trade potential include: i) Developing a regional trade policy to foster industrialization and harness regional and continental opportunities; ii) implementing a new generation of trade facilitation and logistic reforms to further reduce trade costs; and iii) developing an effective logistics hub to unlock regional opportunities.