World Wetlands Day is celebrated every year on 2nd February
On 2nd February 1971, the Wetlands Convention was signed at the city of Ramsar, Iran. The Ramsar Convention calls on States Parties to protect and properly manage wetlands as a contribution to sustainable development. The treaty includes 1524 wetlands with an area of approximately 520 million acres.
Cyprus has several areas that can be described as wetlands, but only two of them, Akrotiri Salt and Larnaca Salt, have been protected by the Ramsar Convention since 2001.
Our wetlands are constantly degrading, and it is the duty of all of us to keep them alive. Their existence is crucial, as they contribute significantly to the conservation of biodiversity and offer many values to humans. Some of them are recreation, flood protection, water quality improvement due to aquatic vegetation, which acts as a very effective filter for cleaning pollutants, their irrigation / watering value, etc.
We must do what we can to protect them!
Two simple actions all of us can do are:
- Don’t deposit our garbage in the wetlands and around of them.
- Don’t drive our r cars outside the designated road and within wetlands, even if they are dry