World risks up to $39 trillion in economic losses from vanishing wetlands, report says

The global destruction of wetlands, which support fisheries, agriculture and flood control, may mean the loss of $39 trillion in economic benefits by 2050, according to a report by the Convention on Wetlands released on Tuesday.

Some 22 per cent of wetlands, both freshwater systems such as peat lands, rivers and lakes, and coastal marine systems including mangroves and coral reefs, have disappeared since 1970, according to the intergovernmental report, the fastest pace of loss of any ecosystem.