?Agriculture Minister Arnold Piggott is appealing to citizens to preserve and sustain T&T's wetlands because it provides part of the solution to climate change. Piggott said so while delivering the feature address in recognition of World Wetlands Day on Tuesday. The celebration exercise took place at the Caroni Swamp Visitor Centre, off the Uriah Butler Highway. This year's theme for World Wetlands Day celebration is Caring for Wetlands–An Answer to Climate Change. "Wetlands are constantly under threat, particularly from human activities and we must be sensitive to its fragility," Piggott said. He said water-borne pollution from industrial, mining, quarrying and domestic activities, even executed at some considerable distance from the wetlands area, have had as destructive an impact as the filling, alteration and the development of the wetlands themselves.
He said the recent global developments pertinent to the impact of climate change had brought a renewed focus on environmental issues. Piggott said wetlands helped in reducing the levels of atmospheric carbon. If properly managed, he said, wetlands could act as a buffer to the worst effects of climate change through the process of photosynthesis by wetland plants. "It is part of the solution to the much talked about climate change, but it is important that we manage them well in order to preserve their ecosystem and biodiversity," he said. Wetlands can be generally described as lowland areas saturated with water flowing, fresh, brackish or salt � such as swamps and marshes.
Piggott said wetlands also played a very important part in the water cycle. "This was very important for T&T because the nation has been experiencing uncharacteristically low levels of rainfall, which has created challenges with respect to our water supply," he said. He said wetlands were very important to the water cycle because they were valuable water storage areas which allowed for significant evaporation to occur. "Therefore, we have a responsibility to protect and safeguard our water sources," he said. "Caring for our wetlands is not an option, it is an imperative."
