2021 is the 50th anniversary of World Wetlands Day which is held annually on 2 February.  The theme this year is Wetlands and Water.

Wetlands include freshwater swamps, bogs, gumlands, pākihi, fens, marshes and seepages. They are a threatened habitat in New Zealand. We have lost over 90% of our wetlands through drainage and clearance.  I 1840 non-estuarine wetlands covered about 9% of the country.  Lowland wetlands have been very heavily impacted (Ausseil et al. 2011).

The IPCC Report on Oceans and Cryosphere predicts with high confidence that globally 20 to 90% of coastal wetlands will be lost due to projected sea level rise.  Worst affected include those constrained by landward steep topography or human modification of shorelines (see B6.2 IPCC SR Ocean and Cryosphere).

See for example: Loss of wetlands continue  and  Loss of wetlands since 1990 in Southland, New Zealand and  NZ running out of wetland areas – report