Youth Role in Conserving Wetland in World Wetland Day

Salam Gunakanta *

Loktak and Associated Wetlands :: Pix - Loktak Development Authority(LDA)

World Wetlands Day occurs on February 2, every year

It marks the date of the signing of the Convention on Wetlands, called Ramsar Convention, on 2 February 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. WWD was celebrated for the first time in 1997 and made an encouraging beginning. Each year, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and groups of citizens at all levels of the community have taken advantage of the opportunity to undertake actions aimed at raising public awareness of wetland values and benefits in general and the Ramsar Convention in particular.

From 1997 to 2007, the Convention's Web site has posted reports from more than 95 countries of WWD activities of all sizes and shapes, from lectures and seminars, nature walks, children's art contests, sampan races, and community clean-up days, to radio and television interviews and letters to newspapers, to the launch of new wetland policies, new Ramsar sites, and new programmes at the national level. On February 2010 World Wetlands day held in Korea under the Ramsar support. The day is really important, as more awareness is raised on the importance of taking care of the wetlands.

YOUTH ROLE FOR CONSERVING WETLAND

Now days the wetland is becoming not suitable for the animal and plant to live, why the wetland is not suitable for the plant and animal to live??? The question is, the problem is the environmental impact to the ecosystem of the wetland, many pesticide, many fertilizers are used daily these caused the wetland to suitable for plant and animal to adapt.

So in order to conserve the wetland the youth should take part and play an important role in conserving wetland. Many campaign should be encourage, like poster campaign, photo exhibition, etc.awareness campaign should be taken up by the youth to aware the benefits of wetland

WETLANDS & AGRICULTURE: PARTNERS FOR GROWTH

Theme for world wetland day

Wetlands have been used for agriculture for millennia, especially riverine wetlands in floodplains where soils are fertile and water is plentiful. Indeed, wetlands have nurtured the development of many important cultures around the world – but the downside is that drainage and reclamation of wetlands for agriculture has become ever more widespread and effective.

In some regions of the world more than 50% of peatlands, marshes, riparian zones, lake littoral zones and floodplains have been lost, with conversion for agricultural uses being one of the primary reasons for these ongoing wetland losses. Today, roughly2.5 billion rural people depend directly on agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting or some combination of these for their livelihoods. Thus agriculture is often a primary driver of economic growth in developing countries and provides critical economic support for poor rural households.

Wetlands provide food and other agricultural products such as fuel and fiber directly through agricultural production activities that take place within wetlands, such as in rice paddies, coastal grazing marshes, recession agriculture and aquaculture in large floodplains, and cropping of small seasonal wetlands. Wetlands also support agriculture indirectly, for example by providing fertile soils and reliable supplies of good quality water. In support of the UN International Year of Family Farming, Ramsar's theme for World Wetlands Day 2014 is Wetlands and agriculture.

It provides an ideal opportunity to highlight the importance of wetlands in supporting agriculture, especially since many family farming operations rely on the soils, water, plants and animals found in wetlands to provide food security and improve their livelihoods. In this leaflet we'll explore some of the more critical interdependencies between agriculture, water and wetlands, with special attention to the role of wetlands in providing natural infrastructure to support agriculture for food production. We'll also show how people around the world are finding practical ways to resolve some of the conflicts and tensions that can arise. The Ramsar Convention and partner organizations such as FAO and IWMI offer many practical tools and integrated approaches to help in these efforts.

Water quantity impacts: Decreases in flows due to the building of dams and abstraction of surface water and groundwater for irrigation or other purposes, increases in river flows or water levels due to irrigation return flows or dam releases, and changes in the timing and patterns of river flows can all significantly alter and sometimes damage the ecological character of wetlands. Many coastal wetlands depend on the nutrients and sediments carried down by rivers to maintain their ecological character.

Water quality impacts: Intensive agricultural activities including intensive aquaculture often lead to increased loads of pollutants such as pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics and disinfectants. Not only do these affect the ecological character of both inland and coastal wetlands, they also have impacts on human health and the quality of drinking water supplied from wetlands.

Agriculture focuses on managing and enhancing provisioning ecosystem services. While we can increase agricultural production – thus increasing the provisioning services – perhaps by using more fertilizers to obtain higher yields for crops grown in seasonal wetlands or by withdrawing larger amounts of water for irrigation, there is the risk that the ecological character of the wetlands will be altered to the point where we lose essential regulating and supporting services (Figure 3). And this can in turn result in the subsequent loss or degradation of those very provisioning services that were so important in the first place. Global solutions are few, since climate, wetlands, agriculture and communities vary so greatly from region to region.

Yet experience and observations from many wetlands show that it is indeed possible to find mutual benefits for agriculture and wetlands, particularly when local solutions are implemented using local knowledge, within larger integrated planning efforts. The most effective solutions to the question of balance tend to be those that employ a combination of approaches, including: agricultural practices that help to reduce impacts on wetlands; development of multifunctional agro ecosystems which are managed to provide the broadest possible range of wetland ecosystem services; and restoration of wetlands to provide functions and services in agricultural landscapes.

LOKTAK LAKE

From The ancient time Loktak lake plays an important role in the economy of Manipur. It serves as a source of water for hydropower generation, irrigation and drinking water supply. The lake is also a source of livelihood for the rural fishermen who live in the surrounding areas and on phumdis, also known as "phumshongs". Human activity has led to severe pressure on the lake ecosystem. 55 rural and urban hamlets around the lake have a population of about 100,000 people.

Considering the ecological status and its biodiversity values, the lake was initially designated as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar convention on March 23, 1990. But the lake was designated by the Ramsar convention under the montreux record on June 16, 1993 for the reason that: 'a record of Ramsar sites where changes in ecological character have occurred, are occurring or are likely to occur".