Under the auspices of the Northern Cape Wetland Forum, Sol Plaatje University in conjunction with South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON) Arid Node, based in Kimberley, hosted a successful World Wetlands Day event on Friday 1 February.

Over 30 people attended the celebration with a large proportion of the audience coming from outside Sol Plaatje University.

Dr Doug Harebottle, who is also chair of the Northern Cape Wetlands Forum, opened the meeting giving a background to World Wetlands Day, the importance and threats to wetlands, and how ordinary citizens can make a difference for wetlands and their conservation.

The theme for World Wetlands Day 2019 was wetlands and climate change and Dr Harebottle spoke a little on how global warming and long-term climate change has the potential to change wetland structure and function in the future.

This was followed by a presentation by Dr Betsie Milne, a wetland ecologist from SAEON, who shared her post-doctoral work on the pan system of the Northern Cape.

She has found some really interesting small crustaceans in the mud and crust of these pans which can stay dry for more than 50 years before receiving any rainfall.

She emphasised how these pan systems are under threat from farming, mining and climate change.

This was the first World Wetland Day event held at SPU which raised importance awareness of wetlands in the Northern Cape and the importance of conserving these diverse and dynamic ecosystems.

For more information on wetlands or the Northern Cape Wetlands Forum, you can contact Dr Doug Harebottle at doug.harebottle@spu.ac.za