World Wetlands Day 2008 World Wetlands Day 2008 Wetlands and
human health - an introduction The Convention's suggested theme
for World Wetlands Day, 2 February 2008, is Healthy Wetlands,
Healthy People, and this will also be the theme for Ramsar's
10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties in October-
November 2008 in the Republic of Korea. As we approach World
Wetlands Day, we have taken an opportunity to introduce to the
Ramsar community, and the people you reach out to, a few key
topics that exemplify both the direct, positive effects on human
health of maintaining healthy wetlands - such as the provision
of food, clean water, pharmaceutical products, etc. - and the
direct negative effects of mismanaging wetlands that result in
the impairment of our health and even the loss of life - such as
through the effects of water-related diseases, burning
peatlands, floods, and water pollution. We aim to emphasise that
the strong relationship between healthy functioning wetland
ecosystems and human health underlin