Today on World Wetlands Day, we reflect on the incredible role wetlands play in preserving, sustaining, and enriching our lives and environment.
We give thanks to the way Australia's First Nations people have understood and cared for Australia's wetlands for millennia.
And we honour the vital contribution Australia is making to the protection of wetlands on a global scale.
Wetlands clean our water, protect our coastlines, absorb floods, and shelter our wildlife.
In Australia, we are proud to have 67 wetlands recognised as internationally important under the Convention on Wetlands (known as the Ramsar Convention). They cover more than 8.3 million square hectares, from Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory to the Coorong, Lake Alexandrina and Albert Wetland in South Australia.
Minister for the Environment and Water, Murray Watt said the theme of World Wetlands Day 2026 'Wetlands and traditional knowledge: Celebrating cultural heritage' is pertinent to Australia.
"Australia's First Nations people have an incredible understanding of our wetlands and how to care for them. We must all continue to learn from this and work to ensure First Nations people are included in water management conversations at all levels," Minister Watt said.
"I recently had the privilege of visiting Mundoo Island, part of the Coorong, Lake Alexandrina and Albert wetland, which the Australian and South Australian governments helped purchase so that the Ngarrindjeri Aboriginal Corporation can restore and rehabilitate it.
"I also recently accepted a recommendation from Australia's Threatened Species Scientific Committee to list the Wetlands and inner floodplains of the Macquarie Marshes ecological community in northwestern NSW, as Endangered.
"By protecting this threatened ecosystem, we are recognising the impacts of climate change, historical water management practices and other disturbances that continue to threaten the health of some of our most iconic wetlands, and we are taking action to guide its management and recovery under national environmental law.
"Last year, the Albanese Government played an important role at the 15th Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Convention on Wetlands (COP15) in Zimbabwe, announcing investments that are helping to capture and share more information on wetlands than ever before.
"This year, we look forward to contributing to the 67th meeting of the Standing Committee on the Convention on Wetlands in Gland, Switzerland, where we will focus on implementing the decisions made at COP15 for the benefit of all.
"It is work like this that leads to greater collaboration and care for Country, protecting our wetlands at home and abroad."
