Wetlands are hot spots of biodiversity and provide a wide range of valuable ecosystem services, but at the same time they globally are one of the fastest declining and most endangered ecosystems. The development of a Global Wetland Observation System (GWOS) that is supported by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands since 2007 is seen as a step towards improved capabilities for global mapping, monitoring and assessment of wetland ecosystems and their services, status and trends. A newly proposed GEO-Wetlands initiative is taking up this effort and developing the necessary governance and management structures, a community of practice and the necessary scientific and technical outputs to set up this system and maintain it over the long term. This effort is aiming at directly supporting the needs of global conventions and monitoring frameworks as well as users of wetland information on all levels (local to global) to build a platform that provides a knowledge-hub as a baseline for informed ecosystem management and decision-making.
Towards a Global Wetland Observation System: The GEO-Wetlands Initiative Towards a Global Wetland Observation System: The GEO-Wetlands Initiative
Strauch, Adrian; Flink, Stephan; Fujimoto, Nobuyoshi; Geller, Gary; Grobicki, Ania; Hilarides, Lammert; Muro Martín, Javier; Paganini, Marc; Rosenqvist, Ake & Weise, Kathrin. (2016). Towards a Global Wetland Observation System: The GEO-Wetlands Initiative. In Living Planet Symposium, Proceedings of the conference held 9-13 May 2016 in Prague, Czech Republic. Edited by L. Ouwehand. ESA-SP Volume 740, ISBN: 978-92-9221-305-3, p.118