World Wetlands Day

Posted on February 1st, 2021

February 2 is World Wetlands Day and 2021 marks the 50th anniversary of the declaration of the Ramsar Convention to protect internationally significant wetlands. It is a great opportunity to learn more about our amazing wetlands and promote awareness of your favourite wetland.

  • Kinka Wetlands
  • Hedlow Creek
  • Robinson Creek

What is a wetland?

We often think of wetlands as just the local swamp or low-lying area near the coast, but wetlands are much more than that. In fact, anywhere that can be wet is a wetland, as long as it has plants, animals or soil types that are adapted to wet conditions.

Great teaching resources

You can find extensive information about wetlands all over Queensland on the Queensland Government’s wetlandinfo website. There is an amazing array of information including guides, definitions, flora and fauna, diagrams, and excellent mapping tools. There is a whole education section including the Wetlands Education Toolkit (PDF, 1.2 MB) which is a classroom teaching resource providing a collection of ideas, information and activities to support effective wetland education and is aligned to the National Curriculum for Science and Geography.

My favourite resources are the catchment stories where you can go on a virtual field trip through an entire catchment and learn all about its features, forms, flora, fauna and flows. In the Fitzroy region, the Calliope, Water Park and Lower Fitzroy catchments are ready to walk through right now!

Act today

This year, Birdlife Australia are asking us all to post photos of our favourite wetland or wetland animal onto social media sites. Post your photos to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media sites on February 2 and together we can share the love and show how important our most precious wetlands are. Include hashtags #WorldWetlandDay, #RespectRamsar and make sure you tag Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley, BirdLife Australia, and the Ramsar Convention. See the details here: Celebrate World Wetlands Day 2021. 

Living in central Queensland there is no shortage of wonderful wetlands to explore and photograph so get out there, get snapping and get posting!

More?