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REVIEW

Fifty years of criteria development for selecting wetlands of international importance

David A. Stroud https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2967-0046 A D and Nick C. Davidson https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2466-0658 B C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Monkstone House, City Road, Peterborough PE1 1JY, UK.

B Nick Davidson Environmental, Queens House, Ford Street, Wigmore HR6 9UN, UK.

C Institute for Land, Water and Society, Charles Sturt University, Albury, NSW 2640, Australia.

D Corresponding author. Email: david@dastroud.uk

Marine and Freshwater Research 73(10) 1134-1148 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF21190
Submitted: 24 June 2021  Accepted: 6 October 2021   Published: 9 November 2021

Abstract

The Ramsar Convention’s criteria for the identification of wetlands of international importance (Ramsar sites) and its associated guidance have been widely influential, not only in the selection of Ramsar sites, but also in the development of similar criteria to identify internationally or nationally protected areas for biodiversity through other processes. Over 50 years there has been a conceptual broadening of the scope of the criteria from an initial focus on waterbirds, as well as progressive development of interpretive guidance, allowing meaning and interpretation to develop to support criteria that have been unchanged since 2005. However, establishing criteria based on the provision of cultural or socioeconomic ecosystem services for humans, although regularly discussed at recent conferences of parties, remain unresolved, with opposing views among contracting parties. A pragmatic way forward may be to establish a status ‘badge’ or attribute that acknowledges the value of a Ramsar site to human communities, distinct from the site selection criteria. Allowing parties themselves to ‘award’ this status to appropriate sites would give flexibility for differential national uptake, perhaps being more frequently applied by some parties than others.

Keywords: cultural values, ecosystem services, protected areas, Ramsar Convention, site selection criteria.


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