The Economic, Cultural and Ecosystem Values of the Sudd Wetland in South Sudan: An Evolutionary Approach to Environment and Development
Publisher: UNEP
Author(s): John Gawdy and Hannes Lang
Date: 2015
Topics: Renewable Resources
Countries: South Sudan
The Sudd wetland is one of the world’s most unique and valuable ecosystems. It can cover as much as 90,000 km2 in the wet season and is second only to the Patanal in South America in size. The importance of the wetland to the world’s cultural and environmental heritage was recognized in 2006 when the Sudd was officially designated a Ramsar site—a wetland area of international importance—by the United Nations. Nevertheless, the Sudd ecosystem and its unique cultures are threatened by a variety of development pressures including a plan to almost completely drain the wetland to divert water for agriculture downstream. The development pressures on the Sudd illustrate how unrestrained economic and political forces can threaten the degradation of a valuable and irreplaceable ecosystem and major disruptions to the cultures that have thrived for centuries. The case of the Sudd also illustrates how a broader and more dynamic concept of “value” than the one usually employed in static cost-benefit analysis can enrich our understanding of the importance of irreplaceable environmental features and unique human cultures, and point the way to more rational, more nuanced, and more proactive environment and development policies.