The 12th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (COP12) has approved the new Ramsar Strategic Plan that recognizes that all wetlands are essential to achieving sustainable development goals.

According to recent estimates, 64% of the world’s wetlands have disappeared since 1900 and the trends point to continued decline of the world’s wetlands. Addressing the factors that drive wetland loss and degradation will be a priority action for all Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention in the next triennium 2016 to 2024.

The Meeting, which took place in Uruguay from 1 to 9 June 2015, closed with delegates approving a new Strategic Plan to guide country actions to conserve and wisely use their wetlands.

Over 800 delegates from 160 countries met to review the progress of the Convention and agreed on four strategic priorities that will stem wetland loss and degradation, and that offer solutions to pressing issues such as food security, water security and climate change. They include:

• Addressing the factors driving the loss and degradation of wetlands by ensuring that decision-makers in key sectors such as water, energy, mining, agriculture, tourism and urban development, appreciate the value and benefits wetlands provide and include these benefits in policy
• Renewing country commitment to conserve and protect the Ramsar site network, considered to be of high value to each country and to the world because of the ecosystem services they provide.
• Promoting wise use of all wetlands and restore wetlands that are relevant for biodiversity conservation, disaster risk reduction, livelihoods and/or climate change mitigation and adaptation

Delegates meeting in Uruguay also approved key decisions that will facilitate the implementation of the Strategic Plan. These include:

• The key role of peatlands in climate change regulation
• The key role of wetlands in reducing disaster risks
• Protecting water requirements of wetlands in order to maintain their healthy functioning for the future and present.
• Welcoming the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) as an International Organization Partner of the Convention
• Establishing the World Wetland City Accreditation System to preserve urban and peri-urban wetlands threatened by expanding cities

The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands is the intergovernmental treaty that provides the global framework for the conservation and wise use of wetlands. It is the only global treaty to focus on a single ecosystem. The Convention was signed in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971 and entered into force in 1975. Since then, 168 countries, almost 90% of UN member states from the entire world’s geographic regions have acceded and become Contracting Parties.

Each Member State adopting the Convention designates at least one site considered to be of high value to the country and the world because of the ecosystem services they provide. The sites are added to the network of Ramsar Sites of International Importance.  Currently there are over 2100 designated Ramsar sites around the world, covering an area of 208 million hectares, an area larger than Mexico.

Under the Convention, wetlands are any land area that is saturated or flooded with water, either seasonally or permanently. Inland wetlands include aquifers, lakes, rivers, streams, marshes, peatlands, ponds, flood plains and swamps. Coastal wetlands include all coastlines, mangroves, saltmarshes, estuaries, lagoons, seagrass meadows and coral reefs.

The UK has a total of 160 Ramsar sites on the UK mainland and is responsible for a further 16 in overseas territories. Ahead of the Uruguay meeting, each country submitted a national report on the implementation of the Ramsar convention on wetlands. The UK report flagged up one of the five greatest difficulties in implementing the Convention is the fact that a large proportion of the Ramsar Coventions aims are implemented in the UK through the European Habitats Directive and Water Framework Directive, saying that “this can make it difficult to raise the profile of Ramsar.”

Among the UK’s top five priorities for future implementation of the Convention is the need to continue to strive to find ways to balance the needs of human habitation on floodplains with the benefits of rewetting the area for biodiversity.

Click here to download the UK National Report on the Implementation of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands