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Coastal wetlands have provided humanity with a wide range of benefits and life-enhancing qualities since the dawn of time. Indeed, they have been witness and mid-wife to the birth of many a civilisation. In the light of the current climate crisis we face with its biblical proportions, the unheralded benefits of coastal wetlands are more than ever critical as we struggle to adapt. Lagoons and floodplains, among others, are natural sponges. They act as buffers against flooding, absorbing water excess from sea-level rise or from downpours and river floods, enabling the water to spread out safely over wider areas. By doing so, the speed and depth of the encroaching water is reduced to safer levels, limiting its negative impact on ecosystems and human infrastructures. Those very same wetlands act as barriers, helping to shelter and protect us from the ever-increasingly frequent storms and higher tides. They also provide water during times of drought, improving its availability for people and agriculture. At a local scale, wetlands help regulate and reduce temperature by evaporation.

Saltmarshes and sea-grass meadows also constitute important carbon sinks, sequestrating atmospheric carbon in the ground. This is an essential natural process of healthy coastal ecosystems that helps to mitigate the main cause of global warming.

But while flourishing coastal wetlands help us adapt and defend ourselves against these increasingly negative climate effects, they are also among the climate crisis’ first victims. As weather patterns are changing, water supply to coastal wetlands is altered, affecting salinity, supply of nutrients and water quality. This destroys some of the most important benefits they provide. Rising sea-levels will be the last nail in the coffin of wetlands, increasingly devastated by intensive exploitation and urbanisation. Poorly managed coastal settlements will find themselves inexorably at the mercy of storms and flooding.

In future posts we will further explore these topics, and illustrate their real consequences, as well as our efforts to protect and enhance coastal wetlands in sites as diverse as Sardinia’s Gulf of Oristano, Tunisia’s Ghar el Melh and Montenegro’s Ulcinj Salina – and many others. Stay tuned!