B R I E F S
BIODIVERSITY INSTITUTE UPDATES:
PROFESSOR GARDNER HELPS LAUNCH REPORT
ON THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S WETLANDS
B Y B R A N D I PALMER
In October of 2018, in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates,
representatives from countries around the globe converged at
the Ramsar Convention’s 13th Conference of the Parties. An
intergovernmental treaty that promotes wetland conservation,
the Ramsar Convention has 170 parties, including the United
States and, most recently, the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea. A highlight of the gathering was the release of the Global
Wetland Outlook, a comprehensive review of the state of the
world’s wetlands.
For the past six years, Professor Royal Gardner, director of
Stetson’s Institute for Biodiversity Law and Policy, has served as
chair of Ramsar’s Scientific and Technical Review Panel. The
STRP is the treaty’s scientific advisory body, and it was tasked
with producing the Global Wetland
Outlook. Gardner was a lead coordinating
author, along with Dr. Max
Finlayson of Charles Sturt University in
Australia.
Gardner and Finlayson led a team of
more than two dozen scientific and
policy experts in developing the Global
Wetland Outlook. The effort began with a
meeting in Changshu, China, during the
INTECOL International Wetlands
Conference in September 2016. The
report progressed through a series of
meetings held at the Ramsar Secretariat
in Switzerland and was reviewed by
national representatives and anonymous
scientific experts. As the Convention’s
flagship publication, the Global Wetland
Outlook was published in English,
French and Spanish.
The report found that since 1970, where data are available, the
world has lost approximately 35 percent of its wetlands. While
the area of human-made wetlands has increased, it has not kept
up with the decline in natural wetlands. Consequently, a quarter
of wetland-dependent species is at risk of extinction. The
decline in wetlands also results in a loss of benefits to people,
including flood control, water purification, food production,
and carbon sequestration.
The Global Wetland Outlook offered response actions for governments,
Photo by IISD/Francis Dejon (enb.iisd.org/ramsar/cop13/23oct.html)
the private sector, organizations, and individuals. These
include enhancing the network of wetland protected areas;
strengthening legal and policy arrangements; applying economic
and financial incentives for communities and businesses; ensuring
participation of all stakeholders in wetland management; and
improving national wetland inventories and tracking wetland
extent.
In Dubai, countries were asked how they would use the Global
Wetland Outlook, and the reaction was very positive. China
pledged to translate the report into Mandarin and use it to
promote a national no net loss policy. The Czech Republic stated
that it would use the information to influence its agricultural
policies and subsidies.
Professor Gardner observed that the production of the Global
Wetland Outlook was “truly a team effort, involving individual
experts from around
the world with the
support of the
Ramsar Secretariat.”
He also noted key
contributions from
two Stetson Law alumnae: Foreman Biodiversity Fellow Erin
Okuno J.D. ’13 was on the author team and Marcela Bonells
J.D. ’12 provided outstanding assistance as the Ramsar
Secretariat’s scientific support officer. Gardner said he views the
Global Wetland Outlook as a fitting capstone to his two terms as
STRP chair.
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