MedWet Culture Network

The Mediterranean is well known as the cradle of civilisation: an area where nature has provided well for people, the climate is conducive to human settlement and where some of the first villages, thriving cities and great empires were established. 

Since antiquity, people constructed temporary shelters or built their permanent houses next to water sources, taking advantage of the numerous resources and benefits that wetland ecosystems can provide, and advancing farming, forestry, and fishing. This interaction between people and nature provided the context for the cultural significance of wetlands, rooted in the ways that people live their lives and manage these resources. Cultural aspects are manifested through salt harvesting, fishing, growing of rice and other crops, boat building, construction of huts and fish traps using reeds, along with other practices and with intangible knowledge.

The importance of practices such as these was recognised by the Ramsar Convention in 2002 and 2005 through COP Resolutions VIII.19 and IX.21. Ramsar also set up a Culture Working Group in 2005 with international members who aimed to enhance and implement the Ramsar Convention’s guidance on culture-related issues. The Mediterranean Wetland Initiative (MedWet, one of Ramsar’s Regional Initiatives) has also been involved in the cultural aspects of wetlands since 2003. It reactivated its interest by establishing a MedWet Culture Network in 2016, and asked individuals and organisations to join this Network and to assist in the sharing of related information. 

Not all human uses of nature are beneficial to the natural environment – their consequences are dependent on the way they are practiced. In the context of nature conservation and management, references to the cultural aspects of nature generally focus on those practiced in an environmentally sustainable manner. The MedWet Culture Network will therefore ultimately promote the protection of wetlands through culture and the preservation of culture relating to wetlands.

To facilitate understanding of the cultural aspects of wetlands and their recording, MedWet uses the methodology described in the Ramsar Guidance on culture and wetlands, a document produced by the Ramsar Culture Network in 2008. According to the Guidance, wetland cultural aspects can be grouped under four categories: habitation; primary uses of wetland resources; secondary uses of wetland resources and knowledge; and belief systems and social practices.

The MedWet Culture Network invites all individuals and organisations with an interest in wetlands and culture to visit and explore its website (www.medwetculture.org), to become members of the Network and to share knowledge and experiences. The MedWet Culture Network is administrated by the Mediterranean Institute for Nature and Anthropos (MedINA). 

By Irini Lyratzaki, MedINA Scientific Secretariat

Photo credit: Salt harvesting in Castro Marim, Portugal: E. P. Silva