Another secretly-about-beavers article, thanks to Bob Kobres of Georgia for the alert, from our friends at:
Wetlands disappearing three times faster than forests: study
Wetlands, among the world’s most valuable and biodiverse ecosystems, are disappearing at alarming speed amid urbanisation and agriculture shifts, conservationists said Thursday, calling for urgent action to halt the erosion.
“We are in a crisis,” Martha Rojas Urrego, head of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, told reporters in Geneva, warning of the potential devastating impact of wetland loss, including on climate change.
Sounds bad, tell me more.
The convention, adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar nearly a half-century ago, on Thursday issued its first-ever global report on the state of the world’s wetlands.
The 88-page report found that around 35 percent of wetlands—which include lakes, rivers, marshes and peatlands, as well as coastal and marine areas like lagoons, mangroves and coral reefs—were lost between 1970 and 2015.
“We are losing wetlands three times faster than forests,” Rojas Urrego said, describing the Global Wetland Outlook report as a “red flag”.
That’s really serious. Hey, I know something that might help. Not only do beavers effortlessly make and maintain wetlands, they also can help settle the score between with the forests. Ahem.
Don’t drain the swamp.
Directly or indirectly, they provide almost all of the world’s consumption of freshwater and more than 40 percent of all species live and breed in wetlands.
Animals and plants who call wetlands home are particularly vulnerable, with a quarter at risk of extinction, the report said.
Wetlands also provide a livelihood for more than one billion people, while mitigating floods and protecting coastlines. They are also a vital source of food, raw materials and genetic resources for medicines.
The Ramsar Convention stressed that wetlands are essential to reining in climate change, pointing out that peatlands store twice as much carbon as the world’s forests, even though they cover just three percent of all land surface.
I always think of the great destructions of the continents in phases, the fur-trade which robbed us of our rivers. The lumber trade which robbed us of our forests. And the Fossil fuel trade which robbed us of our climate. But maybe they’re all really the same thing – The effects of devastating greed separated by hundreds of years.
The Ramsar Convention stressed that wetlands are essential to reining in climate change, pointing out that peatlands store twice as much carbon as the world’s forests, even though they cover just three percent of all land surface. Salt marshes, seagrass beds and mangroves also store large quantities of carbon.
So when wetlands disappear, carbon that has been safely locked in the soil is released into the atmosphere.
The Ramsar Convention has been ratified by most of the world’s nations, including major polluters the United States, China and India, and since coming into force in 1975 has designated more than 2,300 sites of international importance.
But the report stressed the need to do more to develop effective wetland management, including as part of overall national sustainable development plans.
So the US can honor its treaty requirements by restoring wetlands? (Well not that we honor anything much lately, but in theory). What if we could take care of our obligations by restoring 1000 acres of wetlands in every single state? That would be a reasonable start that would produce 50.000 acres of wetlands easily. Maybe some states like Alaska and California could even earn bonus points by doing more.
I’ve got just the tool for the job.
