Reminder
World Wetlands Day

February 2nd may not be a marked date in the calendar for most people, but simply an ordinary day of the week. Nevertheless, it draws attention to a habitat on Earth that is often overlooked but means a home for 40% of our plant and animal species: the International Day of Wetlands.

Almost half of plant and animal species depend on them, but humans cannot live without them either. 12.5% of people use wetlands for transportation, food, and water extraction, and are thus dependent on them. But the rest of humanity also benefits from the protection of healthy wetlands. In total, they protect 60% of humanity from storms, hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons along the worldwide coastline. Despite these enormous benefits, the number and size of global wetlands is declining. Since 1970, 35% of worldwide wetlands have already disappeared. They are disappearing three times faster than forests and are thus the most endangered ecosystem on Earth. The reasons to advocate for a reversal of this trend are therefore numerous.

The Hanns Seidel Foundation also supports this initiative and has been involved since 2015, together with international partners, including the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP) or the Ramsar Convention of Wetlands, in their preservation. In 2023, HSF, for example, visited the Siam Wetland with Hanns-Christian Winkler, a diplomat at the German Embassy in Seoul, and Thomas Hahn, correspondent for the Süddeutsche Zeitung for Japan and Korea. Dr. Choi Hyuan-ah, one of the leading researchers at HSF, also published an article in collaboration with Dr. Donguk Han, the director of the Korea PGA Ecological Research Institutes, in the Journal of Wetlands Research. This emphasizes, among other things, the ability of wetlands to contribute to mitigating the climate crisis through carbon storage.

Wetlands are therefore of crucial importance for our ecosystem and can help slow down the development of the climate crisis and protect people and species that depend on them. Therefore the International Day of Wetlands deserves more attention and a place in all calendars.