Wild about wetlands

Abstract

On 2 February South Africa joins the world to celebrate World Wetlands Day. This is the day that the Ramsar Convention was signed for the first time back in 1971 when several countries promised to take care of their wetlands. This year’s theme is ‘Wetlands and agriculture: partners for g ro w th’. Why this theme? People have been using wetlands for thousands of years to plant their crops and graze their animals – think of the ancient Egyptians using the Nile floodplain, for example. Today, around 2.5 billion people depend directly on agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting for their livelihoods. Agriculture is also an important economic activity, providing important income and jobs in many countries, including South Africa. Wetlands provide food and other agricultural products, such as fuel and fibre directly through agricultural production activities that take place in them, such as rice paddies, coastal grazing marshes, planting in flooded areas (called recession agriculture) and aquaculture (fish farming) in large floodplains, as well as crop ping of small seasonal wetlands.

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