Wetlands Stories

Around the world, communities depend on mangroves for food, protection, and income. These coastal forests provide for communities and the communities, in turn, protect the mangroves. It’s a relationship found all over the world across the more than 100 countries where mangroves guard the coast. Here are four places where a snapshot tells the story.

Development within the Pantanal must be managed sustainably. Today, community members across the region are working to conserve this essential landscape and their own way of life.

The sprawling Pantanal supports a wealth of wildlife, plants, and people. As pressures intensify in this ecosystem, multinational cooperation and a holistic strategy are key to a better way forward.

In March, WWF-Brazil led a group of 25 journalists, researchers, and celebrities on a five-day adventure that involved boating, driving, walking along the Paraguay Rivera and through the Pantanal.

The wetlands of Nepal’s Chitwan National Park are being overrun by a menace: Eichhornia crassipes. WWF and a cadre of engineers have built the first-ever water mower to clear these invasive plants.

Nestled in the heart of South America, the Pantanal is the world’s largest tropical wetland. Discover just a few of the native species that live in this incredible place.

Located within Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay, the Pantanal is a floodplain the size of England.

Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay signed an unprecedented declaration that calls for sustainable development of the Pantanal, a 42-million-acre wetland that touches each country. The decision follows years of collaboration among the governments that are securing a prosperous future for one of the most biologically rich ecosystems on the planet.

Wetlands are often undervalued. Between 300 million and 400 million people live close to—and depend on—wetlands. Learn more about these important habitats WWF is working to conserve. 

On World Heritage Day, we’re highlighting some of the incredible sites that WWF is working to save. These sites belong to all of us, and together we can protect them for wildlife and people around the world.

More than a billion people make a living from wetlands across the world. Wetlands provide livelihoods, from fishing and eco-tourism, to farming and drinking water for communities. WWF is working to support some of the world’s most vital wetlands and the communities that depend on them across Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

The world's largest wetland site was declared by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance. The site, known as Llanos de Moxos, is located in the South American country of Bolivia. At more than 17 million acres, the wetland is roughly equal in size to the US state of North Dakota.

A new designation by the Republic of Congo provides vital habitat to endangered species and preserves nature’s value for surrounding communities.