In recent years, we have been engaged in 29 restoration projects on 14 types of wetlands around the world.
Improvement of Agriculture as part of the SaWel project, Mali
Halt the loss of wetlands But while pushing for wetland restoration, we must also halt their loss. In many places, their demise continues, regardless of international declarations. In 2022, Brazil’s Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical swamp, suffered an epidemic of wildfires, mostly set by invading ranchers. And China’s largest freshwater lake, the Poyang on the floodplain of the River Yangtze, all but dried out because it continues to be degraded by sand mining and agricultural drainage. The year also saw the government of South Sudan seek to revive plans to divert the River Nile so it no longer maintained the Sudd swamp, Africa’s second largest freshwater wetland. And it ended with large areas of the Mesopotamian marshes of southern Iraq turning to dust as Turkey impounded new dams far upstream on the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. Optimistic Still, we remain optimistic. We believe our extensive wetlands experience – from local water projects in the African Sahel to continental-scale river management in South America’s four-nation Corredor Azul; and from the salt marshes around the North Sea to the forest swamps of Borneo – gives us the technical, social and political expertise necessary to halt losses and restore lost wetlands to meet the new targets.
Wetlands International, To Plant or Not to Plant (TPNTP) project site in Bulacan Province, Phillipines
Wetlands International Annual Review 2022
Wetlands International Annual Review 2022
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