From unwanted to protected, wetlands have recently entered the spotlight. This focus stems from the urgent, almost desperate race to employ every possible strategy to mitigate the effects of climate crisis and global change. That is why wetlands — which comprise salt marshes, lagoons, deltas, artificial lakes, ponds, swamps, mangrove forests, oases, rice paddies, and water basins — appear now more important than ever.
Wetlands are distinct ecosystems saturated by water. They are vital CO2 emissions sponges capable of locking up carbon for thousands of years. Wetlands also boast exceptional biodiversity, serving as nesting and refuge sites for many migratory species. They buffer against rising saltwater levels, protect freshwater basins, and act as barriers against coastal erosion. They help renew soil fertility and vitality and are a fantastic tool against floods and extreme weather events.
For this reason, countries signed the UN Ramsar Convention in 1971 to conserve our wetlands.
Yet, wetlands remain one of the most threatened ecosystems in Europe as countries actively encourage exploitation, supporting intensive agriculture, industrial extraction and mass tourism. Most wetlands in Europe – the bloc’s most significant carbon sinks and biodiversity hotspots – are exploited beyond repair due to decades of industrial activity.
In Italy, for instance, land reclamation covered, destroyed, and eliminated a significant percentage of wetlands between the late 1800s and the mid-1900s. Intensive agriculture, coastal construction, mass tourism, and industrial fishing did the rest. Reconsideration began only after much of these precious environments had already been destroyed. Today, Italy has lost about 75% of its original wetlands.
We are launching a series, "Wasted Wetlands" which we hope to one day rename "Restored Wetlands."
This series will explore some of the most important wetlands in our country — those playing a crucial role for local communities, those most at risk, and some already undergoing recovery and improvement. The series will combine historical information, investigative journalism, on-the-ground reporting, scientific data, and experimental use of remote sensing and AI-based satellite image analysis to visualise the health and changes of the environments at the centre of our stories.
Part of this journey — during the first few months of 2024 — was also done with an international consortium of colleagues based in other EU countries with significant wetlands loss: Ireland, which has lost 90% of its wetlands, and Germany (80%).
In Ireland, the investigation exposed how two semi-state bodies that control 20% of Ireland’s peatlands continue to exploit them for commercial gain. We revealed the direct impact of poor climate policy: plantation forestry and wind farms on peatlands, highlighting resulting water quality impacts and continued draining of peats for speculative planning applications.
In Germany, we revealed how politicians circumvent urging climate issues by opposing the Nature Restoration Law. We showed in Germany how conservative political inaction and lobby work is not only postponing essential steps toward landscape restoration, but also leaving farmers with no answer to their questions about the social-economic consequences in the case of a large-scale rewetting of agricultural peatlands.
Our stories are also available in Italian and can be accessed directly from each story page. The Italian version has been published in Il Bo Live magazine, edited by the University of Padova.
Credits
The project received support from several financiers:
- The Environmental Investigative Journalism program of Journalismfund Europe, which provided a grant for the Wasted Wetlands investigation carried out in several countries, together with other European colleagues (Maria Delaney and Steven Fox, Ireland; Guillaume Amouret and Swantje Furtak, Germany).
- Giulia Bonelli’s work started from a project developed within the Climate Arena Fellowships 2023, supported by Arena for Journalism in Europe.
- Elisabetta Tola’s work is further supported by the Data Journalism grant from the SISSA Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Trieste, with the collaboration of the SISSA Data Science group, for the development of the project across the entire Mediterranean area, the development and application remote sensing technologies and AI tools for satellite image analysis.
