Monitoring Wetlands
for Sustainable Development
Dr. Ania Grobicki
Acting Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention
GEO Round Table, 7 March 2016
Ramsar Convention: the first major
international environmental treaty
• Aims to promote the conservation and wise use of wetlands, as well as
international cooperation on these issues
o Signed in 1971 in Ramsar, Iran
• 169 Contracting Parties
• Commits member states to wise use of all wetlands, and naming and
protecting “Wetlands of International Importance”
• 2,231 Ramsar Sites worldwide cover a total area of 215 million
hectares or 2.15 million km² (i.e. an area larger than Indonesia)
• Number of designated Ramsar Sites is up from 2,021 in 2000
The Ramsar Definition of Wetlands
• Article 1.1: ‘For the purpose of this Convention wetlands are areas of
marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent
or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or
salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide
does not exceed six metres.’
• Article 2.1 provides that wetlands: ‘may incorporate riparian and
coastal zones adjacent to the wetlands, and islands or bodies of marine
water deeper than six metres at low tide lying within the wetlands’
Wetlands
in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Under the Water Goal (Goal 6) :
Target 6.6 : Protect and restore water-related ecosystems,
including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers & lakes
Indicator 6.6 :
% change in extent of water-related ecosystems over time
Under the Biodiversity Goal (Goal 15) :
Target 15.1 : Ensure conservation, restoration and
sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater
ecosystems and their services, in particular forests,
wetlands, mountains and drylands, in line with
obligations under international agreements
Multiple collaborating partners for an innovative and flexible monitoring
system…
GLOBAL WETLANDS OBSERVATION SYSTEM (GWOS)
Overall responsibility for the objective of GWOS, linking it to the monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Aichi
Biodiversity Targets and the Ramsar Strategic Plan for Wetlands 2016-2024. Formal endorsement, strategic positioning.
Ownership level
Ramsar
Convention
CBD
UNEP
GEO
WMO
Giving input into the directions taken, supporting projects, facilitating linkages with existing projects, establishing user
interfaces.
Major stakeholders, funders, champions, enablers.
Global Governance
/User Interface
UNEP GRID
Wetlands
International
GEO BON
UNEP-WCMC
Conservation
IUCN
International
Ramsar
Convention
Secretariat
IWMI
GEMI Consortium
Operational Partnerships: Steering the delivery.
Project leads, expert advisors, data providers, end users, other
stakeholders.
Operational Partnerships
Space Agencies
(JAXA, ESA,
NASA)
Ramsar Contracting
Parties (169
countries' National
Focal Points)
NGOs
River
Basin
Authoritie
s
Corporate
s
GEO Water
• Kick-off meeting took place at Ramsar offices on 10 November 2015
• Users Advisory Committee : 20+ users in-country represented by regional
representatives from North Africa, West Africa, Central Africa and East Africa
• Seamless toolbox integration with GlobWetland II
• Future integration with outputs from Satellite-based Wetland Observation
System (SWOS)
• Needs to provide national wetland inventories for pilot countries, providing a
baseline measurement of the extent of wetlands area in square km in 2017
Global Mangrove Watch (GMW)
• GMW is an international collaborative project, led by JAXA, Univ. of New
South Wales (AU) and Aberystwyth Univ. (UK) and WI, with contribitions from
IWMI and WCMC.
• As part of collaboration between JAXA and the Ramsar Wetlands Convention,
GMW was (@ STRP-17) selected as a Pilot Project to the Ramsar Global
Wetlands Observation System (GWOS)
• GMW is to provide a tool for Ramsar, NGO’s and the public to obtain
geospatial information at 25m resolution about mangrove extents and
changes at national to global scales.
Key message : Consider a GEO Wetlands that
links both to GEO BON and to GEO Water
Thank you!
Dr. Ania Grobicki
Acting Secretary General of Ramsar Convention
Email : [email protected] Website : www.ramsar.org