All aspects of human well-being are linked to the health of the world’s wetlands. Despite this, the global extent of wetlands has declined by between 64 and 71%. Andean wetlands—including salt flats, lakes, and lagoons—are ecosystems of high environmental and social importance. They are at serious risk from the climate crisis, land use changes, and mining for lithium, copper, and other minerals called “critical” for the energy transition.
In the context of World Wetlands Day—celebrated every February 2 to raise awareness about the value of these ecosystems for life on the planet—the Alliance for Andean Wetlands calls for the protection and conservation of Andean wetlands in Latin America, as well as the water, biodiversity, territories, and ways of life of the indigenous and rural communities that depend on them.
Andean wetlands—including salt flats, lakes, and lagoons—are ecosystems of great environmental and social importance, but they are also very fragile due to their characteristics, the central element of which is water.
The Alliance for Andean Wetlands—made up of environmental organizations from Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and a regional organization—warns that these wetlands are at serious risk due to the impacts of the climate crisis, changes in land use, and the negative impacts of extractive activities such as lithium, copper, and other mineral mining, now called “critical” due to their contribution to the energy transition debate.
The increase in demand for lithium in the Global North has triggered an accelerated process of extraction and production worldwide, focused on regions rich in this mineral, such as the Andean salt flats of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile—countries that hold more than 53% of global resources.
This year, the Ramsar Convention Secretariat highlights that all aspects of human well-being are linked to the health of the world’s wetlands. It is a call to value and maintain them in good health in order to continue to have a supply of water and food, a thriving global biodiversity, livelihoods, protection from extreme weather events, and support in mitigating the climate crisis.
According to data from the Ramsar Convention, an intergovernmental treaty for the protection of wetlands, the global extent of wetlands decreased by between 64% and 71% during the 20th century, and the loss and degradation of these ecosystems continues worldwide. Currently, there are 257,182,378 hectares of wetlands considered to be of international importance under the treaty in 172 countries.
In response to this global trend, the Alliance for Andean Wetlands promotes a fair, participatory, and popular socio-ecological transition with a long-term vision, prioritizing integrated water management under a socio-environmental and climate justice approach.
Wetland restoration is essential to overcoming the climate and biodiversity crisis, as well as to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals for the benefit of all people. In addition, wetlands provide cities, towns, communities, and their inhabitants with multiple economic, social, and cultural benefits that are fundamental to human well-being.
Quotes from members of the Alliance for Andean Wetlands
Ramón Balcazar, director of Fundació Tantí, Chile:
“Advocating for a just and popular energy transition means considering not only the need to decarbonize, but also ensuring the preservation of biodiversity and the ways of life of peoples and communities. It is time to adopt more radical and proactive approaches that seek a balance between meeting needs and conservation, prioritizing socio-environmental justice on the path to a more sustainable future.”
Pía Marchegiani, Deputy Executive Director of Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (FARN), Argentina:
“Lithium mining in wetlands causes serious alterations in their availability for biodiversity and people, and for the functioning of ecosystems as a whole. Lithium mining also violates various human rights, such as the right of indigenous communities to free, prior, and informed consultation regarding activities that may affect them, as well as access to public information, citizen participation, and access to justice in environmental matters, all of which are guaranteed by international and national law.”
Claudia Velarde, co-coordinator of the Ecosystems Program at the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA):
“It is essential to strengthen the water-land-energy-life link in order to achieve a just energy transition. Andean salt flats, lakes, and lagoons are complex and fragile life systems. The communities and peoples who inhabit them are guardians of ancestral wisdom that maintains the balance of the ecosystem. Water, as a central element of the landscape, is the habitat and source of life for countless species of flora and fauna. All this, and more, is at risk when corporate energy transition pushes for the rapid and uncontrolled extraction of critical minerals in Andean wetlands, which is advancing without respect for human rights or international environmental protection standards. It is time to question whether the commitment to minerals at all costs is the transition the world really needs, or whether it merely replicates the old extractive model, creating new sacrifice zones in Latin America.”
Members of the alliance: Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (FARN) and the Asamblea PUCARÁ (Pueblos Catamarqueños en Resistencia y Autodeterminación) from Argentina; the Centro de Documentación e Información de Bolivia (CEDIB) and Empodérate from Bolivia; ONG FIMA, Defensa Ambiental, Formando Rutas, and Fundación Tantí from Chile; and the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA), a regional organization.