Ducks Unlimited Celebrates 2025 World Wetlands Day
Wetlands continue being lost three times faster than forests
January 30, 2025 •
2
min read
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Jan. 30, 2025 – On Sunday, Feb. 2, Ducks Unlimited (DU) and conservationists worldwide will celebrate World Wetlands Day to recognize the importance of wetland ecosystems for humans and wildlife. This year's theme is “Wetlands for Our Common Future.”
In 1937, a small group of waterfowlers, visionaries and community leaders set out to save North America's waterfowl populations while celebrating the continent's solid waterfowling heritage. Stressing the critical role wetlands play across North America, DU committed to this mission at the height of the Great Depression and one of the worst droughts in history.
“A group of waterfowl hunters founded Ducks Unlimited in the darkest days of the Dust Bowl era,” said DU CEO Adam Putnam. “Today, most of our members are still hunters. Through the steadfast support of these sportsmen and women and the tireless efforts of our other members, volunteers, partners and supporters, DU has protected or restored more than 19 million acres of habitat across North America in the areas most important to ducks and geese, and beneficial to hundreds of other species as well.”
For 88 years, DU has raised public awareness about the benefits wetlands provide as waterfowl habitats and critical natural water filters. Wetlands provide many services to our communities, including flood storage, groundwater recharge, carbon sequestration, enhanced fish habitat and much more.
DU is conducting its most ambitious conservation campaign in history on behalf of North America’s wetlands and waterfowl. The international fundraising campaign, Conservation for a Continent, aims to raise $3 billion by 2026 to provide cleaner water for communities and wildlife. One of the largest fundraising efforts launched in North America is devoted to landscape conservation and the future of our outdoor heritage. The campaign surpassed the $2 billion mark with two years remaining.
“Ducks Unlimited conserves wetlands for our common future every day,” said DU Chief Conservation Officer Dr. Karen Waldrop. “For the first time in its 88-year history, Ducks Unlimited has delivered 1 million acres of conservation across North America in one year, thanks to more than a million supporters and partners, including private landowners, hunters, corporations, major donors and state and federal agencies.”
World Wetlands Day focuses on conservation solutions for these beautiful and critical landscape features. The day commemorates the Feb. 2, 1971, signing of the Convention on Wetlands in Ramsar, Iran. Each year since the first celebration in 1997, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, corporations and citizens representing all segments of society have taken advantage of the anniversary to raise public awareness of wetland values and benefits in general and the convention in Ramsar in particular.
According to the Ramsar Convention, wetlands are being lost three times faster than forests.
DU, along with the help and support of its staunch volunteers and partners, is conserving prairie potholes and native grasslands in the Great Plains, restoring bottomland hardwood forests in the lower Mississippi River Valley, protecting and enhancing the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and protecting and improving wetland habitats in California’s Central Valley, the coastal prairies of Texas and the coastal marshes of Louisiana, and much more.
For more information about World Wetlands Day, visit https://www.worldwetlandsday.org/.
