Sunday, 2 February 2025
On 2 February 1971, the world’s first international conservation treaty was signed in the Iranian city of Ramsar.
The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance – also known as the Ramsar Convention – was established to halt and reverse the worldwide loss of wetlands and protect those that remain. Today, the Ramsar Convention remains the only international treaty focused on wetlands.
Over 50 years later, we continue to celebrate World Wetlands Day on the anniversary of its signing to raise global awareness about the importance of wetlands and their conservation.
This year’s World Wetlands Day theme is Protecting wetlands for our common future, a reminder of the significance of wetlands for biodiversity and communities, and their immense ecological, cultural, recreational and economic value.
A wetland is an area of land that is covered with water either permanently or seasonally.
Wetlands can be natural or human-made, and include:
Wetlands cover over 4% of Australia – spanning nearly 34 million hectares. This includes 66 Ramsar-listed wetlands that are recognised globally for their outstanding conservation value.
Wetlands are critical to the health of our planet.
While they only cover around 6% of the Earth’s land surface, up to 40% of all the world’s species of plants and animals live or breed in wetlands. Wetlands are critical habitat for threatened species like migratory shorebirds, and they support a huge diversity of life, including species that are found nowhere else on Earth.
By providing clean water, food and other essential services, wetlands support a huge variety of life – including human life. Considered the ‘world’s kidneys’, wetlands improve water quality by filtering out contaminants. The health of the world’s wetlands impacts our own physical, mental and environmental wellbeing, too.
Healthy wetlands help mitigate the impacts of climate change. As a natural sponge, they protect our shores from storms and floods and reduce carbon emissions by absorbing and storing vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
As well as supporting primary industries, wetlands are also popular tourist destinations, supporting a diverse range of leisure and recreational activities. Healthy wetlands can even boost the economy by generating significant income for local communities.
Wetlands also hold profound ecological, spiritual and cultural significance for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People, who have been taking care of our land and seas since time immemorial. Wetlands are sacred and significant ceremonial and cultural heritage sites, traditional hunting and gathering grounds, boundary markers and more.
What are the threats to wetlands?
Australia’s coastal and freshwater wetlands support a huge diversity of life, including migratory and resident shorebirds and threatened species like the Australasian Bittern. But these fragile ecosystems are under threat.
Despite their importance, the world’s wetlands are disappearing at an alarming rate – a staggering three times more quickly than our forests. In the past 50 years, we’ve lost around 35% of the world’s wetlands – making them the most threatened ecosystem on the planet.
Wetlands around the world are being dredged and degraded, and their water diverted and drained to make way for development, agriculture and forestry. Meanwhile, Australia’s wetlands and waterways continue to be modified and cleared – and it’s having a serious impact on populations of wetland birds.
Wetlands are under increasing pressure from:
Wetlands are also threatened by the growing impacts of climate change, like rising sea levels and more severe and frequent droughts, fires and extreme weather events, while the loss of wetlands accelerates these threats.
World Wetlands Day is not just a celebration – it’s a global call to action to protect these vital ecosystems. Our wetlands and the birds that depend on them need our care and protection now more than ever.
BirdLife Australia’s Coastal and Wetlands Birds team is helping monitor, restore and protect these critical habitats across Australia and the birds that rely on them. We work with land managers, volunteers, governments, Traditional Owners, researchers and conservation and community groups across Australia to conserve, manage and restore wetlands and wetland birds.
Meanwhile, our Campaigns team continues to champion the protection of Australia’s threatened birds and their habitats – engaging, empowering and mobilising communities around the country to stand up for nature. We lobby State and Federal governments for strong and effective environmental legislation, advocate against inappropriate development and clearing of critical bird habitat and campaign against duck hunting and more.
And last year, BirdLife Australia succeeded in one of its biggest and longest campaigns to save the internationally significant wetlands of Queensland’s Toondah Harbour.
After a decade-long battle, in April 2024, Australia’s largest private developer Walker Corporation finally withdrew its $1.4 billion application to build 3,600 apartments and a marina complex within the boundaries of the Moreton Bay Ramsar site.
One of the most important migratory shorebird sites in Australia, these mudflats provide critical feeding habitat and a last remaining stronghold for threatened migratory shorebirds like the Critically Endangered Eastern Curlew.
Together, we mobilised tens of thousands of people to take action with more than 120,000 public comments, emails, calls, social media posts and petition signatures calling for the Federal government to save Toondah Harbour and reject Walker’s wetland-destroying proposal.
Wetlands need you!
Here are some ways you can take action to protect and restore wetlands and help the birds that rely on them – this World Wetlands Day and beyond.
Visit, explore and get to know your local wetlands and the threats they’re facing. Then, spread the word to help raise awareness and inspire greater appreciation of wetlands and wetland conservation.
Try to avoid potent chemicals found in fertilisers, pesticides and insecticides, which can leach into groundwater, wash into storm drains and end up in wetlands and waterways. Help keep wetlands and waterways clean by picking up litter and safely disposing of rubbish and chemical waste.
Tread lightly and stay on designated walking tracks and trails to avoid damaging fragile native vegetation and habitat. Always observe park rules, respect the wishes of Traditional Owners and take care not to touch or disturb sensitive cultural heritage sites.
Leave no trace and don’t feed the birds: while it might be tempting to feed bread to ducks, it has no real nutritional value. Uneaten bread can even cause a build-up of toxic algae in water.
Joining your local Landcare or ‘Friends of’ group is a great way to learn more nature in your area, get involved in local conservation efforts and meet a community of like-minded people.
Find and join local wetland conservation and restoration efforts, citizen science projects, monitoring programs and clean-up events near you.
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