Wetlands for Disaster Risk Reduction
World Wetlands Day 2017 celebrates the important role that wetlands can play in reducing disaster risk. This theme was selected to raise awareness and to highlight the vital roles of healthy wetland ecosystems in reducing the impacts of extreme events such as floods, droughts and cyclones on communities, and in helping to build resilience.
Along the coastline, wetlands act as a natural protective buffer. Inland, wetlands act as a natural sponge, absorbing and storing excess rainfall and reducing flooding. During the dry season, they release the stored water, delaying the onset of droughts and reducing water shortages.
When well managed, wetlands can make communities resilient enough to prepare for, cope with and bounce back from disasters even stronger than before.
World Wetlands Day remarks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea.
Want to host a World Wetlands Day event? Outreach material to support activities and raise awareness about the value of wetlands for humanity is available to download here.