Egypt took part in World Wetlands Day on 2 February with appeals on the Ministry of Environment’s social media accounts “to invest financial, human, and political capital to save the world’s wetlands from disappearing and to restore those we have degraded”.
Wetlands Action for People and Nature is this year’s theme for the day, highlighting the importance of actions to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands for human and planetary health.
The idea of the day is to raise people’s awareness about the importance of wetlands. The Earth is losing wetlands three times faster than forests, yet they are critically important ecosystems that contribute to biodiversity, climate mitigation and adaptation, freshwater availability, and the world economy. It is critical to reverse their rapid loss and encourage actions to conserve and restore them.
A wetland is an ecosystem flooded by water, the main factor that controls the environment and associated plant and animal life. The broad definition of wetlands includes both freshwater and marine and coastal ecosystems such as lakes, rivers, aquifers, swamps, wet grasslands, oases, estuaries, deltas, tidal flats, mangroves, and coral reefs, as well as sites of human activities such as fish ponds, rice fields, reservoirs, and salt pans.
Some significant wetlands are called Ramsar sites. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international convention for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands. It was named after the city of Ramsar in Iran, where it was signed on 2 February 1971.
This year’s celebration of World Wetlands Day is especially significant as on 30 August 2021 the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 75/317 that established 2 February as World Wetlands Day.
Egypt has four Ramsar sites, which are the Bardawil, Burullus, Qaroun, and Rayan lakes, said Yasmine Fouad, the minister of environment. It also has several other wetlands, such as the River Nile, Lake Nasser, coastal areas, marshes, salt marshes, and the northern lakes, parts of which have been declared nature reserves, such as the Ashtum Al-Gamil reserves, she added.
The ecological importance of wetlands is due to their being transitional areas between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems performing many functions to serve humanity, such as water purification and high fish productivity, Fouad explained. Wetlands are some of the most important natural sinks and carbon dioxide reservoirs and thus play a significant role in mitigating the effects of climate change.
Fouad added that the ministry was focusing this year on celebrating World Wetlands Day on social media to inform the public about these ecosystems and their value for the environment and people.
Ayman Hamada, head of the Central Department of Biological Diversity, said that civilisations have always been associated with wetlands, as they are a source of food and water. Wetlands serve local communities such as fishermen who sometimes resort to waterfowl and other bird hunting.
Egyptian law allows the hunting of 21 kinds of the 520 migrating birds that cross the country, Hamada added, stating that there are 150 kinds of birds that make Egypt their home while the rest are migrating birds. He said that the Ministry of Environment is firmly against illegal hunting and the trade of birds and wild animals, pointing out the ministry launched 12 campaigns against hawk hunters last year.
Hamada added that the ministry could not ignore the fact that wetlands constitute a source of income for some people but hunting in these areas has to be regulated according to strict laws and conditions, which is why the ministry allows hunting in wetlands in August only to preserve their resources and protect their bird and animal wealth.
Preserving wetland ecosystems is one of the tools that can help to mitigate the effects of climate change, he added, saying that the Ministry of Environment is now focused on restoring Egypt’s wetlands.
Regarding the mangrove forests in the Red Sea, there are joint projects with Egyptian universities, research centres, the concerned authorities, and the local community to evaluate the conditions of the mangroves and restore degraded environments that are under threat of extinction, for example.
Hamada said that birdwatching is also a form of tourism that attracts foreign currency and that Egypt is keen to encourage this activity. The department is cooperating with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities to develop and promote birdwatching tourism, which he described as “high-value tourism with few negative effects”.
IMPORTANT ECOSYSTEMS: Saber Mahmoud Othman, an expert on climate change and sustainable development, said that wetlands are one of the most important ecosystems that cover between three and six per cent of the planet.
Wetlands house 40 per cent of the Earth’s plants and animals, he added. They are vital for people’s health and food supply, the environment, the regulation of water and floods, and water purification.
Othman said that at least one billion people the world over depend on wetlands to make a living. They also contribute on the environmental, ecological, social, economic, scientific, educational, and cultural levels in achieving sustainable development and prosperity for mankind, he added.
Despite their various benefits, wetlands can increase the effects of climate change, however, as they can contribute to an increase in carbon emissions that cause climate change, he said. Anaerobic fermentation emits methane and nitrous dioxide, which can increase the temperature of the atmosphere more than carbon dioxide. Each heated methane unit can contribute about 23-fold the amount of carbon dioxide, which increases in the case of nitrous dioxide to 310-fold.
However, other aspects of wetlands have a positive effect in combating climate change since they preserve mangroves and peatlands and contribute to absorbing toxins, purifying water, and reducing beach erosion, Othman explained.
Unfortunately, wetlands are among the ecosystems that are subject to the highest rates of decline, loss and degradation, and they will likely continue to deteriorate due to direct and indirect causes, such as rapid population growth, unsustainable production and consumption, technological development, and the negative effects of climate change.
They can play a leading role in mitigating the repercussions of climate change and developing adaptation schemes. Healthy wetlands are some of the most efficient carbon sinks on the planet, Othman said, lamenting the fact that they are still not well integrated into global plans to slow down the devastating effects of climate change.
He said that wetlands are one of the most vulnerable ecosystems in the world. From 1970 until the present, the planet has lost 35 per cent of its wetlands.
Some of the activities that lead to the loss of wetlands include drainage, digging for agriculture and construction, pollution, overfishing, the overexploitation of resources, and climate change, he said, stressing that the vicious cycle of wetland loss, threatening livelihoods, and exacerbating poverty, is the result of a misconception that wetlands are barren lands and not a source of income, food, and essential services.
Therefore, one of the main challenges is to change the public’s mindset to motivate governments and societies to appreciate and care more for wetlands, he added.
Othman explained that wetlands sequester and store huge amounts of carbon and are a catalyst for limiting the growing increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere if they are well preserved. However, once wetlands are dried or burned, they become a source of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, which are released into the atmosphere.
Moreover, drought impairs the ability of freshwater wetlands to be a source of water supply, control floods, and protect against storms and their ecological, social and economic repercussions, he noted.
Wetland networks can also allow animals to relocate to cooler regions, helping them adapt to rising temperatures.
Besides Egypt’s Ramsar sites, the country is also home to smaller wetlands in the Delta and Nile Valley and in the Western Desert Oases, Othman said. The oases are the only source of water in the Western Desert, and these sources are mainly located in Maghara, Siwa, Wadi al-Rayan, Bahariya, Farafra, Dakhla, Kharga, Karkar, and Dangal.
There are also six large lagoons on the Mediterranean Sea, Bardawil, Port Fouad, Manzala, Burullus, Idku, and Mariout, while wetlands in the Red Sea area include mud swamps, coral reefs, mangrove forests, and islands.
Threats facing wetlands in Egypt include draining them to reclaim land and urban expansion. Othman said that the Burullus Lake has decreased in size from 136,000 feddans in 1953 to 101,000 feddans in 2000, losing one third of its size.
Agricultural expansion has also increased the amount of wastewater poured into the Lake, leaving no room for salty seawater and thus ending the area’s biodiversity.
Moreover, wastewater from agricultural drainage, sanitary wastewater from cities and villages, and water from industrial waste is poured into other lakes, damaging their habitat and reducing their resources, Othman added.
Wetlands are also exposed to threats related to natural phenomena, including sedimentation and siltation and the encroachment of sand in deserts and oases. In addition, there is the erosion of beaches on the North Coast, which reduces the narrow barriers separating the northern lakes from the sea, eventually turning them into sea bays.
This is in addition to the effects of climate change and rises in sea level that also threaten to flood the lakes.
*A version of this article appears in print in the 10 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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