Ecological Character Under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands: A Sea Anchor or a Raft of Options?

The origins of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands lie in the increasing concern expressed during the 1960s over the rapid drainage, conversion and degradation of wetlands, particularly in Europe and North America, and its impacts on wetland biodiversity, specificallymigratorywaterbirds (Matthews 1993), as the full legal title of the Convention (‘Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat’) conveys. Those pioneeringwaterbird scientistswho championed the call for an international agreement between governments to address thispressing issuewere remarkably far-sightedand inspirational in their visionofwhatwas needed, andhelpedcraft aConvention text that has stood the test of time. The Convention text not only recognises the need to conserve wetlands for the biodiversity that depends upon them.Very importantly (andway ahead of its time), it also recognises the ‘interdependence of Man and his environment’, and that ‘wetlands constitute a resource of great economic, cultural, scientific, and recreational value, the loss ofwhichwould be irreparable’ – a resource whose importance has only become more widely recognised in the last 10 years, and which we nowadays call ‘ecosystem services’ (MA 2003). After years of negotiation and discussion, that Convention text was agreed and signed in the city of Ramsar, Iran, in February 1971, making the Ramsar Convention the first of the modern global intergovernmental environmental agreements (Matthews 1993; Gardner and Davidson 2011). In the adopted Convention text, the Convention’s Contracting Parties (member governments) expressed their desire to ‘stem the loss and degradation of wetlands now and in the future’ – something that has proved to be a very challenging desire over the past 45 years since its adoption, given that recent evidence indicates that wetlands are continuing to be destroyed, and in some regions faster than ever (Davidson 2014),with,30%of the area ofwetlands that existed in 1970 now lost (Dixon et al. 2016). At the heart of the Convention is the commitment of Contracting Parties to the ‘wise use’ of all wetlands, with the mechanism to achieve wise use of wetlands being the maintenance of their ‘ecological character’ by all concerned.Originally, ecological character maintenance was a commitment specifically focussed on Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar Sites) designated by Contracting Parties, but since 2005 this undertaking has been recognised as applying equally to all wetlands, whether Ramsar Sites or not (Ramsar Convention 2005; Pittock et al. 2010). The Convention describes ecological character as ‘the combination of the ecosystem components, processes and benefits/ services that characterise the wetland at a given point in time’ (Ramsar Convention 2005). From an ecological perspective it is implicit in that description that all wetlands do for one or other reason change their character over time, whether that change is through ‘natural’ vegetational succession, change in climatic conditions or through the (often damaging) actions of people. However, there is a strong sense from the way in which some parts of the Convention text were worded almost half a century ago, and subsequently in many adopted decisions, that the thinking at that time was to manage wetlands to maintain a stasis of their ecological character, often at that time, for the primary purpose of wetland species conservation. Since 1971 the Convention has adopted a considerable body of scientific and technical advice and guidance on wise use and ecological character maintenance (Ramsar Convention Secretariat 2010a; b), prepared at the request of Contracting Parties by the Convention’s subsidiary body, the Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP). However, there remain some significant gaps in the available guidance, and this has led to confusion and ambiguity concerning what ecological character to maintain for a wetland, a problem often compounded by a lack of knowledge of the extent of short-and longer-term variability in the character of a wetland. For example, when a wetland is designated as a Ramsar Site the designation requires an Information Sheet on Ramsar Wetlands to be completed, which includes a description of the site’s ecological character at the time of the designation (or rather, given the administrative processes concerned, at some time before the designation is completed). This requirement is simply a description of the character at that time and no more than that, not least because the precise date of designation of a Ramsar Site is largely politically and administratively (not ecologically) determined. That ecological character description is intended to help informmanagement planning, butmay not necessarily be the ecological character that must be the objective of management planning implementation. However, some Parties seem to have interpreted this requirement as being the ecological character to maintain for all time, through management. This is erroneous, not least since a Ramsar Site is not required to be pristine at the time of its designation, so maintaining such a wetland degraded by, for example, pollution in its polluted state would be a nonsense. The decision by the CSIRO PUBLISHING

Ecological character and wise use are central tenets underpinning the Ramsar Convention’s global wetland ambitions. In this paper, we postulate that, given on-going and progressive degradation and destruction of wetlands, these concepts require reframing. So as to overcome the human–nature dualism, which underpins current wetland conservation, we propose that wetlands need to be placed within a social–ecological framing that can accommodate a plurality of worldviews and value systems. This reframing broadens the definition of wetland ecological character and replaces it with a more inclusive and comprehensive term ‘wetland character’. Wise use, consequently, becomes maintenance of wetland character. Further considerations on maintaining wetland character under this construct are presented.

The world’s wetlands of international importance are overseen by host nations under processes established through the intergovernmental Convention on Wetlands, commonly known as the Ramsar Convention. Signatory nations to the Convention are required to list at least one wetland as internationally important (known as Ramsar sites) and describe and maintain their ecological character (Gardner and Davidson 2011). Wetlands that satisfy one of a suite of ecological criteria, many of which relate to wetland biodiversity, may be listed as internationally important; the list of internationally important wetlands currently contains 2231 sites covering 214 936 005 ha (17March 2016). The signatories are also required to report on any likely and actual variations in the ecological character of the wetland that may bring it to a state where it may be considered degraded (Finlayson 1996). They are then required to mitigate this degradation or follow prescriptions to delist and offset, with the former being potentially biophysically complex (Alexander et al. 2011) and the latter potentially bedevilled by complex processes (Pittock et al. 2010). As outlined in theMillenniumEcosystemAssessment (MEA 2005), many wetlands, including those listed as Ramsar sites, are increasingly under pressure from (1) anthropogenic climate change causing changes in their hydrology, and (2) the direct impacts of people, notably by modification to their water regimes (increasing water use and/or decreasing water quality), changes in land use, and the introduction or facilitation of invasive species. The Ramsar site description, which is provided at the time of listing of a wetland as internationally important, provides a baseline against which change can be measured. However, as outlined in thisSpecial Issue ofMarineF MacKay et al. 2009). Other techniques to understand the condition or trajectory of change in a wetland include palaeoecology. While these approaches, which are largely sediment-based, may not reconstruct the nature of waterbird or fish populations over time, they are capable of reporting on long-term changes in water quality, sediment load, plant and algal communities and invertebrates, particularly ostracods, cladocerans and chironomids. These records can extend the knowledge of change back centuries or even millennia, but with decreasing resolution over longer periods. With the scope or potential of these approaches being increasingly articulated (Gell 2012), there is an opportunity, or even a need, for contemporary ecologists andmanagers to explore the ecological heritage of their wetlands. Finlayson et al. (2016) also report that there are now many palaeoecological records from sediment sequences collected from Ramsar wetlands across the world, as shown by the papers included in this special issue (Gell and Finlayson 2016). These records show the extent of change through time, with some revealing variation in response to low-frequency climate cycles and others revealing the pervasive andmore recent impacts from industrial development. These studies can be used to reveal how well the ecological condition of awetland at the time of listing as internationally important represents the historical condition and variability of the wetland or if it is a consequence of more recent humanmodification. As explained by Gell et al. (2016), this can create considerable tension in discussions about the ‘ecological character’ of Ramsar-listed wetlands, as well as the ‘limits of acceptable change’, and what constitutes a ‘degraded state’, and can obfuscate the obligations of a signatory nation to remediate or offset adverse ecological change in a wetland of international significance. These issues provided the background for the workshop ‘RamsarWetlands: Understanding Change in Ecological Character’ at Queenscliff, Victoria, Australia, 5–8 November 2013. Sponsored by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (now Future Earth) project PAGES (Past Global Changes), this meeting brought together what was possibly an eclectic group of palaeoecologists andwetlandmanagers andecologists. It included representatives from PAGES and from the Ramsar Convention’s CSIRO PUBLISHING

The Ramsar Convention text requires the Contracting Parties to respond to actual or potential changes in the ‘ecological character’ of their Ramsar Sites. After some years, the Convention’s obligations relating to the conservation of these sites and to the ‘wise use’ of wetlands in general came to be defined in terms of ‘maintaining’ this character. Defining and operationalising these concepts has been complex. This paper reviews the evolution of this, and the challenges that remain in relation to issues such as choosing an appropriate baseline condition to describe, the kinds of changes that warrant a response and situations of natural fluctuation or ‘regime shift’, where ‘maintaining’ ecological character may be an unduly static aim. The ‘character’ of wetlands nevertheless remains a valuably integrative concept, preserving something of the holistic vision developed 50 years ago by the Convention’s founders.

We assessed trends in the ecological character of wetlands generally and of Ramsar Sites reported in 2011, 2014 and 2017 by the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in their national reports. There was more widespread deterioration than improvement in the ecological character of wetlands generally, with deterioration increasingly more widespread between 2011 and 2017. The ecological-character trends in Ramsar Sites were significantly better than those of wetlands generally, but an increasingly more widespread deterioration of ecological character was reported between 2011 and 2017. Trends in the ecological character of wetlands generally, and of Ramsar Sites were worst in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, and recently also in Oceania, and better in North America and Europe. Deterioration in the ecological character of Ramsar Site was more widespread in countries with a large average area of their Ramsar Sites. This information on trends of wetland ecological character can contribute to assessing the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal Target 6.6 and Aichi Biodiversity Target 5. Our analysis indicated that the 1971 aim of the Ramsar Convention to stem the degradation of wetlands has not yet been achieved.

Insights from long-term shorebird monitoring for tracking change in ecological character of Australasian Ramsar sites

Summary Managers of Ramsar‐listed wetlands throughout the world are committed to management that will promote the conservation and wise use of their wetland habitats. Part of the management process is a description of ‘ecological character’ as a benchmark against which a ‘change in ecological character’ can be assessed. Detecting unacceptable change is a difficult judgement, which depends upon an understanding of wetland ecosystem components, processes and services. This paper explores the development of conceptual models as a framework for describing the biophysical elements of ecological character of a wetland in a way that can be readily used for assessing changes. Ecosystem services are partially addressed but need further work to be more fully incorporated. We suggest development of models to identify components and key processes as well as drivers in the ecosystem. These models provide a description of a unique set of identifiers and a baseline against which unacceptable changes in biophysical character can be assessed. For an ecological character description to be useful for adaptive management, we suggest following the process, developed in a case study at Thomsons Lake, Western Australia, which: (i) provides a landscape context and identifies relevant spatial scales using a hierarchy of maps and aerial photographs; (ii) develops a conceptual ecological model with an accompanying synthesis of relevant biophysical data; and (iii) uses these as the basis for recognizing a unique set of wetland identifiers. The latter, together with critical processes, are the core biophysical elements of an ecological character description. Construction of a driver/stressor model facilitates the recognition of external drivers which create ecological stressors and lead to adverse ecological effects and loss of ecosystem services and benefits. It then follows that unacceptable changes in ecological character are those that result in a loss of identifiers, disrupt critical processes and reduce services or benefits.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) has had a considerable influence on the work under multilateral environmental agreements dealing with biological diversity, including the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. The MA developed a strong conceptual framework which brought together the natural and social sciences, and through that synergy promoted what it means to be sustainable. The MA provided a means to redefine the Ramsar Convention's wise use concept in terms of sustainability, especially the capacity of the ecosystem to continue to deliver the services on which other ecosystems and people depend. The messages from the MA impact also on the Ramsar Convention's concept of maintenance of ecological character; and thus the list of Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar sites). ‘Change in ecological character’, which is a concept that is important in measuring Ramsar site effectiveness, can also be resolved in terms of ecosystem services – and thus the criterion for being and continuing to be a Wetland of International Importance essentially becomes an issue of capacity to deliver ecosystem services.

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.

Citizen science is increasingly recognised as a valuable approach to improve the knowledge and understanding required for robust environmental management. We report on the results of a citizen science survey conducted on the status and trends of over 500 wetlands from across the globe. Whilst many wetlands were reported as being in fair or good ecological character state, many (particularly those already in a poor state) were reported as deteriorating. Although designated Ramsar Sites were reported as currently having a slightly better state than other wetlands, widespread deterioration of Ramsar Sites as well as other wetlands was reported. Significant regional differences were reported on the state of wetlands and their extent of improvement or deterioration. Large wetlands, particularly in Africa but also in Latin America and the Caribbean, were reported to be in a worse, and increasingly deteriorating, state than smaller wetlands in North America, Europe and Oceania. Numerous drivers are contributing to degradation and loss of wetlands. However, our data suggest that positive outcomes can be delivered where local community awareness, implementation of conservation measures, cultural values/traditions, tourism and forestry are proactively integrated in order to achieve the wise use of wetlands.

The Ramsar Convention is the world’s most important international treaty governing wetland environments. Since the 1970s, the Convention has concerned itself with listing and protecting wetlands of international significance. However, in the past three decades, a focus has shifted from the identification of potential sites, towards addressing adverse changes in their ‘ecological character’. One of the few mechanisms Ramsar has at its disposal for achieving this is the Montreux Record (MR). The MR, first established in 1990, is a kind of ‘in danger’ list for Ramsar sites that have undergone, are undergoing, or are likely to undergo, adverse ecological change. Unlike other in-danger lists, such as, for example, under the World Heritage Convention, the MR is entirely voluntary and not deployed as a disciplinary measure or reputational sanction. The empirical research presented in this paper shows the declining use and importance of the MR. The paper provides an analysis of the composition and use of the MR from 1990 to 2018 and generates recommendations for how it might be used more effectively. The findings in this paper are significant, given the rapid declines of many Ramsar sites around the world.

The Gippsland Lakes is 1 of 12 wetland systems in Victoria listed under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, with waterbird abundance and species diversity being major contributing factors toward the nomination (Criteria 5 and 6). Waterbird monitoring in the Gippsland Lakes region has been running since the 1980s. The key programs are BirdLife Australia’s Beach-nesting Birds program and Australian Shorebird Monitoring Program, the Gippsland Lakes Important Bird Area monitoring program and the Latham’s Snipe Project. Overall, these programs have revealed variable patterns in abundances across species, with some appearing to decline and others likely to be moving out of the Gippsland Lakes system in wet years. Apparent population decreases may reflect changes in foraging habitat suitability but gaps in survey coverage mean that some birds are almost certainly being missed during monitoring. Investment to support a comprehensive assessment of all data sources to determine the specific nature of apparent species’ trends is urgently required.

The Ramsar Convention (or the Convention on Wetlands), signed in 1971, was one of the first international conservation agreements, promoting global wise use of wetlands. It has three primary objectives: national designation and management of wetlands of international importance; general wise use of wetlands; and international cooperation. We examined lessons learnt for improving wetland conservation after Ramsar’s nearly five decades of operation. The number of wetlands in the Ramsar Site Network has grown over time (2,391 Ramsar Sites, 2.5 million km2, as at 2020-06-09) but unevenly around the world, with decreasing rate of growth in recent decades. Ramsar Sites are concentrated in countries with a high Gross Domestic Product and human pressure (e.g., western Europe) but, in contrast, Ramsar Sites with the largest wetland extent are in central-west Africa and South America. We identified three key challenges for improving effectiveness of the Ramsar Site Network: increasing number of sites and wetland area, improved representation (functional, geographical and biological); and effective management and reporting. Increasing the number of sites and area in the Ramsar network could benefit from targets, implemented at national scales. Knowledge of representativeness is inadequate, requiring analyses of functional ecotypes, geographical and biological representativeness. Finally, most countries have inadequate management planning and reporting on the ecological character of their Ramsar Sites, requiring more focused attention on a vision and objectives, with regular reporting of key indicators to guide management. There are increasing opportunities to rigorously track ecological character, utilizing new tools and available indicators (e.g., remote sensing). It is critical that the world protect its wetlands, with an effective Ramsar Convention or the Convention on Wetlands at the core.

This Research Front comprises three papers that address the links between science and international wetland policy as shown through formal decisions taken by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. The papers cover three very different topics – water quality, ecosystem services and wetland monitoring. The Convention is an inter-governmental treaty, signed in 1971, that provides a framework for national and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources, and is built around three areas of activity: the wise use of all wetlands; designation and management of Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar Sites); and international cooperation (Gardner and Davidson 2011). At the centre of the Convention’s philosophy is the ‘wise use of wetlands’ as shown in the mission statement, namely ‘the conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local and national actions and international cooperation, as a contribution towards achieving sustainable development throughout the world’ (www.ramsar.org, accessed 18 April 2014). Wise use of wetlands is specifically defined as ‘the maintenance of their ecological character, achieved through the implementation of ecosystem approaches, within the context of sustainable development’. As such, wise use comprises the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands and their resources, for the benefit of humankind (Finlayson et al. 2011). The Convention has 168 Contracting Parties (member countries) who meet every three years to review administrative arrangements, review national reports on the implementation of the Convention, and consider guidance for the wise use of wetlands. Formal decisions made by the Contracting Parties are adopted through consensus. Observers frommany organisations also attend these meetings and until 2012 were able to intervene in all discussions. Partway through the 2012 meeting, observers were prevented from intervening in order to recoup time spent on earlier issues. Implementation of the Convention between meetings is managed by a Standing Committee and a permanent Secretariat with technical advice being provided by a subsidiary expert body, the Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP). The meetings of Contracting Parties have made 289 formal decisions, with technical information for wetland management derived from these decisions being compiled in 21 handbooks for the wise use of wetlands (Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention 2010). The program of each meeting (referred to as a Conference of Parties, CoP) includes several technical sessions that enable ongoing and emerging issues for wetland conservation and wise use, including the interpretation and development of key concepts, to be addressed, and guidance adopted for the wise use of wetlands. Ramsar meetings have gained the reputation of being highly effective events, generally allowing active participation of the non-governmental and academic communities. The STRP provides technical input to the meetings through the provision of draft decisions on technical issues and the facilitation of technical discussions, in particular when it is necessary to form sub-groups to work through complex or contentious issues. The STRP comprises members appointed for their expertise in wetland conservation and wise use as well as experts chosen specifically to provide advice on priority topics. These members are chosen on the basis of their technical expertise and not to represent specific organisation or countries. They are supported by several observer organisations, including the Society of Wetland Scientists (SWS; http://www.sws.org/), which itself has formed a Ramsar section to support networking and the promotion of activities that address wetland topics ranging from science to policy. In 2012 and 2103, the SWSRamsar section organised sessions at the Society’s annual conferences, with the respective themes of Linking Science to International Policy and on Understanding How Wetland Science Supports International Wetland Policy. These sessions had the dual purpose of introducing policy issues to wetland scientists and receiving feedback on the science supporting those policy issues. In this way it was anticipated that the nexus between wetland scientists and policy makers could be better understood and strengthened. In a further step to support the aims of the SWS-Ramsar section,Marine and Freshwater Research has compiled a short collection of papers dealing with technical topics and how they contribute to or have been undertaken in response to wetland policy adopted by the Convention. McInnes (2014) assesses the ecosystem services provided by wetlands in urban settings. This assessment was undertaken in response to formal decisions being agreed by UN-Habitat in 2011 and the Ramsar Convention in 2012. The latter in particular provided principles for the planning and management of urban and periurban wetlands and invited countries to CSIRO PUBLISHING

Chilika lagoon is a macrophyte dominated ecosystem. The diversity and distribution of macrophytes provide a key to understand the ecological health of a wetland ecosystem. Chilika lagoon had been in a degraded condition and was included in the Montreux record in 1993 by Ramsar Convention, due to the change in its ecological characters. The restoration intervention by Chilika Development Authority resulted in the enhancement of fishery resources, the reappearance of native fish species, decrease in the spread of freshwater invasive species, expansion of seagrass meadows, and overall improvement of the ecosystem. To make an assessment of the changes in the phytodiversity of the lagoon after hydrological restoration, as a part of the doctoral thesis research work by the first author, phytodiversity of islands, shorelines, sandbar, and the littoral zone was surveyed for a period of 5 years (1998–2002). Subsequently, after a decade, a re-assessment was made for a period of 4 years (2012–2016) by the second author under the World Bank supported Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project, Odisha. Remote sensing and Geographic Information System tools were used for the assessment of the diversity, distribution, and seasonal changes in the aquatic angiosperms as well as for monitoring the spread of the invasive species. The extensive floristic survey after the hydrological intervention revealed a reduction in the area covered by water hyacinth and water fern, invasion of Phragmites karka in the northern sector and expansion of seagrass meadows. Four species of seagrasses i.e., Halodule pinifolia, Halodule uninervis, Halophila ovata, and Cymodocea serrulata were recorded for the first time from the lagoon. An occurrence of 748 species of angiosperm belonging to 486 genera under 127 families were recorded, identified, and preserved as herbarium specimens. Based on the outcome of this systematic survey, the strategies for the management of macrophytes in Chilika lagoon and the scope of future studies are recommended.