Today, the NGO Green Home marked the World Wetlands Day with an educational trip to the NP Skadarsko jezero. The trip was attended by high school students, students, researchers, nature lovers and curious citizens.

The participants had the opportunity to hear about the natural phenomena that characterize this national park, as well as the threats that are present in this ecosystem, while observing species characteristic of wetland habitats.

The theme of this year’s Wetlands Day is: Wetlands and human well-being, which aims to show how crucial wetlands are for human life, due to the vital services they provide to people such as: filtering water, providing food, mitigating climate change, supporting biodiversity and numerous others.

The World Wetlands Day was proclaimed in 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar. The Convention on Wetlands is an intergovernmental agreement that provides a framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources, and to date it has been signed by 171 countries of the world. 2414 wetlands are included in the list of wetlands that have international protection status, that is, in the Ramsar list.

In Montenegro, on the Ramsar list of wetlands of international importance are Skadar Lake, Ulcinj Salina and Tivat Solila. Among other important locations when it comes to wetland habitats, there are: Mareza, Lužnica, Buljarica, Lake Plav and its surroundings, Lake surroundings on Durmitor, Šaško lake and others.

Despite all their importance, wetlands are one of the most endangered ecosystems on Earth, with a high rate of disappearance, which is the reason for marking this date at the international level. The causes of degradation and loss of wetlands and wetlands are drying out, habitat changes, pollution, overexploitation and climate change, which also characterize our wetlands.