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Theme: THE DEGRADATION OF WETLANDS AND ITS SOCIO ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS IN NDOP CENTRAL SUBDIVISION, NORTH WEST PROVINCE CAMEROON
Page 16
soaked by water. From a much more scientific angle, other approaches have been adopted for this concept and will be examined in the paragraphs that follow.
The United States Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1987) jointly view wetlands as “those areas that are submerged or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated conditions”. A simplified approach by the U.S Fish and Wildlife Services considers wetlands as “transitional zones between terrestrial and aquatic systems” In physical geography, a wetland is an environment at the interface between truly terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, inherently different from each other, yet highly dependent on both, (Mitsch & Gosselink, 1986).
Raunet (1982, 1985) in the work of Vlaar, J.C. et al (1990) considers a wetland as “small concave or flat valleys, not containing a remarkable water course; submerged for over a more or less long period of the year by a film of water which generally flows slowly”. He adds that the flooding of these wetlands is as a result the constant rise of water from the water table.
The Ramsar Buraeu (2000) under article 1.1 consider a wetland as an area of marsh, fen, peat land or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporal with water that is flowing or static, fresh, brackish or salty, including areas of marine water, the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six meters. Within this conceptual framework, the Ramsar classification system for wetlands broadly makes a distinction of three main wetland types. These include: Marine/coastal wetlands, Inland wetlands and Man made wetlands. Other sub categories exist under these main types.
If an overview is made on the consideration of a wetland by various authors, it will be observed that all these approaches carry the connotation of a wetland as an area that is wholly or partially submerged by water for over long periods of the year. Within the framework of this research, wetlands will constitute all the flood plains and river valleys of Ndop Central Subdivision, as well as the dammed waters of the Bamendjin reservoir. According to Ramsar classifications, these can be considered as inland and Man-made wetlands respectively
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