Wetland Conservation Requires Transition toward Landscape-Scale Interdisciplinary Approaches

Abstract

Large-landscape conservation is an emerging paradigm responding to the growing effects of landscape-scale stressors on the environment with the goal to balance multiple socio-ecological objectives. Wetlands provide a disproportionate wealth of ecosystem services given their generally diminutive composition across the landscape. A challenge for wetland scientists is to develop science to support this evolving landscape conservation approach and to integrate wetland services and benefits explicitly into regional conservation and adaptation planning. This special feature arose from a symposium held at the 2017 Society of Wetland Scientists meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico, USA entitled, “Wetland Conservation in the 21st Century: Landscape Scale Interdisciplinary Approaches Addressing Multiple Objectives.” The nine papers that follow stem from that symposium and collectively provide examples of wetland science that address human well-being, ecological functioning, and future forecasting to support long-term landscape conservation planning. This special feature celebrates the critical role wetlands play in maintaining biodiversity and human well-being as well as the valuable role wetland scientists play informing landscape conservation decisions.