To mark the World Day of Wetlands, this year, the volunteers and young people of “YDCMA” and “United Vanguard Artist” prepared and carried out a presentation to raise awareness of the importance of this day in the National High School of Plastic Arts and Design “Academic Dechko Uzunov” city Kazanlak. At the event, the international volunteers of the two organizations and their Bulgarian volunteers presented certificates of gratitude to some of the graduates of the high school, for their contribution to the “Shared Christmas” initiatives in the city of Shipka and for making drawings on the topic of Wetlands Day. They presented a film about composting made by their predecessors and a song with a music video “Compost”.

The event is the first of the planned presentations of important environmental dates in 2024, by YDCMA on the occasion of 20 years since the organization was established in 2004 and the implementation of the “Eko 2” projects under the “European Solidarity Corps” and “Green Game” of the United Vanguard Artist under the “Erasmus+” program. On this occasion, the organization launched several events to mark it, and today was just the beginning.

Wetlands cover a relatively small area of the Earth’s surface compared to other ecosystems. However, they are extremely rich in biodiversity as many species of plants and animals completely depend on wetlands, so they cannot survive without them. In fact, coastal wetlands such as estuaries, salt marshes, and lakes, mangroves, coral reefs are the ecosystems with the greatest diversity of plant and animal species, making them some of the most productive ecosystems in the world.

Recent global research shows that wetlands are disappearing three times faster than forests, with 35% lost since the 1970s and 87% lost since the 1700s.

The main reasons for the loss of wetlands are:

-Drainage and drying for agriculture or construction;
-Pollution;
-Overexploitation of resources (for example overfishing);
-Invasive species;
-Climate changes;

The Convention on Wetlands is an international agreement signed on 2 February 1971 in Ramsar City, Iran. The full name of the agreement is the Convention for the Conservation of Wetlands of International Importance and Particularly as Waterfowl Habitat and reflects the convention’s original emphasis on the conservation and wise use of wetlands as waterfowl habitat. Subsequently, the convention expanded its scope to cover all aspects of wetland conservation and wise use.

For the two organizations from Kazanlak, the presentation of important environmental dates in the community is extremely important, so that more people will learn about them and at the same time think about protecting the environment these days. The next date they intend to celebrate is World Energy Efficiency Day.