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The naked eye cannot see wetlands absorbing water like a sponge and slowly releasing it to various areas. During this time, wetlands absorb pollutants and also purify water ensuring better water quality is released elsewhere. Wetlands provide a wide range of ecosystem services including the regulation of stream flow which is essential for water security; flood attenuation; flood protection, and sediment control. The degradation of the catchments in which wetlands occur is as much of a problem as the outright loss of the freshwater habitats themselves, as systemic degradation reduces the ability of freshwater ecosystem to effectively perform their natural functions and recover from environmental shocks and stresses.

In addition wetlands protect our shores and reduce impacts of floods. They also provide habitat for animals and plants and contain a wide diversity of life.

The picturesque waterscapes of Wilderness alone attract many International visitors for their visible beauty from the N2. They meander around the Wilderness section of the Garden Route National Park which is situated a stone throw away from the town of Wilderness. Uses of land in the Garden Route include Protected Areas (also Goukamma Nature reserve managed by Cape Nature) the National Park (protected terrestrial), Marine Protected Areas, Natural, water, plantations, urban, mining, cultivation and others’ according to the SANParks Global Environmental Change Assessment (2016).

Three Lakes in the Wilderness Lakes system made up of Rondevlei, Langvlei and Eilandvlei is a Ramsar site (wetland of global significance). The selection criteria for Ramsar sites are specified by the Ramsar Convention also known as the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance. They consider factors including and not limited to ecology, botany, zoology, limnology or hydrology. The site in Wilderness includes a dune system with associated thickets, woodlands, marshes, and reedbeds. Important numbers of locally-migrant resident birds as well as staging and breeding birds use the site. It is home to 285 native plant species, 32 fish species (several of which use the site as a nursery area), and a diverse marine invertebrate fauna.

Birds in the area include and are not limited to: Grey heron, Kelp gull, Little egret, Black- winged stilt, White-breasted cormorant, great crested grebe, yellow-billed duck, Cape shoveler, Red-knobbed coot and others.

#KeepUrbanWetlands is this year’s theme for World Wetland Day making a case for the protection of wetlands in urban settings. Residents and visitors are encouraged to visit wetlands protected by SANParks in the Garden Route National Park. Bird hides are open in Wilderness for bird watching including Malachite, Rondevlei and Gralinule.

How can you get involved?

Tips from Maretha Alant, Environmental Planner for the Garden Route National Park:

• Remove alien vegetation along the edge of wetlands
• Infilling of wetlands for development or agriculture should be avoided.
• By not applying fertilizers or pesticides within ‘25 feet’ could also be protecting a wetland as this area would serve as a buffer zone
• Support organisations whose work is to protect wetlands
• Development should be set back from wetlands
• The input of stormwater into wetlands can have significant negative impacts on the amphibian fauna.

Pic of a Purple Gallinule captured in a bird hide in Wilderness, Garden Route National Park.

Media contact: Nandi Mgwadlamba, 078 702 9663, [email protected]