1. Highlights, opportunities
and challenges
Summary for the General Members e-Meeting

2. 1. Recent highlights
Convention on Biological Diversity
Conference in Nagoya
Thanks to our lobbying, the new CBD Goals
for 2010-2020 include:
 Specific targets for safeguarding
freshwater ecosystems
 Protecting and restoration of a
minimum of 15% of all degraded
carbon-rich
ecosystems – e.g. peatlands
Migratory waterbird flyways
We completed the 5 year, innovative Wings
Over Wetlands project, and products in 2011
from this included:
 The Critical Site Network Tool, the web-
tool for key wetland sites for migratory
waterbirds in Africa-Eurasian Flyway
 The Flyway Training Kit implemented,
training of trainers in Middle East,
Africa and Central Asia, leading to
national trainings
 Continued collaboration was committed
under an African-Eurasian Flyway
Partnership with the Ramsar
Secretariat and BirdLife International
Conservation & Livelihoods
 To protect the West African Manatee
(Trichechus senegalensis) in 6 West
African countries, we turned manatee
hunters into fishermen, tourist guides
and manatee monitors, and provided
community-wide benefits, such as a
boat, to stop hunting. This field work is
supported by sub-region wide
monitoring, national policies and action
plans.
 In Kenya we set up the Kimana Wetlands Association bringing together Masaai
herdsmen, farmers and wildlife managers. Jointly they formulated the Wetlands
Management Plan that tackles water usages, thereby preventing conflict between
user groups and benefits wildlife.
 We restored mangroves in West Africa and Southeast Asia, providing alternative
livelihoods (solar salt production, sustainable fish smoking) to reduce cutting of
mangroves, and restored abandoned aquaculture ponds through our innovative
silvofishery approach

3. New Arctic programme up to speed
 A cross-discipline scientific review of Arctic ecosystems and the impacts of oil &
gas industry was adopted by the Arctic Council
 The dialogue set up between scientists, oil and gas engineers and conservationist
led to the changing of location of two planned oil rigs in order to lower their impact
on biodiversity and peatland hydrology
Climate change
 With our encouragement, the Indonesian government declared a two-year
moratorium on forest and peatland clearing concessions. This protects – with some
exemptions - 55 mln hectares of tropical peatland.
 We lobbied through climate networks to successfully prevent a loophole in the
implementation of the EU Directive on Sustainable Energy that could have led to
subsidising of biofuels produced on peatlands
 The UNFCCC agreed to include ‘wetlands’ in emission accounting under a post-
Kyoto Protocol climate agreement. Current accounting will be corrected, and
wetland conservation and restoration will be stimulated. We are advocating for a
new climate treaty that also includes incentives for wetland restoration, plus
bilateral (e.g. REDD+) financing.
Global recognition for our work
 Invited by President Clinton, our CEO
became a member of the Clinton
Global Initiative where we pledged to
restore and conserve more than one
million hectares of wetlands, reducing
CO2 emissions by at least 100
megatons by 2015. Wetlands
International was honoured to receive
recognition for excellence from
President Clinton at the 2011 Annual
Meeting.
 The Wetlands International Netherlands
Foundation was awarded the Dutch
CBF-Seal as a trustworthy charity – a
sign of sound management and
administration

4.  All four GEF projects that Wetlands
International led or was partner in are
shortlisted in the Global Environment
Facility’s ‘GEF 20 best projects’
 The Critical Site Network Tool that we
developed under the Wings over
Wetlands project won first prize of the
ESRI/SCGIS International
Conservation Mapping Competition in
the category “Best Interactive Web
Map”
New publications

5. 2. Challenges and opportunities in 2012
In 2012 Wetlands International will work with a growing portfolio of global and regional
initiatives and projects that involve conserving and restoring wetlands for a wide range of
values. Amongst many others, we will:
 Strengthen collaboration in our International Waterbird Monitoring Partnership,
producing several key global and flyway-wide knowledge products on waterbird
populations, that influence wetland conservation designations and management
practices
 Consolidate and connect our experiences in Africa, Latin America and South/ South-
East Asia on mangrove conservation and restoration; also initiating applied research
on the role and value of mangroves in coastal protection
 Put a spotlight on “water grabs” as a growing threat to wetlands and dependent local
communities and further demonstrate the role of wetlands as natural infrastructure in
water resource management in river basins in South Asia, Morocco, Jordan, Tunisia,
Kenya, Senegal and Mali
 Develop the technical capacities of our civil society partners in India, Indonesia, Mali,
Uganda and Central America; increasing understanding of ecosystem-based disaster
risk reduction and developing community disaster risk management plans
 Facilitate ecosystem restoration projects in wetland areas which will ultimately lead to
strengthened asset base of 420,000 people in Guatemala (Pacific coast), India
(northeast), Indonesia (Nusa Tengara Timor), Kenya (Ewaso Nyero basin), Uganda,
Mali (Inner Niger Delta) and Nicaragua
 Work with partners to bring forward a major community-based programme, the “Great
Green Wall”, which, once funded, will enhance and support ecosystem based
livelihood developments in the Sahelian region of Africa, specifically building on our
work in Senegal, Mali and Kenya
 Initiate mechanisms to conserve and restore 250,000 ha of degraded peatland and
peat swamp forests in Sumatra and Kalimantan involving private sector investments
for climate mitigation; design and develop plans for the restoration of 31,500 ha of
degraded peatlands in Moscow Oblast
 Influence approaches to reduce the linked environmental and social footprint of Shell
in major projects in the Arctic, Iraq, Niger delta, Brunei forests and the Albertan
oilsands
 Increase attention for wetlands in global policies and (donor) processes on climate
change; including the REDD+ partnership, blue carbon initiative (mangroves),
UNFCCC policies (REDD and post Kyoto) and IPCC guidance. Our aim is to improve
the policies and guidance provided by these fora using our knowledge on wetland
carbon and their restoration and our field experiences.
Organisational development
In 2012, Wetlands International will continue to invest strongly in the institutional
development of our network, specifically investing in a global information system to enable
us to better share knowledge and manage projects, as well as increasing our network
capacity to develop programmes, resources and partnerships.