WELLINGTON, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- A new report shows New Zealand is continuing to lose its precious wetlands, or the land's kidneys, and Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage said on Friday that it will take years to turn the trend around.
The minister released the eighth national report under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands to mark World Wetlands Day on Friday.
The convention, which is an international environmental agreement to recognize wetlands of international importance, or Ramsar sites, and encourage the wise management of all wetlands, was established in 1971 and includes 169 countries.
"It will take concerted and serious effort and years to change this trend," Sage said, adding that wetlands are the land's kidneys capturing sediments and nutrients and slowly releasing water in drought prone areas. They are home to precious wildlife and plants and are wonderful places for people to experience nature.
"In New Zealand, we have lost 90 percent of our natural wetlands. Large areas of Canterbury, Manawatu, Waikato and the Bay of Plenty historically had extensive freshwater wetlands. In Southland more than 1,000 hectares of wetland has been lost since 2007," she said, adding that "we must protect the last 10 percent."
More replanting of wetlands must be considered when intensive developments and agricultural expansions are being considered, the minister stressed.