A new digital atlas has collated crucial data on Africa’s wetlands, including their climate change mitigation potential, in a bid to protect one of the world’s most vulnerable ecosystems.

Since the 1970s more than a third of the world’s wetlands have disappeared, largely due to climate change and urbanization, at a rate that is three times faster than forest loss. In Africa’s Sahel region, wetlands only make up 10% of the total area, but are home to 75% of the region’s population and support more than 85% of its GDP, Wetlands International, which developed the atlas, told conservation news site Mongabay.

They also act as important carbon sinks and help to protect areas from flooding. The atlas is expected to plug a crucial information gap about wetlands in the Sahel and Horn of Africa.