IN THE LUSH, bright-green thickets of the Philippine’s Agusan Marsh, nestled in the country’s far south Mindanao island, children steer canoes through meandering waterways and swim in lakes.

The marsh is a playground, as well as a source of food, shelter, and culture for the Manobo Indigenous tribe that lives there in moored floating houses that rise and fall with the rainy seasons. For hundreds of years, this wetland ecosystem has been a veritable paradise for the Manobo people who make a living there hunting and fishing. The more than 100,000 inland acres is also home to nearly 200 species of birds, as well as mammals, reptiles, and fish living in the region.

The Agusan Marsh represents everything wetlands can offer—storm protection, food security, biodiversity, carbon storage—but also the large challenges they face.

Upstream pollution, climate change, and habitat destruction threaten the sanctity of this ecosystem. Pollutants from mining operations and palm oil plantations compromise water quality, and critical, carbon-rich peatlands are being drained and burned to make room for more palm oil, rice, and corn.

Fifty years ago today, on February 2, 1971, representatives of 18 nations meeting in Ramsar, Iran, adopted the Convention on Wetlands, also called the Ramsar Convention, a treaty aimed at conserving wetlands around the world. Today, 171 countries have signed the treaty. But since 1971, more than 35 percent of the world’s wetlands have been drained for urban development or agriculture, polluted, paved over, or lost to sea level rise.

More:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2021/02/world-wetlands-are-slipping-away-agusan-marsh-underscores-stakes/

For The Economy

Must Grow

SCIENCE said:

For The Economy

Must Grow

The economy doesn’t grow.

This is an illusion.

roughbarked said:

SCIENCE said:

For The Economy

Must Grow

The economy doesn’t grow.

This is an illusion.

Ummm what?

> Fifty years ago today, on February 2, 1971, representatives of 18 nations meeting in Ramsar, Iran, adopted the Convention on Wetlands, also called the Ramsar Convention, a treaty aimed at conserving wetlands around the world. Today, 171 countries have signed the treaty. But since 1971, more than 35 percent of the world’s wetlands have been drained for urban development or agriculture, polluted, paved over, or lost to sea level rise.

What we now call “wetlands” used to be called swamp, mire, morass, and various other derogatory terms.

The global malaria eradication program succeeded in eradicating malaria in the United States by 1951, at the expense of massive species loss from wetlands there. The losses were both due to swamp clearance and insecticide spraying. Insecticide spraying was deadly not just to all insects but also directly killed amphibians. The destruction of wildlife in world wetlands was largely halted in 1978.

Has anyone calculated how much new wetland has been gained by permafrost melting?