Trends in the ecological character of the world's wetlands

N. C. Davidson, L. Dinesen, S. Fennessy, C. M. Finlayson, P. Grillas, A. Grobicki, R. J. McInnes, D. A. Stroud

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    42 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    We assessed trends in the ecological character of wetlands generally and of Ramsar Sites reported in 2011, 2014 and 2017 by the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in their national reports. There was more widespread deterioration than improvement in the ecological character of wetlands generally, with deterioration increasingly more widespread between 2011 and 2017. The ecological-character trends in Ramsar Sites were significantly better than those of wetlands generally, but an increasingly more widespread deterioration of ecological character was reported between 2011 and 2017. Trends in the ecological character of wetlands generally, and of Ramsar Sites were worst in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, and recently also in Oceania, and better in North America and Europe. Deterioration in the ecological character of Ramsar Site was more widespread in countries with a large average area of their Ramsar Sites. This information on trends of wetland ecological character can contribute to assessing the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal Target 6.6 and Aichi Biodiversity Target 5. Our analysis indicated that the 1971 aim of the Ramsar Convention to stem the degradation of wetlands has not yet been achieved.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)127-138
    Number of pages12
    JournalMarine and Freshwater Research
    Volume71
    Issue number1
    Early online date03 Dec 2019
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2020

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Trends in the ecological character of the world's wetlands'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this