Protecting Freshwater Habitats

The most proven conservation tool is protecting the habitat itself — keeping rivers, lakes, and wetlands intact rather than draining or paving them. Wetlands are vanishing fast: studies estimate the world lost roughly 35 percent of its wetlands between 1970 and 2015, faster than forests. Restoring them is one of the cheapest ways to clean water and store carbon at the same time.

But protection on paper does not always mean protection in practice. Many protected rivers and wetlands are effectively "paper parks" — legally designated yet poorly funded, weakly monitored, and loosely enforced. Even among internationally recognized wetlands, a meaningful share are reported to be in declining ecological condition despite their status.