Successive governments have been accused of doing little or nothing to protect Ireland's wetlands, although they are supposed to be protected under the international Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971), known as the Ramsar convention.
Ms Karin Dubsky, co-ordinator of Coastwatch, said yesterday that despite signing the convention in 1985 and ratifying it later, the authorities here had done "sweet damn all" to put it into effect.
Although 46 sites had been designated in Ireland, there was still no national wetlands policy and no mechanism to implement it. "There is no inventory either, so we don't even know what wetlands we have."
Yet, she said, a survey had identified 25 different types in Co Wexford alone, to the amazement of international experts. The survey was carried out by Coastwatch in partnership with the local county council.
"Few European countries could boast such diversity in similar area," Ms Dubsky said. "Wetlands have many functions and values. However, they are neither adequately protected by law, nor is the law which we do have enforced as well as it could be.
"Knowledge about wetland functions is poor. One example is the totally neglected role of wetlands in flood control." The biggest threat to their survival was the drive to reclaim these areas as potential development land.
"Even though climate change appears to be hitting and flooding is a serious problem, essential floodplains around many of our rivers are still being filled in, thus actively compounding our problems," Ms Dubsky warned.
Draining wetlands is legal under the 1949 Land Reclamation Act, she complained, and this was often done by dumping construction and demolition waste, contrary to the Ramsar convention and to EU habitats policy.
"Look at any of our major towns - Kilkenny, New Ross, Waterford, to name but a few. The wetlands around them cost next to nothing. So you just buy it and fill it in and then, hey presto, the value increases a hundredfold," she said.
Though pollution of wetlands was also a growing problem, Ms Dubsky said, it was less serious than land reclamation.
"Once you've lost a wetland through infilling, you've lost it for ever, and restoration is enormously costly." Last year only 0.3 hectares of intertidal mudflats had been restored, she said.
"There is still a perception that wetlands don't serve any useful purpose and should be reclaimed. The only way this will change is through public awareness."
But Ms Dubsky said the absence of a national framework to protect wetlands was still the biggest problem, and she appealed to the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, to take urgent action to implement the Ramsar Convention.
To mark World Wetlands Day earlier this month, Coastwatch produced a set of posters to raise public awareness of the issue.
Further information may be obtained via the Internet at www.coastwatcheurope.org or www.wexfordwetlands.org
