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COURSE INFO PROVIDER: SWSPCP Webinar
COURSE TITLE: Withering Wetlands - Global Trends in Wetland Loss and Degradation: Why, and what can be done about it?

INSTRUCTORS Nick Davidson

COURSE DESCRIPTION Withering Wetlands - Global Trends in Wetland Loss and Degradation: Why, and what can be done about it?
Presenter Professor Nick Davidson

Wetland site/ topic: Yellow Water in the Kakadu Ramsar Site in the Northern Territory of Australia - one of Australia's largest internationally important inland and coastal wetland complexes.

Keywords: Loss, Conversion, Degradation, Value, Ramsar Convention, Drivers, Responses

Abstract:
Wetlands deliver vital benefits to people and their livelihoods, benefits of huge economic value: recently re-estimated as at least $47 trillion per year - 43% of the value of all the earth's ecosystems, despite wetlands forcing less than 4% of the earth's surface. Yet people have been converting and destroying wetlands for centuries, and this destruction continues in all parts of the world. Furthermore, new evidence indicates that although many wetlands, particularly small ones, are still in good condition, deterioration of the condition (ecological character) of our remaining wetlands is becoming increasingly widespread, although less so for internationally important wetlands (Ramsar Sites) than other wetlands. This webinar will then look at what is driving this continuing loss and degradation, both directly and indirectly, and identify what the world's people, and specifically the Society of Wetland Scientists (SWS) can and should be doing to turn round the continuing destruction of the wetlands we all depend on for our future survival, including through their role in minimizing impacts of our changing climate.

Presenterâ��s bio:
Nick Davidson is currently an independent expert consultant on wetland conservation and wise use issues. He was the Deputy Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands from 2000 to 2014. He has a long-standing commitment to environmental sustainability supported through the transfer of environmental science into policy-relevance and decision-making at national and international scales.

Nick has over 40 yearsâ�� experience of research on the ecology, assessment and conservation of coastal and inland wetlands and the ecophysiology and flyway conservation of migratory water birds. Prior to his Ramsar Convention post he worked for the UK's national government conservation agencies and as International Science Coordinator for the global NGO Wetlands International (a Ramsar International Organization Partner).

Nickâ��s current work includes supporting enhanced Ramsar Convention implementation in Myanmar and Bhutan, strategic planning for Ramsar Regional Initiatives, and research on improving the global knowledge-base on the area, distribution, status, trends and management of wetlands.

Since 2009 he has been an Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Land, Water and Society, Charles Sturt University, Australia; is an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Water & Environmental Management (CIWEM); was presented with the Society of Wetland Scientistâ��s (SWS) International Fellow Award 2010 and Lifetime Achievement Award 2019 for his long-term contributions to global wetland science and policy; chairs the SWSâ��s Ramsar Section; and is Chair of the East Asia-Australasia Flyway Partnership (EAAFP) Technical Sub-Committee.

Credit Points: 0.06

SYLLABUS/TOPICAL OUTLINE 1) 15 minutes: The global extent, value, and benefits of wetlands; 2) 15 minutes: Historical and current trends in wetland destruction and deterioration; 3) 15 minutes: What can be done to reverse the continued wetland destruction; 4) 15 minutes: Questions and answers.

COURSE CONTACT

Louis Mantini
9225 CR 49, Live Oak, FL 32060
lfm@srwmd.org
P: 386.647.3144
F:

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