World Wetlands Day

World Wetlands Day is celebrated on February 2 of every year. The day indicates the adoption of the convention of wetlands on February 2, 1971. The World Wetlands Day is created to raise awareness to the peoples about the importance of wetlands to the human beings and planet. The government and Non-Governmental agencies will do some activities like seminars, festivals, nature walks, announcing the new Ramsar sites, newspaper articles, wetland rehabilitation and radio interviews on that day. So World Wetlands Day is a day to remember the beautiful and boggy parts of your world that geese, ducks, frogs, swans, flamingoes, water voles and another sort of waterfowls and animals require those wetlands to exist and thrive in harmony.

“Im a strong proponent of the restoration of the wetlands, for a lot of reasons. Theres a practical reason, though, when it comes to hurricanes: The stronger the wetlands, the more likely the damage of the hurricane.” – George W. Bush

History of World Wetlands Day

The World Wetlands Day was first celebrated in the year 1997 and from grew, it grew gradually on every year. On every year Government and Non-Governmental organizations, peoples have taken their opportunity on that day to raise awareness among the citizens about the value and benefits of wetlands to all the living things in the world. From 2015, Wetland Youth Photo Contest was conducted on every February 02 to target the students and let them evolve in World Wetlands Day. The Star Alliance Biosphere Connections will award prizes to the winners (A chance to view the wetlands of their choice which may be anywhere in the world). From 1997, the Ramsar Website has posted articles from nearly 100 countries of their World Wetlands Day activities, and in 2016, events have been conducted to promote the activities and to facilitate the reports after World Wetlands Day.

Themes of World Wetlands Day

Every year Wetlands Day will be celebrated with a particular theme. The past and the current themes are listed below

• 1997 – “Benefits of Wetlands to the Human Population”.
• 1998 – “Conserving wetlands to ensure availability of clean water for all”.
• 1999 – “People and Wetlands: the Vital Link”.
• 2000 – “Celebrating Our Wetlands of International Importance”.
• 2001 – “Wetland world – A world to discover!”.
• 2002 – “Wetlands: Water, Life, and Culture”.
• 2003 – “No wetlands – no water”.
• 2004 – “From Mountains to the Sea – Wetlands at Work for Us”.
• 2005 – “Cultural and biological diversity in wetlands” and the slogan was “There’s wealth in wetland diversity – don’t lose it”.
• 2006 – “Wetlands as a tool in poverty alleviation”.
• 2007 – “Fish for tomorrow?”.
• 2008 – “Healthy Wetlands, Healthy People”.
• 2009 – “Upstream-Downstream: Wetlands connect us all”.
• 2010 – “Wetlands, Biodiversity and Climate Change”.
• 2011 – “wetlands and forests – forests for water and wetlands”.
• 2012 – “Wetlands and Tourism”.
• 2013 – “Wetlands take care of water”.
• 2014 – “Wetlands and Agriculture”.
• 2015 – “Wetlands for Our Future”.
• 2016 – “Wetlands for our Future: Sustainable Livelihoods”.
• 2017 – “Wetlands for Disaster Risk Reduction”.

How to celebrate World Wetlands Day

Celebrate the World Wetlands Day by raising the awareness to the people about the importance of wetlands to living things and the planet. For that, you can organize some events for easy understanding to the uneducated peoples. It is also observed at the WWF-India Secretariat, New Delhi to raise awareness about the importance of the link between wetlands and water as “without water there will be no wetlands – and without wetlands, there will be no water”. Post pictures and raise awareness on the social media’s by using the hashtag #WorldWetlandsDay.