The Ramsar Convention and wetland assessment

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The Ramsar Convention and wetland assessment

• Nick Davidson
• Deputy Secretary General
• Ramsar Bureau
• CBD/Ramsar Rapid assessment of inland water
  biodiversity
• Montreal, 2-4 December 2002

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Background

• significant attention under the Convention to
  inventory, assessment and monitoring
• basic commitment to maintain the ecological
  character of wetlands
• particularly Ramsar sites
• assessing the status and trends of the wetland
  resource
• existing guidance (COP6 COP7)
• much new guidance and future actions adopted by
  Ramsars COP8 last week
• most guidance general procedural frameworks
• need recognised for more methodological guidance

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Ramsar COP8 Resolution VIII.8

• Assessing and reporting status and trends of
  wetlands, and the implementation of Article 3.2
  of the Convention
• Article 3.2 identifying and reporting change in
  ecological character
• recognises need to improve levels of assessment
  and reporting
• STRP report on status and trends of Ramsar sites,
  in wider context of regional and global status
  and trends
• STRP prepare consolidated guidance on detecting,
  reporting and responding to change in ecological
  character

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Ramsars existing guidance

• Framework for designing a wetland monitoring
  programme (Res. VI.1)
• Wetland risk assessment framework (Res. VII.10),
  includes
• step-wise model procedure
• early warning indicators
• rapid response toxicity tests
• early warning field tests
• rapid assessment
• incorporate into rapid assessment guidance?

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Ramsars definitions of inventory, assessment
monitoring

• adopted by COP8 Resolution VIII.6 A Framework
  for Wetland Inventory
• inventory collection and/or collation of core
  information for wetland management, incl.
  Information base for specific assessment and
  monitoring activities
• assessment identification of status of, and
  threats to, wetlands as basis for collection of
  more specific information through monitoring

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Ramsars definitions of inventory, assessment
monitoring

• monitoring collection of specific info. for
  management, hypothesis driven from assessment,
  and using results for management implementation
• definitions recognise that distinction between
  inventory and assessment often blurred

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Inventory Framework

• 13 design steps for decision-making, related to
  purpose (objectives) and available resources
• equally applicable to wetland assessment
• Steps
• 1. State purpose and objective
• 2. Review existing knowledge and information
• 3. Review existing methods
• 4. Determine scale and resolution
• 5. Establish core/minimum data set
• 6. Establish habitat classification
• 7. Choose appropriate method

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Inventory Framework steps (cont.)

• 8. Establish data management system
• 9. Establish time schedule and resources
  required
• 10. Assess feasibility and cost effectiveness
• 11. Establish reporting procedure
• 12. Establish review and evaluation process
• 13. Plan a pilot study
• test and adjust method, as needed

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An integrated Ramsar Wetland Inventory,
Assessment and Monitoring Framework (WIAM)

• COP8 recognised number of gaps and disharmonies
  in existing Ramsar guidance (Resolution VIII.7)
• STRP will fill these, through developing
  integrated framework, based on outline in COP8
  DOC. 16
• based on Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA)
  conceptual framework
• recognises importance of scale, and developing
  multi-scalar approaches, and
• use and value of remote sensing for wetland
  assessment

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Other relevant COP8 decisions

• adopted CBDs COP6 guidelines for environmental
  impact assessment and strategic environmental
  assessment
• adopted New guidelines for management planning
  for Ramsar sites and other wetlands
• inventory/assessment needed for description and
  evaluation
• features and factors
• ecological features and processes
• features ecological, socio-economic and cultural

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Guidelines for rapid assessment of inland water
biodiversity

• will contribute to gaps in Ramsars toolkit
• Issues to consider/incorporate
• define inland waters wetland habitat coverage
• cover all indicative components of CBD
  biodiversity
• cover assessment of processes as well as features

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Guidelines for rapid assessment of inland water
biodiversity

• In methodology, include key precursors for
  choosing any assessment work
• establishing purpose and objective
• compiling existing knowledge and information
• incl. traditional knowledge through stakeholder
  and local community/indigenous peoples
  contribution (as appropriate)
• scale issues
• resource issues

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