Wetlands cover more than 6% of the earth’s surface. They exist of water or ice and earth. Wetlands can be found all over the world, from the polar regions to the tropics. In many regions of the world, wetlands are deteriorating rapidly. As they are the most highly threatened ecosystems of our planet, we need to take action to preserve wetlands.
People around the world are relying on wetlands for their spiritual, cultural as well as economic well-being; That is why we need to safeguard the existence of wetlands worldwide.

There are several ways to categorise wetlands. A wetland may be found in:

• Coasts: areas between land and open sea that are not influenced by rivers (e.g. shorelines, beaches, mangroves and coral reefs)
• Estuaries: where rivers meet the sea and water changes from fresh to salt as it meets the sea (e.g. deltas, mudflats and salt marches)
• Floodplains: areas next to the permanent course of a river that extends to the edge of the valley (e.g. ox-bow lakes and river-islands)
• Marshes/swamps: areas where water is more or less permanently at the surface and/or causing saturation of the soil (e.g. papyrus swamp, fen, peatlands)
• Shallow lakes: areas of permanent or semi-permanent water with little flow (e.g. ponds, salt lakes, volcanic crater lakes).

Wetlands are important because of the following reasons:

• Animal species
• Biological productivity
• Water Quality and Hydrology
• Water storage
• Flood protection
• Shoreline Erosion
• Economics

To give an example: 40% of the world population depends on the glaciers of the Himalaya for their water. If the glaciers melt, the constant flow of water is replaced by floods in the wet season and droughts in the dry.

Although large-scale benefits of functions can be valued, determining the value of individual wetlands is difficult because they differ widely and do not all perform the same functions or perform functions equally well. Decision makers must understand that impacts on wetland functions can eliminate or diminish the values of wetlands.