{"id":2359,"date":"2022-03-23T15:54:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-23T13:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dossier.org.ua\/news\/strategic-importance-of-wetlands\/"},"modified":"2022-04-14T17:09:27","modified_gmt":"2022-04-14T14:09:27","slug":"strategic-importance-of-wetlands","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.dossier.org.ua\/en\/news\/strategic-importance-of-wetlands\/","title":{"rendered":"Wetlands are of strategic importance not only for sustainability and nature conservation but also for the military and population\u2019s safety"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wetlands provide a wide variety of vital services for nature preservation, agriculture, tourism, and climate. However, in Ukraine, the past 100 years have brought a significant transformation of the natural water and wetlands sites, which under the current climate crisis now poses serious risks for biodiversity, water supply, and the economy of the country. Most of the rivers have been severely restricted in their natural hydrological regime by the construction of multiple dams and dikes,  suffered from building up the banks, and unsustainable water use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many banks were \u201cclothed\u201d with fancy concrete constructions and streams \u201ctamed\u201d by directing them into concrete collectors and often only to serve for collection of untreated sewage water. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many lakes, especially in and surrounding the big cities where land prices have been soaring for decades, have disappeared under newly developed estates, and the rivers and peatlands were drained to create more arable land and private homes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 27 days of a full-scale war in Ukraine has already provided a range of evidence that the preservation of wetlands is also vital for the safety of the population during wartime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First of all, wetlands, swamps, wet bogs, and rivers become an impregnable barrier for advancing army forces and tanks, artillery, and other heavy vehicles, as it has happened with Russian forces that have been stooped on its way to Kyiv by the swollen by spring waters valley of the Irpin River. On top of it, the ignorant of local condition occupying forces have blown a dike between Irpin\u2019s estuary and Kyivske water storage in the River Dnieper (the storage water level is higher than Irpin\u2019s \u2013 it was designed that way many years ago \u2013 the Irpin waters at the estuary are separated from the storage by the dike and pumped up into the storage), flooding the lying lover valley of Irpin and making impossible for anyone to cross the river Irpin at its lower part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, keeping the wetlands provides more moisture for the surrounding ecosystems that can significantly affect the spread and intensity of fires resulting from heavy shelling during the war. Such fires have already been observed in ecosystems of northern parts of Kyiv and Chernigiv oblasts where intensive fighting occurs, including the parts of the Chernobyl Zone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reduction in spreading and intensity of fires directly affects the air quality and its effect on the local population\u2019s health. It has already been apparent in Kyiv, where heavy fighting around the city and specific weather conditions brought the air quality to one of the worst globally in recent days. The heavy fighting prevents any action for firefighting, so the only hope for improving air quality and reduction of the radioactivity spread from the fires in the Chernobyl exclusion zone are changing weather patterns and rains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, the rivers and lakes are the emergency reservoirs of water for the population at times of disrupted centralized water supply and for firefighting, especially in the big cities. The lack of accessible and clean water bodies carries direct risks for life, property, and safety of the local population in the minds of combatants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, functioning wetland ecosystems ensure the high-level and good quality of groundwater, enough deposits of water in local wells, springs, and surface water bodies, which can provide for the needs of the local population. <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

This has become evident in cases of many Ukrainian cities and villages \u2013 Mariupol, Chernihiv, Okhtyrka, Volnovakha, Gostomel, and many others \u2013 have shown that investing in the development of the drilled well have been unsustainable practice for securing water access for the population as these require electricity for functioning, and during the war centralized electricity supply can also be severed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, the restoration of wetlands and the functional ecosystems around the rivers and lakes, bogs, and peatlands is the nature-based solution not only for nature restoration, sustainable agricultural practices, climate change mitigation, sustainable forestry, and ecosystem fire prevention. It is also a solution for improving the resilience of critical civil infrastructure, water supply sources for the population and economic activities during wartime, improving civil and military defense infrastructure, and a vital element of the country\u2019s security system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In rebuilding the country after the current war is over, we need to add more consideration to our future resilience and security by adding more respect to the natural wetlands ecosystem\u2019s role in the physical survival of the land and its people.\u00a0<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Olga Ignatenko, Information Center \u201cGreen Dossier\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n