Global and local water cycles are strongly dependent on healthy and productive wetlands, which provide clean drinking water, irrigation for agriculture, and flood regulation, as well as supporting biodiversity and propping up industries such as fisheries and tourism in many locations.

Yet, despite the high value of these ecosystem services, wetlands continue to be degraded or lost at an alarming pace, according to The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) for Water and Wetlands report, released for consultation today at the 11^th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention for Biological Diversity.

Half of the world’s wetlands were lost during the twentieth century – due mainly to factors such as intensive agricultural production, unsustainable water extraction for domestic and industrial use, urbanization, infrastructure development and pollution. The continuing degradation of wetlands is resulting in significant economic burdens on communities, countries and businesses.

The report also highlights that the restoration of wetlands and their water-related services, also offers significant opportunities to address sustainable and cost-effective solutions to water management problems.

“Policies and decisions often do not take into account the many services that wetlands provide – thus leading to the rapid degradation and loss of wetlands globally,” said UN Under-Secretary General and UN Environment Programme Executive Director Achim Steiner.

“There is an urgent need to put wetlands and water-related ecosystem services at the heart of water management in order to meet the social, economic and environmental needs of a global population predicted to reach 9 billion by 2050,” he added.

The report – initiated by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands with financial support from the Norwegian, Swiss and Finnish Governments and developed by the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), together with the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention, the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Wetlands International, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) – lays out a raft of recommendations that would slow and ultimately halt the degradation of wetlands.

Taking account of the value of water and wetlands in public policy and private decisions; fully integrating the management of wetlands and securing their wise use in water management; and prioritizing the further loss and conversion of wetlands through strategic environmental assessments are among the many steps that must be taken, according to the report.

“In 2008 the world’s governments at the Ramsar Convention’s 10 ^th Conference of Parties stressed that for water management carrying on ‘business as usual’ is no longer an option”, said the Ramsar Convention’s Deputy Secretary General, Nick Davidson.

 “This report tells us bluntly just how much more important than generally realized are our coastal and inland wetlands: for the huge value of the benefits they provide to everyone, particularly in continuing to deliver natural solutions for water – in the right quantity and quality, where and when we need it. If we continue to undervalue wetlands in our decisions for economic growth, we do at our increasing peril for people’s livelihoods and the world’s economies,” he added.