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News Water security depends on forests and wetlands

In our rapidly urbanizing world water security is a key issue. Today, as we celebrate World Wetlands Day and inaugurate the International Year of Forests, it is important to
recognize the critical links between water, forests, wetlands and people. More than one in six people worldwide still do not have access to safe drinking water. We are witnessing escalating problems with water scarcity and increasing problems with extremes in water availability – such as droughts and floods.
Estimates suggest that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in regions with absolute water scarcity, with the possibility of two-thirds of the world’s population experiencing water-stress conditions. Recent assessments suggest that about 80 per cent of the global population already live in areas where water is insecure.
Water is tightly linked to forests and wetland ecosystems through the hydrological cycle. Forests and wetlands regulate water availability and serve as natural water purification systems. Forests help route water in a watershed by stabilizing soils, which allows water to enter them, and also regulate soil erosion.
This maintains catchments, preventing desertification and salinization. Forests also emit water vapour into the atmosphere, thereby regulating local climate and rainfall. In turn, forests depend on groundwater and soil moisture for their survival and rely on wetlands to replenish this. There are also crucial economic benefits from the linkages between water, forests and wetlands. For example, forested protected areas provide a significant portion of the drinking-water supply to at least one third of the world’s largest cities. Forested wetlands, like mangroves, protect human communities from natural catastrophes such as tsunamis, and river floodplains play a key role in protecting downstream communities from floods.

In our rapidly urbanizing world water security is a key issue. Today, as we celebrate World Wetlands Day and inaugurate the International Year of Forests, it is important torecognize the critical links between water, forests, wetlands and people. More than one in six people worldwide still do not have access to safe drinking water. We are witnessing escalating problems with water scarcity and increasing problems with extremes in water availability – such as droughts and floods.
Estimates suggest that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in regions with absolute water scarcity, with the possibility of two-thirds of the world’s population experiencing water-stress conditions. Recent assessments suggest that about 80 per cent of the global population already live in areas where water is insecure.

Water is tightly linked to forests and wetland ecosystems through the hydrological cycle. Forests and wetlands regulate water availability and serve as natural water purification systems. Forests help route water in a watershed by stabilizing soils, which allows water to enter them, and also regulate soil erosion.

This maintains catchments, preventing desertification and salinization. Forests also emit water vapour into the atmosphere, thereby regulating local climate and rainfall. In turn, forests depend on groundwater and soil moisture for their survival and rely on wetlands to replenish this. There are also crucial economic benefits from the linkages between water, forests and wetlands. For example, forested protected areas provide a significant portion of the drinking-water supply to at least one third of the world’s largest cities. Forested wetlands, like mangroves, protect human communities from natural catastrophes such as tsunamis, and river floodplains play a key role in protecting downstream communities from floods.

Contact information Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity: United Nations Environment Programme; 413 Saint-Jacques Street, Suite 800, Montreal, QC, H2Y 1N9, Canada (email: secretariat@cbd.int)
Phone: +1 514 288 2220, Fax : +1 514 288 6588
News type Inbrief
File link http://www.cbd.int/waters/websites
File link local Forests_Wetlands_Facts_2FEB2011.pdf (PDF, 253 Kb)
Source of information Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity
Keyword(s) water scarcity, Water security, forests, wetlands
Subject(s) NATURAL MEDIUM , RISKS AND CLIMATOLOGY
Relation http://www.cbd.int/ts
Geographical coverage n/a
News date 04/02/2011
Working language(s) ENGLISH
PDF