16 October 2001: Introduction to Workshop 3

Wetland Inventory, Assessment and Monitoring

Doug Taylor, Wetlands International

The inventory of wetlands is an essential and strategic foundation for wetland conservation and sustainable development, assisting all stakeholders to share information, and as described by the Ramsar Convention, aims to:

  • identify where wetlands are, and which are the priority sites for conservation;
  • identify the function and values of each, including ecological, social and cultural values;
  • establish a baseline for measuring future change in wetlands, their functions and values;
  • provide a tool for planning and management at both practical and/or political levels; and
  • permit comparisons at all levels (local, national and international) .

Ramsar COP7 defined priorities for wetland inventory, and in particular, urgently called for all Contracting Parties ‘to complete comprehensive national inventories of their wetland resources, including, where possible, wetland losses and wetlands with potential for restoration…’ (Resolution VII.20).

This call for national inventories to be completed, also recommended the use of a standardised protocol for primary data gathering, which is the subject of a paper in this Workshop. The purpose of a standardised protocol is of course to help Contracting Parties to avoid poorly targeted effort, but also to enable comparison of inventories at international level, as recommended by the Global Review of Wetland Resources and Priorities for Wetland Inventory project (GRoWI, 1999).

Of course, from the point of view of a Contracting Party, any inventory protocol should satisfy its own needs at a national and local level, and so must sell itself as a useful tool. This is not easy to achieve, mainly because primary resource inventories are often the responsibility of ‘traditional’ sectoral government bodies, for forestry, agriculture, land use planning. Wetland inventories have great potential as a tool for integrating sectoral interests (sometimes described as ‘mainstreaming’ wetlands in sectoral working) at a river basin level, and this is the key strength of a Ramsar-supported protocol.

It is important not to confuse the need for a national inventory with the need to record official information about already identified Ramsar Sites, and other protected areas. Contacting Parties already engage over inventory at international level through completing Ramsar Information Sheets, the primary record of Sites on the List, and there is already considerable analysis enabling international comparison between Sites using this information, which is held in the Ramsar Database.

How does this relate to a new Ramsar standard for inventory? What is the potential if any, of the Ramsar Information Sheet to be improved as a vehicle for recording results of national inventory and as a record of site status? These questions deserve clear answers. In addition there is probably a good case for conducting user needs analyses of the Ramsar Database and the proposed Ramsar System for Wetland Inventory.

This Workshop is not only concerned with the development of information bases about wetlands, it is also dealing with assessment and monitoring. Logically, inventory comes first, followed by primary assessment, and then regular monitoring is done to update knowledge of wetland status. The key purpose of monitoring is to find out what is changing, assessment is about why.

Wetland inventory is often done in isolation, if at all, whether in Europe or elsewhere. Therefore one of the outputs of this Workshop might be to identify a way to build on the useful experience of the MedWet Initiative, which led to inventory and database advisory groups. This enables the sharing of experience and mutual support. A more collaborative informal approach between Contracting Parties might be a good means of testing a Ramsar System for Wetlands Inventory, while linking needs in some European Contracting Parties to helpful experience available in others. The Wetlands Inventory and Monitoring Specialist Group of Wetlands International may be useful tool in activating this approach.

Monitoring and assessment, whether of wetlands or other ecosystems, is a generic technical activity carried out by many agencies in Europe, and by large numbers of volunteers. Although it is impossible to go into any detail, it is worth mentioning some of the key networks that are involved, and that have good potential to add value to wetlands monitoring and assessment. The Pan European Ecological Network (PEEN) has strong central and local government representation, while the International Long Term Ecological Research network links national networks (e.g. the UK Environmental Change Network, etc.). The EC NoLIMITS (Networking of Long-term Integrated Monitoring in Terrestrial Systems) project is especially relevant. The UNESCO MAB related networks have a strong interest in wise use (e.g. EuroMAB and the Biosphere Reserve Integrated Monitoring initiative), and good potential to consider co-development of socio-economic monitoring and assessment in co-operation with Ramsar Contracting Parties.

The Workshop might therefore, also usefully identify synergies with appropriate networks over wetland inventory, assessment and monitoring. The Workshop could consider practical steps, perhaps based upon some strategic pilot projects at Ramsar Sites, to enable Contracting Parties to complete their national wetland inventories and to consider pooling their wetland-related monitoring and assessment needs, with existing networks, which have good access to remote sensing and information exchange tools.

References

EC NoLIMITS:

The partners include the European Environment Agency, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, UK Environmental Change Network, Global Terrestrial Observing System, and Centre for Earth Observation.

GRoWI, 1999:

LT Costa, JC Farinha, N Hecker and P Tomàs Vives 1996. Mediterranean Wetland Inventory – a reference manual.

Finlayson CM & van der Valk AG (eds) 1995. Classification and Inventory of the World’s Wetlands. Advances in Vegetation Science 16, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.