2026 World Wetlands Day – Taking action for the climate and biodiversity
2 February 2026 marks World Wetlands Day and the start of a month of events in France and around the world to raise awareness of the importance of these environments.
This anniversary of the Ramsar Convention is an opportunity to highlight the urgent need to protect these ecosystems, which are often overlooked but are vital to our survival.
Between land and water, wetlands are at the heart of Nature-based Solutions to respond to the climate crisis.
Wetlands around the world: alarming figures
Wetlands cover more than 12.1 million km² worldwide, or nearly 6% of the Earth's surface.
They are home to 40% of all animal and plant species, making them exceptional reservoirs of biodiversity.
More than 1 billion people depend directly on these areas for drinking water, fishing, agriculture and other essential services.
But these environments are under threat: they are disappearing three times faster than forests. Since 1970, an estimated 35% of the world's wetlands have been lost due to human activities.
OiEau's commitment: transforming knowledge into action
Faced with these challenges, OiEau plays a key role in the preservation and sustainable management of wetlands, particularly throughtraining andnetworking.
Communicating to raise awareness: a Mini-Guide in 2025
To protect, we must first raise awareness. OiEau has published a strategic tool, the french Mini-Guide: Using the media to communicate about wetlands.
This document provides water stakeholders with the keys to better communicate the importance of wetlands to the general public and decision-makers, transforming technical data into compelling narratives (see below the paragraph on ‘Wetlands as a marker of identity’).
Knowledge sharing via web conferences
Access to expertise is essential. Through its resource centre, OiEau regularly offers french web conferences dedicated to wetlands. These digital events enable the dissemination of best practices in wetland management and restorationto thousands of professionals.
Coordination of the Wetlands Network
OiEau does not just produce content; it brings people together. By actively participating in the coordination of the wetlands network in France, the organisation ensures synergy between local, national and international stakeholders. This coordination mission is vital for the consistent implementation of public water protection policies.
Wetlands as markers of identity
A significant portion of media coverage of these environments consists of articles and programmes that mention, show or refer to wetlands in order to locate the action or designate a territory.
The identity associated with these environments revolves around two main themes:
- The construction of the individual: wetlands shape the lives of their inhabitants through their unique landscapes, everyday uses (fishing, walking) and the memories associated with them.
- Recognition of the territory: through a process of metonymy, the wetland becomes the symbol, or even the name, of the territory. People no longer live ‘next to’ the marsh, they live ‘in the Marsh’.
A call to action
Whether it is through protecting peatlands or restoring floodplains, every action counts.
Thanks to the tools developed by OiEau, managers and citizens now have concrete levers at their disposal to ensure that wetlands are no longer seen as constraints, but as an opportunity for our future.
To know more about wetlands
Why are they essential for humans and biodiversity?
Wetlands — also known as marshes — are areas where water is permanently or temporarily present on the surface of the ground or underground.
Whether freshwater, brackish or saltwater, they encompass a wide variety of environments:
- Marshes and swamps
- Peat bogs (true carbon sinks)
- Wet grasslands
- Lagoons and mangroves
- Rivers and lakes
Wetlands are not simply ‘wastelands’; they provide invaluable ecosystem services:
- Biodiversity reservoirs: They are home to 40% of all species worldwide. They are essential breeding, feeding and migration areas.
- Climate shields: Peatlands, in particular, store twice as much carbon as all the world's forests combined.
- Water regulation: They act as natural sponges, absorbing excess water during floods and releasing it during droughts.
- Natural purification: They filter pollutants and improve the quality of the water we consume.
The decline of wetlands is mainly due to:
- Rapid urbanisation and drainage for agriculture.
- Pollution (chemical fertilisers, plastics, wastewater).
- Climate change, which increases evaporation and alters hydrological cycles.
- Invasive alien species, which upset the balance of local flora and fauna.
It is also a management tool, and OiEau continues to develop tools to help actors in the field transform this sense of belonging into concrete conservation actions.
Promoting the emotional and cultural connection between residents and their wetlands is one of the keys to ensuring the success of conservation policies.
Discover our projects related to wetlands
