Healthy wetlands play a crucial role to adapt to and mitigate climate change, contributing in this way to enhance the resilience of communities as well as to ensure human well being. Wetlands protect us against natural hazards such as floods, droughts and hurricanes, and are vital carbon sinks. They also provide fresh water and foods and generate incomes for people.
Skadar Lake, Montenegro. Photo: ©Antoine Similon / Unsplash
Despite their ecological and economic importance, wetlands keep shrinking at an alarming rate, according to the report “Mediterranean Wetlands Outlook 2”. A significant 48% of wetlands in the Mediterranean basin have disappeared since 1970. Every time a wetland is degraded or lost, the diverse benefits it provided are also lost.
Restoring and protecting our wetlands is therefore key to boost our resilience and to adapt to climate change impacts, contributing in this way towards achieving the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Right now, the Commission is asking the public to give their opinion on what nature restoration across the EU should look like – but only until the 5th of April 2021.
The more people respond, the more likely we are to finally get a good law that can help reverse the fate of nature in Europe, and beyond. With your help, we can start giving land, sea and water back to nature.
We have put together a very simple message which you can help us pass on to the European Commission: Only through meaningful, transformative change at land and sea can we bring back the biodiversity we desperately need. It will help us to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis, and prevent the future spread of diseases.
We must #RestoreNature now!
This EU law can be a real game-changer for people and nature, but only if it is grounded in science. Failing that, it risks ending up an empty green-washing tool.
This is about the survival of our precious wetlands, peatlands, grasslands, forests, floodplains, rivers, and oceans. But it is also about our climate, our health, and the survival of humankind.
Join the campaign #RestoreNature, sign the petition and make your voice heard.
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