Wetlands are considered to be the world’s most productive ecosystems. Yet, they are being lost at an alarming rate from land conversion and land use changes driven by agriculture, industrialisation and urbanisation. Wetlands’ hydrological regimes are also increasingly impacted by climate change. There are no accurate, reliable and accessible data depicting the speed and scale of wetland changes. Consequently, policy makers and practitioners do not have the information they need to take informed decisions that prioritise and protect these high-value ecosystems.

The Global Wetland Watch is a new initiative with the aim of filling this critical global data gap. This new wetland information system will generate high-resolution maps and statistics that detail near real-time changes to different wetland ecosystems across the globe. The system will make this information readily available at national and ecosystem scales down to a 10-metre resolution.

The data and information generated by the Global Wetlands Watch will support country commitments and ambitions towards national targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Global Biodiversity Framework and other multilateral environmental agreements.