World Wetlands Day 2012

It may have escaped your notice, but yesterday, was World Wetlands Day! World Wetlands Day has been  celebrated on or around 2 February globally every year since 1997, and Wallasea Island will eventually be a prime area to celebrate this habitat.
Freshwater wetlands are rich and diverse habitats. Although they were once common in our landscape, a long history of drainage, development and pollution means that only a small percentage still remains. These remnant wetlands may sometimes be small or isolated, difficult to manage or have limited natural ecological functioning. Even so, many still support some of the most interesting and important wildlife and habitats in the UK, and provide opportunities for people to understand and enjoy our wetland heritage.
Wet grasslands in the UK provide valuable habitat for indigenous plants, birds and invertebrates. They develop in land which is periodically flooded or waterlogged and where management for agriculture (grazing, mowing or a combination of the two) promotes vegetation dominated by lower growing grasses, sedges and rushes. They do not include reed-dominated habitats. A large number of bird species of conservation concern are dependant or partly dependant on the UK's remaining wet grasslands, particularly breeding waders and wintering wildfowl. Species such as lapwing and black-tailed godwit are high priorities for conservation action by the RSPB on such habitats, as are other characteristic non-avian species such as water vole, of which there is a significant population here on Wallasea Island.
Climate change and sea level rise will create additional significant pressures (and opportunities) to such habitats in the future, and will require new approaches to wetland conservation.Here at Wallasea, our plans include a large area of wet grassland, towards the western end of the site, on which we hope to graze rare breed sheep, just as the land was managed hundreds of years ago through parish grazing rights.
The World Wetlands Day theme for 2012 is Wetlands and Tourism and is linked to the theme for the next meeting of the Conference of the Parties, COP11: Wetlands, Tourism and Recreation, which will take place in July 2012, in Bucharest, Romania. Wetland tourism has benefits both locally and nationally for people and wildlife – benefits such as stronger economies, sustainable livelihoods, healthy people and thriving ecosystems. At least 35% of Ramsar Sites around the world record some level of tourism activity and this percentage is consistent throughout all regions. Of course it is important to consider tourism in all wetlands – not just those designated as Ramsar Sites – since the Contracting Parties to the Convention are committed to managing all wetlands.
It is worth noting that tourism is one of the many services that wetlands deliver. Ensuring well-managed tourism practices in and around wetlands and educating tourists on the value of wetlands contributes to their health and the long-term benefits that wetlands provide to people, wildlife, economics, and biodiversity.
Culture is an attribute of all the activities of each society, as they evolve through the ages. As wetlands, since ancient times, have been inhabited and used in many ways by human beings, there are strong cultural and spiritual values associated with many of them.
It has become clear in recent years that nature conservation cannot be practiced successfully without regard to the welfare of local populations and without ensuring their active participation. This is the reason to include culture in wetland management activities, attempting thus to reconnect people to wetlands and leading to an integrated approach to the natural and cultural heritage. In addition, such an approach creates highly interesting destinations that may draw visitors and provide economic benefits to local populations through mild tourism activities. Also, some of the cultural aspects incorporate traditional knowledge that may be useful to contemporary conservation and merit to be preserved and to be taken into account.
All of this will be seen as the Wild Coast Project develops, starting with the work on what we call 'cell 5' - the area to the south of the track driven along to reach our car park. Construction of a saline lagoon and large expanse of wet grassland will be among the first 'attractions' witnessed by visitors later this year and we hope to have some interesting livestock grazing there soon, which will be an added attraction in this mainly arable area.