$550 bn plan can rescue a fifth of world's remaining wetlands

The resultant effect on monetary terms is a loss of $39 trillion in annual benefits that wetlands provide through services like clean water, food production, carbon storage and disaster protection. Since 1970, the world has lost over 411 million hectares, an area larger than the size of India

- SV KRISHNA CHAITANYA @ Chennai

A new global assessment released this week has raised concerns over the continued and accelerating destruction of wetlands, warning that if current trends continue, up to 20 per cent of the world's remaining wetlands could vanish by 2050—a loss that could strip away $39 trillion in ecosystem benefits annually and imperil global water, food, and climate security.

The Global Wetland Outlook 2025: Valuing, Conserving, Restoring and Financing Wetlands (GWO 2025), published by the Convention on Wetlands, comes ahead of COP15, the international conference on wetlands, to be held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe later this month. It is the most comprehensive report yet on the state of wetlands worldwide.

Wetlands, which cover just 6 per cent of the Earth's surface, are among the most productive ecosystems on the planet. They supply clean water, absorb carbon, protect against floods, and sustain hundreds of millions of livelihoods. Yet, the report finds that wetlands are disappearing faster than any other ecosystem, at an average annual loss rate of 0.52 per cent.