Rising energy, food prices major threats to wetlands as farmers eye new areas for crops

Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso (UFMT)

Established in 1970, the UFMT is a public university, financed by the federal government of Brazil. Located initially in Cuiabá, the capital of Mato Grosso state, UFMT has now three more campuses, in Rondonópolis, Médio Araguaia and SINOP. The only federal university in Mato Grosso, UFMT offers courses in all fields of knowledge to more than 18,000 undergraduate and graduate students.

Cuiabá Declaration on Wetlands (draft for adoption by the final Plenary Session, 3 p.m. EDT, July 25)

The State of Wetlands and their Role in a World of Global Climate Change

This Declaration is directed to governments, international and national organizations, and decision makers, and calls attention to the ecological and legal state of wetlands and their importance for humans and biodiversity worldwide under the special consideration of global climate change scenarios.

Whereas:

1. Wetlands are situated at the interface between land on the one side and marine or fresh water ecosystems on the other. They cover a considerable part of the globe's surface and comprise different ecosystems that are permanently or periodically wet, such as mangroves, tidal marshes, peat bogs, swamps, river floodplains, riparian zones, salt lakes, and others. Some of them are highly productive systems that are widely used by humans. Wetlands support people and biodiversity and they are part of our common future under global climate change.

2. The current lack of basic knowledge regarding the global extent of wetlands is unacceptable. Effective techniques for achieving a global wetlands inventory have been demonstrated. Systematically acquired spaceborne optical and microwave remote sensing data sets are essential to identify and characterize wetlands within the framework of the Ramsar Convention and for various other purposes.

3. Wetlands suffer a number of impacts from human activities, mainly from agriculture, including grazing, aquaculture, water regulation and infrastructure, waste disposal and invasive species. Peat bogs suffer from large scale peat extraction, river floodplains are affected by the construction of dams for hydropower generation and by lateral dikes that modify the water regime and the flux of dissolved and solid materials, and also disrupt the linkages along rivers and between rivers and their floodplains.

4. Freshwater biodiversity is declining faster than terrestrial or marine biodiversity, and wetland species are especially prone to decline and extinction.

5. Rising energy prices are leading to the large-scale cultivation of plants for bio-fuels. In addition to the problems of rising food prices, the increasing demand for bio-fuels will stimulate an expansion of energy-crop plantations at the cost of areas covered by natural vegetation. We call attention to the danger of direct negative impacts on wetlands by land reclamation and drainage, and to the indirect impacts caused increased inputs of sediments, fertilizers, and pesticides from surrounding croplands. Rising energy prices also stimulate the use of hydroelectric power. We call attention to the heavy impact of large and small hydroelectric power plants on riverine wetlands and the loss of benefits for the local population. Wise social policy decisions require sound cost-benefit analyses that include environmental and social parameters in order to adapt these mega-projects to economically, ecologically and socially acceptable standards before construction is started, because mitigation of many negative side-effects is not possible.