site.btaUPDATED Wetlands May Be Key to Tackling Drought and Water Scarcity - Experts

In an interview for BTA dedicated to the World Wetlands Day, February 2, ichthyologist Stoyan Mihov, chief expert at WWF Bulgaria, and Petar Yankov, conservation officer at the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds, spoke about the importance of wetlands in Bulgaria. Wetlands are fragile ecosystems that are rich in biodiversity, easy to destroy and difficult to restore. Their conservation may be key to tackling drought and water scarcity.

Wetlands are like a sponge that absorbs water during periods of intense rainfall and then slowly release water that can benefit both people and animals, Mihov said. They act like a buffer during floods, the expert added. In recent years, the importance of wetlands for the economy and for human settlements has also been highlighted, Mihov said. In light of climate change, wetlands provide ecosystem services that other habitats cannot offer.

Yankov said that there is a good rationale for declaring a World Wetlands Day and that is the ongoing degradation and loss of water on our planet. The goal is to make more people aware of the problem, to learn about ways to prevent or slow it, to take action.

Wetlands are home to many plant and animal species, however, they are threatened globally by climate change and human activities, especially construction.

The situation in Bulgaria

Bulgaria was among the first countries to join the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. It has 11 wetlands with a total area of 49,912.43 ha, the Ministry of Environment and Water reported. These are: Lake Atanasovsko, Belene Islands Complex, Lake Durankulak, Ibisha Island, Lake Shabla, Poda area, Lake Pomorie, Ropotamo Complex, Lake Srebarna, Lake Burgas, karst wetland Dragoman Marsh.

Wetlands are areas that are temporarily or permanently flooded with water, such as lakes, marshes, bogs, peatlands, but also riverbanks and floodplains, Mihov said.

Yankov said that wetland conservation has two aspects: the protection of aquatic ecosystems and the creatures that inhabit them, and the protection of the overall system of the natural water cycle and society's use of water. He added that it is difficult to estimate the exact number of wetlands, because by definition they are bodies of water, including coastal waters, up to six metres deep.

The two experts commented that efforts in Bulgaria are made to maintain, even restore wetlands, however, some damage seems to be irreversible. Some 90% to 95% of all wetland areas that used to exist in the country have been lost. The remaining 5% to 10% are not in good condition. The main reason for the disappearance of wetlands is drainage, mostly for agricultural or construction purposes.

Lake Straldzha is an example of a water body affected by human activities. It was drained for agricultural purposes, but the land never yielded the expected amounts of crops, as its soil is saline, acidic and infertile. The same applied for the other destroyed marshes across the country.

The environmentalists commented that Bulgaria is not as rich in water resources as it believed once. Despite the common understanding that we are very rich in water, this is not quite true, Mihov said, citing data from the European Commission. He added that this is due to Bulgaria's topography, which is mostly mountainous.

The flow of the country's larger rivers is also much lower than it was just a century ago, Yankov added. Most of the 3,000 or so artificially created micro-dams have dried out or contain much less water than they had at the beginning. Yankov said that Bulgaria has a big water management problem.

Ways to protect the wetlands

There are two national wetland conservation plans, however, they are focused on the conservation of the most significant wetlands and are, so to speak, remedial in nature, Yankov said. A much more detailed national water resources management plan is needed, with detailed elaborations at the regional and local levels to comprehensively protect water as a resource for. "And most importantly, adopted plans are not enough, if they are not backed by material and financial resources, as they essentially remain only on paper," the ecologist said.

One of reasons for the establishment of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds was a desire to save the endangered vultures in the Eastern Rhodopes and to help the endangered birds of Lake Atanasovsko. Soon, the society founders focused their efforts on Bulgaria's wetlands.

The focus of WWF is the Dragoman Marsh. "By maintaining it, we want to demonstrate what a wetland can do and see the benefits for local communities," Mihov said. The organization is working on a concept for the development of the Iskar River near Sofia to show how a wetland can be an environmentally friendly solution to reduce flood risk and a place for recreation.

Life in wetlands

Living nature is the most sensible, purposeful and orderly thing on our planet, Yankov said. Wetlands have a specific array of living things. There can be no pelicans, flamingos or swans, if there were no such bodies of water. The white stork largely depends on small rivers and wetlands with frogs, the ecologist added.