Progresses and Challenges in Global Wetlands Conservation and Restoration: Insights from Ramsar COP15
Wetlands are critical nature-based solutions advancing climate mitigation, water security, and biodiversity conservation targets. Their ongoing degradation undermines climate resilience, ecosystem integrity, economic stability, and human health at multiple scales. Against this urgent backdrop, the 15th Conference of the Contracting Parties (COP15) to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands convened 1,284 delegates from 172 parties in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, from July 23rd to 31st, 2025, under the theme “Wetlands Action for People and Nature” to reinforce global commitment to wetland conservation, restoration, and wise use.
Progresses of COP15
The Victoria Falls declaration
The declaration, adopted at the High-Level Segment of Ramsar COP15, reaffirms global commitment to wetland conservation, restoration, and wise use. It highlights wetlands as critical nature-based solutions for climate mitigation, water security, and biodiversity and as essential to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).1 Ministers pledged to strengthen policy frameworks, improve integrated management, invest in research and monitoring, mobilize financial and technical resources, empower communities, promote restoration, and address climate change impacts. The declaration urges transboundary cooperation and calls on international partners and the private sector to boost support. By prioritizing wetlands as nature-based solutions, the declaration aims to secure a sustainable future and lasting legacy for global wetlands.
Strategic Plan 2025–2034
Parties adopted the revised Fifth Strategic Plan 2025–2034 (SP5, COP15 Doc.23.3 Rev.3), envisioning a world where wetlands are valued, conserved, restored, and wisely used to sustain ecosystem services and human well-being. The plan sets out four overarching goals: addressing and reversing wetland loss and degradation, achieving wise use, effectively conserving and managing wetlands of international importance, and enhancing convention implementation—each with specific national targets. Central to SP5 is transformative change, framed within a vision of living harmoniously with nature. Its implementation emphasizes synergy with other multilateral environmental agreements, advancing global environmental objectives.
Global Wetland Outlook 2025
At COP15, the Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP) presented its report (COP15 Doc.11), featuring the “Global Wetland Outlook 2025: Valuing, Conserving, Restoring and Financing Wetlands” report. It offers the most current global assessment of wetland status, synthesizing scientific and economic data. It reveals over 400 million hectares lost since 1970, with nearly 25% of remaining wetlands degraded—threatening biodiversity, water security, and climate stability.2 Despite providing up to US $39 trillion in annual ecosystem services, wetlands remain underfunded. The outlook outlines science-based pathways to restore ecosystems, strengthen protection, and align financial systems with sustainability, urging urgent global action for wetland conservation.
