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Dubai Municipality on Tuesday celebrated the World Wetlands Day 2021, which falls on February 2 every year coinciding with the adoption of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, signed on 2^nd February 1971. The Ramsar Convention selects a specific topic every year to increase awareness on the role played by the urban wetlands in building the future of sustainable cities, and this year the theme was “Water, Wetlands and Life.”

The Municipality observed the World Wetlands Day with the aim of educating and introducing community members on the importance of living organisms in wetlands and their role in the ecological balance.

A virtual symposium was organized on the importance of wetlands and how to preserve them. The attendees were introduced to the natural reserves in the emirate of Dubai that were chosen and approved by the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, including the Jebel Ali Wildlife Sanctuary, the Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary, and the Hatta Mountain Reserve. During the symposium, a virtual tour of the Hatta Mountain Reserve was conducted, introducing the audience to the most important organisms in the reserve and highlighting the Municipality’s role in preserving its wetlands as the efforts of the Emirate of Dubai in the field of wetlands have contributed to the adoption of Hatta Mountain Reserve as the third reserve in the emirate in the Ramsar list of natural reserves with global importance.

In order to enrich the content of the symposium and to get introduced with the best practices followed in preserving wetlands and the organisms in them, Dubai Municipality had sought the cooperation of a number of bodies. During the symposium, the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment gave a presentation on the efforts of the UAE in the field of wetlands, highlighting the importance of the Ramsar Agreement and placing wetlands in the country on this list to preserve them and to ensure its sustainability.

The Environment and Natural Reserves Authority delivered a lecture on the Wasit Wetland Center and the center’s efforts. The Al Ain Zoo provided an awareness lecture under the title, “Wetland Treasures in Al Ain Zoo,” with a focus on water birds that visit the zoo and are present in it in abundance due to the water area in the zoo.  “My Farm Dubai,” located in the Al Khawaneej area, was also highlighted during the symposium. It is distinguished as a local farm that does not use inorganic pesticides and focuses on the importance of preserving living organisms and plants to maintain the ecological balance. The farm also operates with a system of reusing unsuitable plants as fertilizer for other crops.

Wetlands with fresh and salt water are considered essential to the existence of man and nature, and they support social and economic development through the multiple services they provide, as they contribute to storing and purifying water, food supply, and supporting the global economy. More than a billion people around the world earn their income from wetlands.

Wetlands are home to 40% of the species on the planet that live and breed in them, and nearly 200 new fish species are discovered annually in freshwater wetlands, and coral reefs are home to 25% of all species. In addition to that the Wetlands contribute in providing protection from floods and storms, as each acre of wetlands absorbs up to 1.5 million gallons of flood water.