Wetlands in the Lower Mekong Basin:

Article 1 (1) of the Ramsar Convention1 defines wetlands as "areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water, the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six meters".

According to the MRC wetland database2, the total area of wetlands in the LMB comes to 254,144 km2, which represents about 42% of the total land area. About 33% or nearly 200,000 km2 are classified as man-made wetlands, with about 180,000 km2 of rice fields. There are about 55,500 km2 of natural or less disturbed wetlands in the LMB.

In the past, wetlands were often considered as wastelands with no real use. Now scientists and policymakers generally agree that wetlands have a high value. The Millennium Ecosystems Assessment3 identified four main groups of ecosystem services that could be attributed to wetlands, including: [i] provisioning, [ii] regulating, [iii] supporting, and [iv] cultural services.

Within the LMB, provisioning is very important for the livelihoods of millions of people who use wetlands for food (e.g. fish, plants and other aquatic animals, including frogs, crustaceans, and molluscs). Loss of these would affect the livelihoods and food security for a large proportion of the population of the LMB.