3 February 2021
Introduction:
The Union government has announced to establish India’s first Centre for Wetland Conservation and Management (CWCM) on the occasion of World Wetland Day in Chennai.
Highlights:
- This Centre for Wetland Conservation and Management will be set in a bid to address the knowledge gaps and specific research needs for the conservation and management of wetlands.
About Centre for Wetland Conservation and Management
- The Centre for Wetland Conservation and Management (CWCM) will be set up by the central government in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
- This conservation centre would be a part of the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management. This national centre is an institution under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
- The CWCM will play a significant role to design and implement the regulatory frameworks and policies. It will also help in monitoring, management planning and targeted research in a bid to conserve the wetlands.
- The conservation centre will also act as a knowledge hub.
- It will enable the exchange between the wetland authorities in States or Union Territories, managers, wetland researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and users.
- The centre will further help in building the networks and partnerships with the relevant international and national agencies.
What are wetlands?
- Wetland are a distinct ecosystem that are flooded by water.
- They are flooded either permanently or seasonally.
- In such ecosystems, oxygen-free processes prevail.
- Wetlands helps in water purification, water storage, processing of carbon and the stabilization of shorelines.
- It also provides support to the plants and animals.
- They are the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems.
- They occur naturally on every continent and the water in the can be either freshwater, brackish, or saltwater.
Wetlands in India
- India has 42 Ramsar sites that have been designated as Wetlands of International Importance. They cover around 4.6% of Indian landmass.
World Wetlands Day
- In a bid to conserve the wetlands, February 2 is observed as World Wetlands Day.
- In the year 2021, the day marked the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
- This convention was signed at Ramsar in Iran in the year 1971.