World Wetlands Survey

WWN helps run a participatory science survey of the state of the world’s wetlands. On 27 July 2025 the most recent findings were published at Convention on Wetlands COP15.
You can also find out more about the 2017 and 2020 surveys, including summaries and links to journal articles.

Webinar 24 September 2026 celebrating the contributors, the users, and the potential. Register.

Summary of findings of the 2024 World Wetlands Survey

1. People play a big role in the fate of wetlands, for better or worse. More often than not, cultural values and traditions help protect and care for wetlands.
2. Being designated as a Wetland of International Importance or Ramsar Site, is having a more positive impact than in previous years of our study.
3. Almost half of the world’s wetlands are getting worse, while fewer than one in three are showing signs of recovery.
4. There’s good news – some wetlands are on the mend, especially across Europe.
5. Wetlands in Latin America and the Caribbean are growing more than anywhere else, bucking the global trend.
6. A quarter of our responses came from people working in government and 28% from NGOs, showing how powerful civil society can be, in helping put the Convention on Wetlands into action.

Watch the findings special event at Wetlands COP15

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What is the Survey?

The World Wetlands Survey (WWS) is an open questionnaire to fill gaps in the knowledge about the area and health of the world’s wetlands. A group of partners coordinate the survey and the analysis: WWN, the Society of Wetland Scientists, Cobra Collective, Charles Sturt University, IUCN CEM Wetland Ecosystems Specialist Group, IUCN Water, and WWT. The data, very importantly, comes from anyone who knows a wetland.
Thank you to the three lead scientists who analyse the data. Nick Davidson, Rob McInnes, Matt Simpson and Max Finlayson produce academic outputs, and WWT produces a more visual summary.

We will share the findings as widely as possible; we hope to inform the Wetlands Convention and other multilateral environmental agreements. Members of the Society of Wetland Scientists will also learn about the survey through their publication and communications from the authors.

News about the survey

Case studies