Side event details

Wetlands around the world are vulnerable due to exposure to a range of pressures. In certain locations, these pressures and potential impacts are being successfully addressed with sufficient data, resources and expertise. However, differing circumstances at other locations hinder thorough vulnerability assessments.

Assessment of threats to wetlands are often carried out as part of environmental impact analysis for development projects or as an element of site management planning, particularly for Wetlands of International Importance. But in many cases, assessment methods have been established in industrialized countries and are ill-adapted to conditions in developing countries, where knowledge of wetlands is often less complete and resources more limited. Data required to carry out detailed assessment of many wetlands often do not exist and, as a result, few vulnerability assessments have been carried out. Furthermore, the communities that depend most heavily on a wetland are often those without the resources to carry out a formal assessment.

This side event aims to introduce a tool “Wetland Vulnerability Assessment Tool (WETVAT)” that is capable of rapidly assessing the vulnerability of wetlands by taking into account the wide range of threats caused by human intervention and environmental change. The WETVAT is an interactive spreadsheet-based tool (in Microsoft Excel) that is complementary to the Convention’s published framework for assessing the vulnerability of wetlands to climate change. It assesses a much wider set of threats including, but beyond, climate change. The WETVAT is deliberately set up to assess the values and threats from a local stakeholder perspective and includes both quantitative and qualitative data in its analysis.

Outcome: Better understanding about the degree of vulnerability of wetlands and on how to prioritize management actions to address or reduce the impacts of threats.

Relevance to COP15 discussions: The WETVAT is the tool being promoted through the draft resolution on assessing pressures on and risks to wetlands (COP15 Doc.23.23).

• Opening message (5 min): Ministry of Environment, Republic of Korea

• Introduction to the draft resolution on assessing pressures on and risks to wetlands (5 min): Ministry of Environment, Republic of Korea

• Overview of WETVAT (10 min): Mr. Rob McInnes, Director, RM Wetlands & Environment Ltd

• WETVAT demonstration (30 min): Mr. Rob McInnes, Director, RM Wetlands & Environment Ltd

• WETVAT pilot testing results (5 min): Philippines

• Next steps and closing message (5 min): Ramsar Regional Center - East Asia

Moderator: Ramsar Regional Center – East Asia