Wetland Ecosystem Services and the Ramsar Convention: an Assessment of Needs

The Ramsar Convention promotes the wise use of wetlands as a fundamental tenet behind the desire to stop and reverse the loss and degradation of wetlands. The concept of wise use has been formally defined as the maintenance of ecological character, of which ecosystem services form an integrated element. The Contracting Parties to the Convention submit formal National Reports (NRs) before the triennial Conference of Parties in order to report on progress towards implementation. The information contained in the National Reports submitted for the eleventh Conference of Parties (Bucharest, 2012) has been reviewed in order to assess progress made on understanding of and reporting on wetland ecosystem services. Notwithstanding concerns regarding the pedigree and utility of the information reported through the NRs, the review has demonstrated reporting on the benefits provided by Ramsar Sites is limited, that regional differences exist in the reporting on ecosystem services and that some ecosystem services are more frequently reported than others. Based on this evaluation recommendations for the future development of guidance for integrating assessment of wetland ecosystem services are proposed.