South Africa's wetlands are disappearing faster than we can restore them

Daily Maverick

16-07-2025

South Africa's vital wetlands are degrading faster than investment in their rehabilitation. As a result, they are facing catastrophic decline. This follows a global trend of wetland decline, a key finding in the new Global Wetland Outlook.
'South Africa's wetlands are in critical decline,' Dr Farai Terrerai, director of biodiversity assessments at the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), told Daily Maverick upon the release of the 2025 Global Wetland Outlook on Tuesday, 15 July.
This follows a global trend of declining wetlands, with severe impacts for people and the environment. The 2025 Global Wetland Outlook (GWO), published by the Convention on Wetlands and produced by its Scientific and Technical Review Panel, warns that without urgent action, one-fifth of the world's remaining wetlands could vanish by 2050.
The estimated cost of that loss, according to the report, is up to $39-trillion in benefits that support people, economies and nature.
The report ultimately synthesises recent scientific and economic evidence to examine the extent of wetland loss and degradation, the ecosystem services that wetlands provide, and the actions required to achieve international restoration and conservation targets.
Wetlands in crisis and a call to action
Wetlands, encompassing a diverse range of ecosystems, from marshes and swamps to coastal mangroves and coral reefs, are indispensable for human wellbeing and the planet's ecological balance.
They provide myriad ecosystem services, including water purification, flood control, carbon sequestration and support for an astonishing 40% of known plant and animal species.
Despite their immense value, the GWO 2025 paints a grim picture of widespread degradation across all regions, with millions of hectares lost and countless freshwater species pushed to the brink.
Alarmingly, the GWO 2025 found that since 1970, an estimated 411 million hectares of wetlands (about 22% of the global total) have been lost, with an ongoing annual decline of 0.52%.
The lead authors, including lead of the Freshwater Biodiversity Programme at SANBI, Nancy Job, said that these losses significantly affect water availability, biodiversity, climate stability and human wellbeing.
The Outlook also found that degradation of wetlands globally now rivals outright loss, with about 25% of the remaining wetlands in poor ecological condition – this proportion is increasing in all regions.
It estimates that the world's remaining wetlands contribute up to $39-trillion in benefits each year, yet conservation funding remains far below what is required.
There are a number of interacting pressures leading to this, including agricultural expansion, pollution, infrastructure development, hydrological disruption and the impacts of climate change.
In the opening remarks of the Outlook, secretary-general of the Convention on Wetlands Dr Musonda Mumba and chair of the Scientific and Technical Review Panel at the Convention on Wetlands Dr Hugh Robertson, state: 'The data presented in this Outlook are sobering.'
They revealed that the economic value of wetlands lost over the past 50 years exceeds $5.1-trillion. But this figure fails to capture the full intrinsic worth and profound cultural significance of these vital ecosystems.
Reduced access to clean water, increased vulnerability to natural disasters and rising greenhouse gas emissions are just some of the mounting costs associated with the decline of wetlands globally.
The Outlook was launched in the lead-up to the Convention on Wetlands COP15 in Zimbabwe next week, when 172 countries will gather at Victoria Falls to strengthen international commitments for wetland conservation.
Dr Evelyn Ndhlovu, the minister of the environment, climate and wildlife in Zimbabwe, said during the launch: 'Wetlands are among the most important ecosystems for water and biodiversity. Yet in many countries, including my own, they face growing pressure from land use changes, population growth and the impacts of climate change.'
Ndhlovu called for better data, better coordination in response, and to effectively come up with the programmes that will change this status quo.
The critical decline of South Africa's wetlands
The GWO 2025 highlights that South African wetlands are degrading faster than they can be restored. Terrerai said the rate of degradation in the country continues to outpace investment in rehabilitation efforts.
Terrerai said the main drivers of wetland degradation in South Africa align with regional trends in Africa, and include: urban, agricultural and industrial pollution; urban expansion; agricultural intensification; infrastructure development; and invasion by alien species.
South Africa is showcased in a case study for developing a national wetland map and piloting an automated GIS-based WET-Health assessment. This GIS-based national assessment using WET-Health 2.0 indicates that wetlands are likely to be in worse condition than current desktop estimates suggest, due to unmeasured field-based impacts.
Terrerai said this work, led by SANBI, supports national-level reporting and policy decisions by estimating the historical extent and current condition of wetlands.
Terrerai added that a key finding from the Outlook was that wetlands in least-developed and lower-income countries, including many in Africa, were reported to be in the worst ecological condition globally.
'This has significant equity implications, particularly where people depend on wetlands for water, food and livelihoods,' said Terrerai.
The GWO 2025 also emphatically states that while restoration is undeniably essential, prevention remains significantly more cost-effective.
Terrerai said that even though many of South Africa's wetlands require restoration, protection of pristine wetlands and prioritising those in their early stages of degradation was more strategic than targeting wetlands that were at advanced stages of degradation.
South Africa has strong goals for its wetlands as part of its national plan for protecting nature (NBSAP), which follows international agreements. The country is updating this plan to help reach global targets, such as restoring 30% of damaged ecosystems by 2030.
However, even though wetlands are really important for dealing with climate change (like helping with floods or droughts), specific targets for wetlands aren't officially included in South Africa's national climate action plans (NDCs), according to Terrerai.
Despite this, the NDC process requires different sectors to create their own climate response plans. In response, South Africa has developed strategies for its biodiversity and ecosystems sector that specifically includes protecting and restoring wetlands as a priority for adapting to climate change.
Once wetlands are degraded, their restoration becomes an arduous and expensive undertaking. This is the bedrock of the Outlook's urgent call for a fundamental paradigm shift.
Pathways forward
Robertson said: 'The findings are challenging, reiterating the poor state of many of the world's wetlands, but the report is also hopeful. We need to be hopeful. And there is a pathway.'
The Outlook presents four possible pathways to move forward in terms of the financing of all the work that is needed to conserve and restore the many values that wetlands provide people:
Improve natural capital valuation and integration in decision-making: Wetlands have been systematically undervalued, leading to market failures. The Outlook calls for the use of new tools, which are already available, to capture the true wealth of wetlands, the invisible and visible, not just a limited subset of benefits. The Outlook asks policymakers to value wetlands as critical natural capital and integrate them into climate change, water management and sustainable development agendas;
Recognise wetlands as an integral component of the global water cycle for all people: Shifting this perspective highlights wetlands as a global public good, crucial for addressing interlinked climate, biodiversity and water crises;
Embedding and prioritising wetlands in innovative financial solutions for nature and people: This involves incorporating wetlands into mechanisms like green bonds, biodiversity credits and debt-for-nature swaps to mobilise significant investment; and
Unlocking a private and public financial mix for investment in wetlands as nature-based solutions: Encouraging investments that mitigate negative impacts while delivering positive environmental co-benefits is crucial. The Outlook says public sector finance is vital to scale up these nature-based solutions.
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For South Africa, applying these pathways requires strong political will, widespread public support and significant financial investment. This means fostering cross-sectoral partnerships and implementing integrated, inclusive spatial planning to address pollution, habitat loss and overexploitation of water resources. By doing so, the nation can move from reactive responses to proactive policies, securing its natural wealth and the billions in benefits wetlands provide.
The role of wetlands in Africa's development
Dr Anthony Nyong, director of climate change and green growth at the African Development Bank said during the launch of the Outlook that wetlands were a major resource and very critical to Africa's development.
'Though wetlands occupy just 6% of the Earth's surface, they contribute about 7.5% to global GDP, yet this is undervalued… Currently, the report notes that biodiversity conservation across all ecosystems accounts for just 0.25% of global GDP. This shows a serious underinvestment,' Nyong said.
Nyong added that between 1975 and now, the world lost an estimated $5.1-trillion in wetland-derived ecosystem services. He cautioned: 'If this trend continues, up to $39-trillion in global benefits could be lost by the year 2050.'
Nyong urged that the protection of wetlands in Africa needed to be prioritised and said the continent needed to look into the resources it has.
'At the African Development Bank, we see wetlands as vital natural capital. Africa's economies are nature-dependent. In some countries, over 60% of GDP comes from sectors like agriculture, forestry and tourism. Yet these contributions are often missing from national accounts,' he said.
That is why, at COP29 last year, Nyong said the African Development Bank launched a report titled Measuring the Green Wealth of Nations and called for Africa's GDP to reflect its true natural wealth.
The African Development Bank is supporting countries to access climate and nature finance and is also helping African countries to develop investable nature-based projects, many of which centre on wetlands.
But Nyong said challenges remain, including data and knowledge gaps, weak governance, insufficient funding and a limited pipeline of investable projects.
'This report we are launching today goes a long way in bridging the data and knowledge gap. We cannot say anymore that we didn't know. We know. And so let's put that as we plan our work.' DM