Claude Gascon, GEF Interim CEO and Chairperson:
We join the Ramsar Convention and partners around the world in celebrating this year’s World Wetlands Day under the theme “Wetlands and Traditional Knowledge: Celebrating Cultural Heritage.”
Wetlands are among the most vital ecosystems on Earth: sustaining biodiversity, storing carbon, buffering floods and storms, and supporting food and water security for hundreds of millions of people.
The theme this year highlights the traditional knowledge and cultural heritage that communities living near these precious ecosystems sustain and nurture. These practices that sustain wetlands and their ecosystem services are a patrimony of humanity, and what we all need to adapt to when confronted with the challenges of the future.
Wetlands are an important part of the GEF portfolio. To date, the GEF has supported close to 400 wetlands projects in 108 countries. Together, these investments total over $1.8 billion and have leveraged more than $7.4 billion in co-financing to amplify impact across communities and ecosystems worldwide.
This is clearly a large portfolio, but I would like to take a moment to highlight two projects where cultural heritage is celebrated through traditional knowledge. The first one is the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund “Biomanglar” project in the Pacific region of Colombia. This project supports the conservation, restoration, and sustainable management of tens of thousands of hectares of mangroves across priority landscapes, while directly benefiting dozens of Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities. It emphasizes practices that Indigenous Peoples and afro descendant communities have refined over centuries such as community-based monitoring, hydrological restoration, and sustainable livelihoods, such as small-scale fisheries and shellfish harvesting.
The importance of traditional knowledge is also shown in our support for a project to establish a network of national important agricultural heritage sites in Chile. In the high Altiplano of northern Chile, wetlands also take the form of bofedales, high-altitude peatlands, springs, and oasis systems that sustain life in one of the driest regions on Earth. For the Aymara and Atacameño Peoples in Chile, these wetlands are not just ecosystems; they are living territories shaped, governed, and protected through ancestral water stewardship, camelid herding, and intergenerational knowledge. These systems are also about food sovereignty, heritage, the caring of mother Earth and recognizing that all the processes and forms of life are interconnected.
We are proud to support Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ inclusion in these projects. We will continue to work with the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and our partners to advance the wise use of wetlands and to champion community-led stewardship rooted in traditional knowledge.
At the GEF, we are preparing for a robust ninth replenishment and further funding of our family of funds to continue providing support to wetlands conservation and especially those where traditional knowledge underpins their management. On this World Wetlands Day, we reaffirm our commitment to work with Indigenous Peoples and local communities as important partners, to recognize and respect traditional knowledge, and invest in nature-positive solutions to safeguard wetlands for people and planet.
Thank you, and happy World Wetlands Day.
