Coastal Wetlands and the Climate Crisis
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Coastal wetlands and the climate crisis: Why the Mediterranean needs nature-based solutions Italy will face substantial flooding Heatwaves: Increased in coastal areas frequency, intensity The crisis in and duration The Balearics and Mediterranean wetlands: other areas will see Desert areas increase in substantial changes in * Spain, Portugal, Morocco, their shorelines numbers Algeria, Tunisia, Sicily, vital but vanishing Turkey, Syria One-third of the region’s coastal population will be The Mediterranean is getting hotter – and we need its wetlands more than ever. affected by rising Wetlands are at the heart of life itself. They give us our drinking water, irrigate our sea levels Mediterranean crops, support huge biodiversity, underpin cultures, and are increasingly vital in the population under severe 15 megacities fight to mitigate and adapt to climate change. But our wetlands are in trouble. In the water stress: (>1 million inhabitants) 1.5°C are at risk Mediterranean we’ve destroyed about half of our wetlands in the last 50 years, and there rise since Today: 180 million from flooding are intense pressures on remaining areas, most of which are damaged and degraded. 1880-1899 By 2040: 250 million When we lose our wetlands, we lose all the benefits and services they offer – and with a growing population and a heating planet, we can’t afford for this to happen. The Mediterranean: 2.2°C AIR projected a climate crisis hotspot rise by 2040 15-30% The Mediterranean is a climate change hotspot, and this makes how we manage its wetlands in the coming rainfall decades all the more significant. decrease by 2100 10-20% Scientific projections for climate change in the region were released by the network of Mediterranean increase in heavy Experts on Climate and Environmental Change (MedECC) in 2019. The findings are shocking, rainfall events >3.8°C by 2080 confirming that the region will be hit harder and faster than most other parts of the world. This will have projected rise serious social, economic and environmental consequences for millions of people. by 2100 The overall figures vary depending on the scenarios used in the estimates, but they paint a vivid picture of a region at the sharp end of the climate crisis: 50% RAINFALL AND flood risk increase by 1.8-3.5°C FLOODS 2100 hotter by The Mediterranean 2100 region is warming 2.2°C 52-190cm projected global average rise by 2100 temperature 20% 13% faster than the rest erosion risk rise by 2040 of the world* increase by 2100 3.4mm MEDITERRANEAN rise per SEA year © MedIsWet * MedECC, 2018 2 *Figures from Risks associated to climate and environmental changes in the Mediterranean region, MedECC, 2018 3 How wetlands provide CO2 Flood defences Wetlands disperse and absorb excess CO2 nature-based solutions water, which slows down flows, preventing soil erosion and flood damage caused by extreme weather events. Water to the climate crisis stored in this way can also help maintain river levels during droughts. Such events are increasing, and throughH2 Othis ‘sponge effect’ wetlands offer a really Against the urgent backdrop of a changing climate, healthy wetlands provide people effective – and entirely natural – way of defending Biodiversity and planet with diverse critical services – effectively, they offer nature-based solutions ourselves against the damage they cause. H2O to manmade problems. Wetlands are among the most productive habitats on Earth, and CO2 Carbon sinks Mediterranean wetlands are home to some of the world’s richest biodiversity: freshwater Wetlands are among the under threat* wetlands hold more than 40% of the world’s world’s most significant carbon species and 12% of all animal species. Coastal sinks – estimates show they wetlands host countless bird species, especially currently store up to 40% of the during migrations, and shelter critical fish world’s carbon. Restoring more wetland areas populations. Biodiversity projections in a would sequester more carbon, reducing the heating climate show major losses in all species level of atmospheric greenhouse gases fuelling H2O groups, so it’s imperative that existing wetland global heating, and making an important habitats remain viable and as many others as contribution to mitigating future temperature possible are restored. CO2 rises. When they’re destroyed, though, the carbon they store enters the atmosphere – so damaging wetlands doesn’t just prevent us Reduction in Reduction in Change in animal wetlands Reduction in flood control abundance from enjoying their benefits, it directly makes since 1970 river flows capacity 36% since 1990 95% Wetlands today: a Mediterranean crisis the world a hotter place. Wetland species Coastal wetland Wetland areas used to extend across vast -48% -25% -20% threatened by -35% sites home to expanses of the Mediterranean basin, CO2 extinction more than 50,000 but for hundreds of years wetlands were H2O Water provision and waterbirds seen as land that needed to be drained, purification threatened by filled in, cleared, made ‘productive’. The sea level rise Wetlands are the kidneys of process accelerated in the 20th century as Nature. They play a critical part in -75% a fast-growing population drove runaway storing and cleaning our drinking development in an increasingly resource- water, either directly or by recharging starved region. CO2 Protection from rising seas groundwater aquifers. Climate change is H2O Food provision Today wetlands cover some 18.5 million reducing the quantity and quality of available Along the coast, wetlands buffer the hectares, between 1.7-2.4% of the total area water, while demand continues to rise. land from waves and wind. As sea levels The global food system is one of the of the 27 Mediterranean countries. With a Once water enters wetland systems, plants rise, coastal wetland areas from sand biggest contributors to climate change. very few exceptions their flooding regimes known as hydrophytes filter its chemicals dunes to mangroves become the first line of Sustainable aquaculture and coastal are now artificially managed, and many of and sediment, absorbing pollutants and defence against the encroaching salt waters – which fisheries can both provide important low- the remaining areas are badly degraded. converting them into nutrients, a natural otherwise threaten settlements, farmland, drinking carbon sources of nutrition to reduce net emissions purification and storage system. In a water-H2O water supplies and freshwater ecosystems. The more – but to operate successfully over the long term both stressed Mediterranean, this role is growing robust and resilient they are, the more effectively depend on healthy and resilient wetlands. more important by the day. they can dissipate the energy of the waves. * Source: report “Mediterranean wetlands - Challenges and prospects 2: solutions for sustainable Mediterranean wetlands”, MWO-OZHM, Tour du Valat, 2018. 4 5 Why are our Ramsar: working for wetlands wetlands Wetlands have one effective global mechanism dedicated to their ‘conservation and wise use’: the Ramsar Convention. An international treaty which came into force in 1976, the Ramsar Convention identifies and protects internationally important wetland sites, encouraging disappearing? action and cooperation between the 170 contracting parties. In total, there are 2,372 Ramsar sites in the world covering over 2.5 million km2. There are currently 424 Ramsar sites in the Mediterranean, and campaigners are working hard to bring other important Mediterranean Agriculture – The single biggest factor in the wetland areas under Ramsar Convention protection. loss of Mediterranean wetlands is agriculture. Vast areas have been drained and converted for agricultural use. MedWet: Development – From ever-spreading industry driving action and urbanisation to waterfront tourist complexes, 8. infrastructure development has ravaged much of 24. The Mediterranean Wetlands the Mediterranean’s natural heritage – wetlands Initiative (MedWet) encourages have been at the sharp end of land use change, 21. 5. 3. and supports wetland managers particularly in coastal regions. 20. 4. 16. and governments to adopt Changes in hydrology – Few wetlands 11. 17. 22. 1. policies and take action today maintain natural hydrological cycles: dams, 26. on the ground to drive the dikes and diverted flows for irrigation and other 19. 9. conservation and sustainable purposes all reduce nature’s ability to self-regulate, 15. 23. use of Mediterranean wetlands. and ecological processes begin to break down. 25. 6. Sedimentation/erosion 2. Founded in 1991, MedWet – Wetland 18. 13. was the first – and remains the vegetation plays an important role in keeping 10. leading – regional initiative 7. 12. waterways clear – when it’s removed for 14. officially recognised under the grazing or development, banks are eroded and Ramsar Convention. sedimentation follows. Pollution Geared to long-term – Agriculture, industry and urban collaboration, MedWet is centres all pollute wetlands, harming biodiversity the only platform where and reducing the resilience of natural processes. Country Ramsar sites Hectares Country Ramsar sites Hectares* institutions and civil society Invasive species – Whether introduced on 1. Albania 4 98,181 14. Libya 2 83 share knowledge and technical purpose or by accident, alien wetland species 2. Algeria 50 2,991,013 15. Malta 2 117 capacity for the benefit of can out-compete native ones, unbalancing 3. Bosnia and Herzegovina 3 56,779 16. Monaco 1 23 wetlands in the Mediterranean. ecosystems. The issue is compounded because 4. Bulgaria 17. Montenegro It includes the 27 Mediterranean waterways act as networks through which new 11 49,873 3 21,627 5. Croatia 5 94,358 18. Morocco 38 316,086 contracting parties to the species spread. 6.Cyprus 19. Portugal Ramsar Convention, as well Climate change 1 1,107 31 132,487 – While wetlands can help 7. Egypt 20. Serbia 4 415,532 10 63,919 as Palestine, the Ramsar defend us against climate change when they’re 8. France 21. Slovenia Secretariat, intergovernmental 49 3,714,412 3 8,205 preserved, they’re also directly threatened by it.