World Wetlands Survey

WWN helps run a participatory science survey of the state of the world’s wetlands

One third of wetlands are in a good state, with the rest being fair or poor.

Local community awareness, and conservation measures, benefit wetlands the most.

Wildlife disease and damming or water regulation are driving down the quality of wetlands most.

From May to December 2020, people assessed their local wetland, to help this global survey, run by WWN, the Society of Wetland Scientists, Cobra Collective, Charles Sturt University, and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust.

Thank you to all WWN members who took part in the survey!

Thank you as well to the three lead scientists who analysed the data. Nick Davidson, Rob McInnes, Matt Simpson and Max Finlayson produced an academic summary with more findings and methodology in Wetland Science and Practice, the quarterly publication from the Society of Wetland Scientists. If you cannot access the journal, please contact the authors via ResearchGate.

See more charts in the summary.

We will share the findings as widely as possible; we hope to inform the Ramsar 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.

You can also download the summary in French and Spanish. To arrange a local translation, get in touch and we will provide the base text.

You can also read the findings of the previous 2017 survey

Case studies

News about the survey