2 February 2009: On the occasion of World Wetlands Day, celebrated on 2 February 2009, the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Ahmed Djoghlaf, delivered a message stressing the need for integrated management of land and water.

He underlined that this year’s theme, “Upstream-Downstream: Wetlands connect us all,” is well reflected in the CBD programmes of work. Noting that biodiversity in freshwater and coastal wetlands continues to decline at the fastest rate amongst all the major biomes, he highlighted that the main impacts of climate change, as reflected through the impacts of environmental changes on people, are on the water cycle. [The Message]