INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE PROTECTION OF WETLANDS

The commemoration of the International Day for Wetlands was carried out at the RAMSAR Torotorofotsy Site in Andasibe led by Minister VINA Marie-Orléa. The theme of the celebration for this year 2023 is ” Restoration of the Wetlands, it’s time !! “.
The activities are mainly related to this topic because it was during this period that the planting of trees was officially started in Alaotra Mangoro Region, where 4000 indigenous spruce were planted on the 4Ha surface in Torotorofotsy in order to recover the local fields. Apart from that there were various motivational activities to awareness the importance of Wetland in our human life. The youths and students participated actively in this initiative.

In her speech, the Minister emphasised the importance of the existence of forests for protecting the environment and for the development of human life in general, only to mention the management of the forests with water and rainfall for cultivation. She also said that the tree planting that is done today is for the children who are the future of the Malagasy country and for the next generation.
There are 2414 wetlands classified as RAMSAR sites in the world, 21 of them are found in Madagascar. Combined, our RAMSAR sites measure 2 147 911Ha which store a wide variety of species that are rarely seen anywhere.
There is a lot of pressure affecting these wetlands so MEDD is currently implementing a national strategy for the protection of wetlands.