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Wetlands are important areas of biodiversity, and they also provide immense services to humans, both as water recyclers and as producers of biomass and nutrients for the food chain. In addition to their role as breeding grounds for fish, wetlands also provide people with a vast range of fertile grazing lands and staple food plants.
The increased food production of the past 50 years has led to important losses of wetland ecosystems. Wetlands are drained for cultivation, and threatened by agricultural pollution, through nitrogen, phosphorous, pesticides.The construction of dams, supporting irrigation development, destroy floodplains, the riparian habitat and species breeding ground.
 Ramsar Convention on Wetlands
The Convention on Wetlands, signed in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971, is an intergovernmental treaty which provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.
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Facts and Figures: Wetlands
2 February each year is World Wetlands Day. It marks the date of the signing of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. The theme chosen this year is ‘No wetlands-no water!’, in support to the International Year of Freshwater (IYFW) initiative. |
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How to get involved?
