On 31 January, the Mpumalanga Wetland Forum chaired by the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Bradley Gibbons hosted Grade 7 learners from Lydenburg Primary School as part of a World Wetlands Day celebration at the De Berg Wetland in Mpumalanga.

The De Berg Wetland is South Africa’s 30th Ramsar site and is therefore a wetland of international importance.

World Wetlands Day is celebrated annually on 2 February to mark the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands in 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar. The theme this year was ‘Protecting Wetlands for our Common Future’.

The event comprised talks by Bradley Gibbons about what wetlands are, how they function, and the importance of wetlands and the impact these water resources have on communities reliant on the water flowing from them. Marius Kruger of Northam Platinum provided an overview of the De Berg wetland and the species of concern found in this pristine area.

The learners accompanied officials from the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, the EWT and Northam Platinum to the heart of the wetland where they learnt about the difference between grassland, wetland and peat soils, and the various plant species found in the grasslands surrounding the wetland.