Overview

A dictionary definition of wetland is “a wet and damp area.” Korea’s Wetlands Conservation Act defines wetlands as “areas that are permanently or temporarily covered with freshwater, brackish water, or salt water” and divides them into an inland wetland and a coastal wetland. The former is defined as “a lake, marsh, swamp, river, estuary, or the like found on land or an island,” and the latter as “an area between the boundary line where the water level meets the ground at high tide and the boundary line where the water level meets the ground at low tide.”
The internationally accepted definition is the one given by the Ramsar Convention, which 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.” This inclusive definition expands the concept of wetlands by setting the water depth to six meters (rather than two meters, which is the standard water depth used in freshwater wetland classification), with a focus on hydrology rather than vegetation and soil.
Article 2.1 of the Convention provides that wetlands included in the Ramsar List “may incorporate riparian and coastal zones adjacent to the wetlands, and islands or bodies of marine water deeper than six meters at low tide lying within the wetlands.” There are also human-made wetlands, such as fish ponds, farm ponds, irrigated agricultural land, reservoirs and canals.
Through a long repetitive process of holding and releasing water, wetlands have given life to various species and kept the perfect balance of nature. They provide habitat for a wide range of species, which in turn play a key role in maintaining the stability of ecosystems. For this reason,wetlands are often referred to as the “ kidney of the Earth.” Despite this importance, throughout the history, humans, who always lived near water, have considered wetlands as resources to take rather than valuable assets to protect. Roughly 50% of wetlands worldwide have disappeared since 1900 as a result of industrialization and development, and the rate of wetland loss has been accelerating since 1950. As wetlands provide habitat for many different species, protecting wetlands essentially means safeguarding larger ecosystems.