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We must all at some time have been in a wetland. Doï¿½ana, the salt marshes of Santoï¿½a, the lake of Gallocanta (Zaragoza) or the lake of Sanabria (Zamora) are some of the most well known. In a dry country like Spain, these islands of water which are usually found in the driest areasï¿½are ecosystems which are of immense value to wildlife. You only have to think about the vast number of birds which migrate every year in search of a more benign climate and either break their journey in the Iberian wetlands to rest a while, or stay and spend the winter there. But awareness of the ecological value of these wetlands has come too late for many of them.

For the last two hundred years the area covered by Spanish wetlands has been constantly decreasing. Regarded until a few decades ago as unhealthy areas, many were summarily drained to eradicate breeding grounds for malaria and other diseases, and to reclaim land for farming at the same time. One example of this disregard for our wetlands was the 1918 Cambï¿½ Act concerning the draining of lakes, salt marshes and marshland (ironically the same year that the Picos de Europa became Spainï¿½s first national park), which would cause the loss of large wet areas in Spain, such as the lakes of La Janda (Cadiz) and those of La Nava (Palencia). There followed years of uncontrolled drainage to reclaim farmland, and of indiscriminate water extraction and unsustainable town and infrastructure development, all of which made Spain an even drier country.

The National Inventory of Wetlands conducted in 1991 shows that there are now less than half the wet areas there used to be. Of a total of an original 280,000 hectares of wet areas, there are now scarcely 114,000 remaining. And the real loss could be even greater since the initial natural area may have been as much as 500,000 hectares, that is 1% of the countryï¿½s total surface area.

The approximate number of natural wetlands surviving in Spain is 1,400, of which barely half are well conserved. The vast majority (92%) are small inland lakes, but they represent only 14% of the total wet area by surface area. The remaining 86% by area are made up by a number of coastal wetlands. Six of these are particularly large: the salt marshes of the Guadalquivir (Huelva), the bay of Cadiz, the Ebro Delta (Tarragona), the Mar Menor (Murcia), the Albufera of Valencia and the Aiguamolls of l' Empordï¿½ (Gerona).

The voice of alarm over the gradual disappearance of the planetï¿½s wetlands first began to be heard in the 60s. It was then that a movement began at an international level in favour of the conservation of aquatic environments which, on February 2 1971, culminated in the signing of the Convention on Wetlands in the Iranian city of Ramsar, the aim of which is to ensure the conservation and rational use of wetlands.

Three decades later, however, these areas are still exposed to a great many threats. You only have to remember the toxic spill at the Aznalcï¿½llar mine which in 1998 endangered the life of the most important wetland in the country, and a symbol for the conservationist movement in Spain: Doï¿½ana. Or the desperate situation of the Tablas de Daimiel, a national park which, with an accumulated shortfall of 3,000 cubic hectometres of water a year, is in its death throes due to the over exploitation of the water table which feeds it.

Agriculture is still the sector which exerts the greatest negative influence on the conservation of these natural reserves. More than a quarter of them are surrounded by farmland and two of every ten wetlands are partially or wholly under cultivation. Farming is also responsible for the pollution of water by fertilisers and pesticides, and also the excessive use it makes of water.

But other sectors also cause environmental problems in these fragile ecosystems. Hunting, for example, is responsible for one the worst threats to the wet areas: plumbism, which is what scientists call the lead poisoning of birds due to their swallowing lead pellets which they mistake for seeds or for grains of sand which they use to grind food in their gizzards. Studies ordered by the General Directorate of Nature Conservation of the Ministry of the Environment estimate that in Spain lead kills between 30,000 and 50,000 water fowls a year. Some of the worst affected are the white-headed duck and the marbled teal, both threatened species for which Spain is one of their last refuges. The ecologist associations also claim that the National Hydrological Plan will have dire consequences for areas like the Ebro Delta. And right now members of Ecologists in Action are desperately trying to halt the construction of a new IKEA in Barakaldo (Vizcaya) so that it wonï¿½t do away with the last coastal wetland of the Nervion estuary.

In spite of all this, Spain is still the EU country with the greatest variety of wet ecosystems, some of them unique in Western Europe, such as the inland salt lakes. The best known is that of Fuentedepiedra (Malaga), which is host to a flamingo nesting colony where some years more than 10,000 flamingo chicks are born. And in the salt marshes of Odiel a well populated colony of spoonbills nest, one of the few which exist in Europe. Just a few days ago those responsible for the restoration of the Palencian lake La Nava, drained in 1968, reported that this winter 12,000 water fowls have stopped off there. So that our children will be able to continue to enjoy spectacles such as these, on February 2 the world will be talking once again about wetlands, and their ecological worth and how fragile their ecosystems are. And for another year ecologists will remind us that a country like ours cannot afford to destroy these precious reserves of water and wildlife.

- The most important wet areas in all the world are included on the Ramsar Convention List of Wetlands of International Importance. Spain contributes 39, with a total surface area of nearly 160,000 hectares. The latest to go on the list, in November 2001, was the salt marsh of Jandï¿½a, in Fuerteventura. The VIII Conference of the Ramsar Convention Contracting Parties will be held in Valencia in November of this year.

- On October 1 last year, the Royal Decree banning the possession and use of lead ammunition in any wet areas included on the Ramsar List or enjoying legal protection of any kind, came into force. Ecologists are pushing for the ban to apply to all wet areas, whether they are protected or not.

- According to Ecologists in Action, each year more than 30,000 million lead shotgun pellets (some 5,000 tonnes) end up in ecosystems. In areas like the rice fields of the Albufera region of Valencia or lake Encanyssada in the Ebro Delta there are more than two and a half million pellets per hectare, the highest concentrations in the world. A lead pellet can take between 50 and 300 years to disintegrate entirely and in the meantime it pollutes the land and surface or ground waters. For this reason birds will continue to be at risk from lead poisoning long after any ban comes into force.

- In 1999 the Spanish Strategic Plan for the Conservation and Rational Use of Wetlands was passed, which includes the restoration of reserves which have been degraded. As part of the Plan a new inventory of wetlands to replace the 1991 one is being conducted with the collaboration of the regional autonomies.

- Although in the last 15 years there has been a significant increase in the number of natural spaces protected by law in Spain, only 11 % of the wetlands included in the National Inventory of Wetlands enjoy any legal protective status.