ISLAMABAD:The Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) on Thursday organised a cleanup and birds watching activity to create awareness among the masses on World Wetlands Day’s importance and protection of wild ecosystems for human sustainability.
World Wetlands Day is celebrated every year on February 2 and this year’s theme was “it’s time for wetlands restoration”.
The IWMB team, volunteers, and local community schools at Kinara Park near Rawal Lake gathered for the cleanup drive, in which more than 50 trash bags were filled by some 65 volunteers and students who were later engaged in birds watching activity.
Wetlands are land areas that are saturated or flooded with water either permanently or seasonally that are of three different types namely inland wetlands, coastal wetlands, and man-made wetlands.
According to the UN, World Wetlands Day also marks the anniversary of the Convention on Wetlands, which was adopted as an international treaty in 1971. The Day was declared after on August 30, 2021, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution that established February 2 as World Wetlands Day.
It also underlined that almost 90% of the world’s wetlands had degraded since the 1700s, and were further depleting three times faster than forests. “The wetlands are critically important ecosystems that contribute to biodiversity, climate mitigation and adaptation, freshwater availability, world economies, and more. It is urgent that we raise national and global awareness about wetlands in order to reverse their rapid loss and encourage actions to conserve and restore them.,”
The World Wetlands Day awareness campaign is organized by the Secretariat of the Convention on Wetlands. Contracting Parties of the Convention on Wetlands have been celebrating World Wetlands Day since 1997 when it was first established.