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Wetlands International is the only global NGO dedicated to the conservation and wise use of wetlands. We work globally, regionally and nationally to achieve the conservation and wise use of wetlands, to benefit diversity and human well-being.
Wetlands International is an independent, not-for-profit, global organisation, supported by Government membership from all continents of the world, extensive specialist networks and volunteers. It currently works through 15 country offices — in Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, South, east and North Asia, Oceania and South America; with its head office in Wageningen, the Netherlands.
Wetlands are areas of land that are regularly or continually saturated with shallow water, dominated by large aquatic plants and patchy diverse microhabitats. The shallow waters are determining factors in soil development, ecology, vegetation growth, and associated animals within the ecosystem. Bogs, fens, marshes and swamps are all examples of wetlands. Some are very extensive (e.g. Everglades, Florida, or Sudd swamps, Sudan). Humans harvest food (e.g. frogs, crocodiles, waterfowl, beavers, muskrats, manatees, seeds, tubers, watercress) and grow rice and sago palms in wetlands. Wetlands can mitigate flood peaks.
