International holidays - World Wetlands Day

According to the Ramsar Convention, signed in 1971, World Wetlands Day is celebrated annually. It falls on February 2, when this document was adopted in Iranian Ramsar. The main goal of the convention is to protect wetlands that contribute to the sustainable development of the biosphere. Swamps are an important link in the air cycle. Swamp plants enrich the air with oxygen, and peat, by absorbing harmful substances and binding CO2, reduces the greenhouse effect. In addition, swamps provide habitat for waterfowl and a reservoir of fresh water. The purpose of various events held on February 2 throughout the planet is to attract the attention of authorities and the public to the problems of sustainable development of wetlands. The fact that since 1971 the number of countries that have acceded to the Convention has increased from 18 to 160 shows how global the issues of conservation and rational use of wetlands are. Currently, about 570 million hectares of wetlands are protected on Earth, which is 6% of the land area. The presence of Ramsar sites is a condition for joining the treaty. In Russia, 35 sites with an area of ​​more than ten million hectares meet the Ramsar criteria necessary for inclusion in the List of international importance. A tenth of the country is occupied by swamps. In Asian Russia there is the “main world swamp” - Vasyugan, located between the Ob and Irtysh rivers. Vasyugan is an invaluable storehouse of natural resources: oil, natural gas, peat, forest, agro-climatic resources. The extraction and use of resources must be carried out using rational methods in order to avoid harmful effects on the quality of fresh water and the state of the habitat of the “indigenous” representatives of the flora and fauna of these lands.