Inbread Fidough (@poofyfluffkins.bsky.social)

Why Are Wetlands Important? - WorldAtlas Wetlands cover only about 6% of the Earth's land surface, but they do an outsized share of the work that keeps the planet livable. They filter the water that human and animal populations drink, absorb the floods that would otherwise hit cities, store more carbon per acre than almost any other ecosystem, hold roughly 40% of the world's plant and animal species, and feed hundreds of millions of people directly through rice agriculture and fisheries. The Ramsar Convention's Global Wetland Outlook 2025 values the ecosystem services wetlands provide at around $39 trillion a year, which is close to 36% of global GDP. Despite that, wetlands have been disappearing faster than any other major ecosystem, and the case for understanding why they matter has become more urgent rather than less. What Counts as a Wetland The Ramsar Convention, the 1971 international treaty that governs global wetland policy, defines a wetland as an "area of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six metres." That definition deliberately covers a broad range... https://www.worldatlas.com/conservation/why-are-wetlands-important.html