A role for the Wetland Convention in Wetland Restoration

Christopher BriggsSecretary General of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

What are Wetlands?

almost the size of Russia.

Wetlands cover over 1.5 billion hectares

Transport Food Fishing Hunting Entertainment

Wetland Services include:

... but also:

Wetlands provide all our water and clean our waters

They protect against natural disasters (tsunamis, hurricane etc) and reduce flood and drought impact

They play a key role in climate change adaptation and mitigation(eg blue carbon, peat for C storage)

Wetlands are being lost and degraded

40% LOST IN 40 YRS

Drainage, dykes

Land conversion

Agriculture

Over abstraction

Pollution

Climate change

Wetland restoration

Can restore some wetlands with many ecosystem services recovered quickly. Other types have slow recovery with only partial functions restored

According to wetland type, restoration can take years (mudflats), hundreds of years (grey dunes) or millennia (blanket bogs).

Variable cost – from 90 EUR/km2 (mangroves) to over 100,000 EUR/km2 (coral reefs)

Benefits: reduce poverty

India, Sundarbans

Livelihoods project

Over 16 million mangroves planted

They will bring economic and nutritional value to local communities, protect from floods and store CO2

Viet Nam

50,000 ha mangroves planted over 12 years

Cost: 1.1. million USD

7.3 million USD saved per year

Benefits for 7,750 families

Benefits: mitigate effects of climate change

The Netherlands

250,000 people repeatedly evacuated for the risk of floods in early 1990s

Breaking the trend: instead of building higher dikes, leave “room for the river”

Outcomes: Increased safety for 4 million people and improved environmental quality of the region

Benefits: provide clean water

South Africa, Manalana Wetlands

3.5 ha restored in 2006

Project benefits: 182,000 EUR (twice the costs)

Wetland now acts as safety net for poor households

Senegal, Lake Guiers

Provides 65% of Dakar’s drinking water

22 million EUR 5-year restoration project funded by ADF, GEF and government

Benefits: reduce emissions of CO2

Germany, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania

Restoration of 30,000 ha of peatland drained for agriculture

Emissions reduced by 300,000 tons of CO2 eq. pa

Estimated damage from avoided CO2 loss : 21.7 million EUR/year or 700 EUR/ha

Carbon offsetting scheme created, based on this experience

Conditions to be fulfilled

Work across the sectors eg climate change, economic investment, development planning, housing, sanitation and water resources, food production, transport and education

Involve the local community

Raise awareness and influence behaviour and practices that led to the degradation

Address restoration at catchment level

Thank you for listening

www.ramsar.org