ACADEMIC co-ordinator for the University of the West Indies Port Royal Marine Laboratory, Dr Mona Webber, has called on Government and other stakeholders to place greater emphasis on protecting the island’s wetlands.

“Failure to do so could result in a number of problems,” Webber told Career & Education.

She was speaking during a presentation at the marine laboratory to mark World Wetlands Day, celebrated on February 2.

“Today, one of the biggest threats against the island’s wetlands continues to be those persons who remove and destroy the various wetland sites to carry out development,” she said.

Webber added that this is one threat that needs to be addressed as a matter of immediacy, given the value of wetlands.

“Wetlands are very important habitats as they protect the shoreline from storm surges, serve as a nursery for fish and protect the coral reef from sedimentation and pollution from land,” she told Corporate Area students present at the day’s event.

Webber said further that failure to protect the wetlands would mean that rising sea levels and increasing global temperatures would have significant impact on the plants and animal species that inhabit them.

“This will in the long run reduce the amount of protection wetlands could provide for other habitats, such as coral reefs,” Webber noted.

Jamaica has several wetlands, three of which are designated as Ramsar sites, that is, wetlands of international importance. They include the Black River Lower Morass (1997), Palisades-Port Royal (2005), and the Portland Bight Wetlands and Cays (2006).

World Wetlands Day this year was celebrated under the theme “Caring for Wetlands — an answer to climate change”. The activities thus focussed on the impact of climate change on wetlands and the role wetlands play in reducing the effects of a changing climate. Those effects include not only rising sea levels and global temperatures, but also increased extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and droughts, and increased incidence of diseases, such as dengue and malariaa

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