Wetlands and flood lands
Areas which are permanently wet, such as marshes, swamps and seagrass meadows, and flood lands inundated for part of the year often support considerable human populations and rich biodiversity. These people have usually developed strategies for coping with shifting water levels and for winning a living; often the adaptation is a form of trans humance – seasonal migration to higher ground. These areas get degraded by polluted rivers and dried up by diversions of flows and large dams. A few wetlands have suffered as a consequence of government hostility – e.g. rivers supporting swamps in southern Iraq were diverted to dislocate the Marsh Arab population. Wetlands and floodlands, so often neglected and degraded, have the potential to support sustainable agriculture andaquaculture