Steve Parish Publishing

Wetlands Made Art in February 2009

Monday 2 February 2009 was World Wetlands Day, a day set aside annually to mark the date of the signing of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar. Celebrated for the first time in 1997, it is a day to realise the important ecological role wetlands play around the globe and to undertake initiatives to further conserve these vital natural resources. One such initiative was the second annual WetlandCare National Art Competition. This year, the competition, run by not-for-profit organisation WetlandCare Australia, shared the theme of World Wetlands Day 2009 — “Upstream-Downstream: wetlands connect us all”. The winners across all artistic categories were awarded on Sunday 1 February at 2 pm at the Boondall Wetlands Environment Centre, Brisbane, Queensland. Award-winning photographer, natural history publisher and Guest Speaker at the event, Steve Parish OAM, agreed that such profile-raising (and fundraising) “environmental theme days” are critical to helping us appreciate just how important, and how vulnerable, these habitats are.

“Australia now has more than 65 Ramsar-protected wetlands, yet of the continent’s total number of these habitats, more than 95% have suffered some form of environmental degradation since European settlement,” says Steve. “It’s resulted in a worrying decline in freshwater plant and animal populations — one that I’ve witnessed with my own eyes in my forty years of photographing wildlife. Among other environmental travesties, the draining, drying up and degradation of wetlands inspired me to publish Amazing Facts about Australian Wildlife Conservation, written by our inhouse Science Writer Karin Cox and due for release this month. I hope it helps explain to students, teachers, the general public and especially climate change sceptics just what is being done to our biodiversity, flora and fauna, and why we have to act to stop it — now!”  To read more, click here.

Authored by: karin cox