Survey of the State of the World’s Wetlands

| April 27, 2017 | 0 Comments

A Survey of the State of the World’s Wetlands: tell us about a wetland you know

Why undertake this survey? Knowledge about the status and trends of the world’s remaining wetlands is very patchy and limited. To improve this knowledge, and so as to better inform wetland policy and decision-making, we are conducting a simple worldwide questionnaire survey to gather better knowledge on the state of wetlands.

Who is organising the survey? The survey is a collaborative initiative between the Society of Wetland Scientists (SWS Ramsar Section), the World Wetland Network (WWN) and the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), with the help of the Ramsar Convention Secretariat.

How can you help? Are you familiar with a wetland? If yes, then you can help: the survey is open to anyone who can tell us about the state of a wetland(s), small or large, about which they know. The questionnaire asks for your opinion about the state of a wetland, and should take no longer than 10 minutes of your time to complete.

How to complete the questionnaire? You can complete the questionnaire on-line http://www.worldwetnet.org/about-us/world-wetlands-survey-2017 in either English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian or Chinese. If you prefer, for some languages you can download the questionnaire as an Excel form, currently available in English, FrenchSpanish, Arabic and Japanese. Save your completed form (with the name of the wetland in the filename) and email it to: wli@wwt.org.uk

Is there a deadline for completing the questionnaire? Yes, please complete and return your questionnaire(s) by 30 September 2017.

How will the survey results be analysed? Results will be analysed and reported at global and regional scales – results for individual wetlands will not be made public.

How will the survey results be communicated? Summary reports will be made available publicly, through the WWN, SWS and other websites. All contributors will be kept informed when the results become available. The results will also be prepared for publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. We also anticipate showcasing the results of the survey during the next Ramsar Convention Conference of the Contracting Parties (COP13) in 2018. If the results can be made available in time, they will also contribute to the STRP’s State of the World’s Wetlands (SoWWS) report.

Do you have any questions? If you have any further questions, or need help in accessing or completing the questionnaire, please contact Chris Rostron at the World Wetland Network on Chris.Rostron@wwt.co.uk .

And finally … We hope that all STRP members, observers and National Focal Points will contribute to this important new survey but completing the survey questionnaire. This will help fill a major identified gap in the limited current knowledge of wetland ecological character state, and will provide an improved knowledge-base for future Ramsar implementation.

Many thanks in advance to everyone who knows and cares about wetlands for helping improve the knowledge about the world’s wetlands by completing the survey questionnaire.

Nick Davidson (SWS Ramsar Section), Rob McInnes (RM Wetlands & Environment Ltd), Chris Rostron (World Wetland Network), Matt Simpson (WWT)

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