The latest study of wetlands, developed by the Humboldt Institute, was surprised by the reveal that the colombian territory is a 26 percent wetland, this implies close to 30 million hectares.
however, those close to the 24 per cent has already been transformed by the hand of man.
By this critical situation, some of the wetlands, is that the researchers Juan Carlos Gutiérrez and Joy Fonseca of the Foundation of the Soul, sent this Thursday – World Wetlands Day – a letter to president Juan Manuel Santos to advocate for its protection.
(Read also: These are the places where it is supposed to protect the wetlands)
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Since the constitution of the Republic of Colombia, the serious conflicts of the colombian society have left a large debt with peoples and nations, and in general with the nature. As well, the exuberant geography of valleys, plains, seas and mountains has been viewed more as a theater of conflict, theater of operations, red zone, fortin electoral, or "polygon" of exploitation of resources, as territories full of biodiversity and culture, water reserves and places of fertile soil in the currently degraded.
Each February 2, is commemorated worldwide as the International Day of the Wetlands, and at this juncture urge you, mr. president, to decide wisely, your final protection. is What is there to celebrate if, in Colombia, in particular, 24.2% (7,332,656 ha) of wetlands in evidence of conflicts arising from actions of high-impact, whose trend is growing? (according to data from the publication "Colombia Amphibious" at the Institute of Research of Biological Resources Alexander von Humboldt).
Without exception, urban dwellers, and of the fields colombians depend directly of the complex of wetlands. It is worth remembering that wetland is any ecosystem that by its geographical conditions allows for the accumulation and flow of the water, temporarily or permanently, constituting soils, and organisms adapted to such conditions.
The wetlands are also socioecosistemas, this means that supply of water, food and raw materials; they are essential in the regulation of the climate and water, fertilize soils, control erosion processes; they are habitat of various peoples and cultures, a stage for preferential development of scientific knowledge, classrooms open for environmental education, areas of high cultural value and enjoyment of the aesthetic, scenic, spiritual, touristic, and recreational.
the international day of The wetlands should be occasion to pass from words to deeds, from law to practice, and project decisions that correspond to the major challenges of adaptation and the search for resilience in the midst of a planet affected climate and socially by development models based on the aspiration of "growth" economic byproduct of the extraction of goods and non-renewable resources and a critical system of production-consumption, unregulated and unrestrained.
the Region must build a strategy and specific agenda, is not the same management that require wetlands and rivers critical to addressing the extreme drought and pestilence in the human Guajira, that the undertaking in other regions of the country. the national policies environmental need to be specified in investment plans that correspond with the need of protection of the water.
Any piece of infrastructure, urban expansion, industrial development, guerrilla groups, agribusiness, entrepreneurship, tourism, it must be managed on the basis of the recognition of the close 30.781.149 hectares of wetlands -26% of the continental colombian – according to the Humboldt Institute.
This fourth part of the colombian territory is the essential core of the connectivity of genetic information, matter and energy; its ecosystem is the connector of the humidity of the air, a receiver and manager of the water and sediments of basins, on plains, source of recharge and exchange with aquifers, places of reproduction of the megadiversity and epicentre of ancient cultures and current.
The wetlands colombians are much more of those who are registered and officially recognized. Despite the fact that Colombia signed since 1998, the Ramsar Convention, of the nearly 30 million hectares of wetlands identified, only have been declared to be six under this category (2.4% of the total wetlands), figure pyrrhic when compared to the 305 Ramsar wetlands declared in Latin america, which is an indicator shameful that in part explains the poor management that the country has had of these ecosystems.
The Humboldt Institute ahead of a rigorous study that was published in 2015, Colombia Amphibious, which presents a documentation and registration of the wetlands of Colombia, a map of their location, distribution and characteristics in the territory, and the Ministry of Environment has not taken. We insist, mr. president, that this effort be recognized by the National Government and is an input for the decision making in instances of local and regional authorities and productive sectors.
There is then a debt to the wetlands. Marshes, swamps, lagoons, morichales were the cradle of the early hunters and gatherers for more than 15,000 years, and it is also made of the current cities and regions in colombia.
On its banks have been raised complex societies that have had the water as territory-acuatorios-, companies hydraulic as the Zenu, towns, hoisted on stilts on the ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta, settlements amphibians of the momposina depression, populations and fisheries of the savanna floodplain of the rivers Magdalena, Cauca, Atrato, Colombia, Orinoco, Putumayo, Sinú, Cesar, and many others.
A debt that requires measures and actions decided further that documents and seminars. The fresh water that comes from mountains and flows through flat plains and savannahs in the Caribbean, Pacific, Orinoco and Amazon cannot continue to be managed as a thing as a disposable or privatizable, we are humus, wetlands, and humanity; issues that require act accordingly. the peace is also with the ecosystems and its people.
LIFE TODAY*
*Playback of the charter of the researchers, Juan Carlos Gutiérrez and Joy Fonseca
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