Wetlands & Livelihoods

In the face of poverty, wetlands are lifelines

People have a long and intimate association with wetlands. It's a relationship that's easy to understand when one considers the benefits, or ecosystem services, that wetlands provide to humanity. In addition to contributing to the life-support services that sustain us, wetlands also provide many people with a livelihood, or a means of earning a living. Often it is poor people, especially in rural areas, who are most directly dependent on wetlands for their livelihoods.

People have sustainable livelihoods if they can use available resources to earn a living without irreversibly depleting those resources. If the livelihoods benefits that wetlands provide are to be sustainable, they must be used wisely.  On a subsistence level, these benefits range from wild food and grazing to materials for building and crafts. Purification and provision of clean water have enormous health benefits which in turn have economic and social impacts.  On a mainstream economic level, several key tourism industries are based on wetlands, in some cases being the backbone of local economies. As the interest in indigenous fibre products grows, craft sales are becoming more important as a means for rural households to earn hard cash. 

Although we understand the potential of wetlands to support people’s livelihoods, there is still ongoing loss and degradation. The recently completed Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the most thorough examination ever undertaken of the health of the planet’s ecosystems, points out that the continued loss of wetlands will further reduce human health and well-being, especially for the poor. It is thus critical that we maintain the health of our wetlands so that they continue delivering their benefits.

This booklet highlights and celebrates some examples of how wetlands contribute directly and indirectly to sustainable livelihoods in South Africa. In many of these cases, wetlands are all that stand between people and absolute poverty. These examples also demonstrate how wetlands can be incorporated into poverty alleviation strategies.

Please download the Wetlands and Livelihoods brochure (676 kb pdf).