A Global Assessment of Inland Wetland Conservation Status
Abstract
Wetlands have been extensively modified by human activities worldwide. We provide a global-scale portrait of the threats and protection status of the world's inland wetlands by combining a global map of inundation extent derived from satellite images with data on threats from human influence and on protected areas. Currently, seasonal inland wetlands represent approximately 6% of the world's land surface, and about 89% of these are unprotected (as defined by protected areas IUCN I–VI and Ramsar sites). Wetland protection ranges from 20% in Central and 18% in South America to only 8% in Asia. Particularly high human influence was found in Asia, which contains the largest wetland area of the world. High human influence on wetlands even within protected areas underscores the urgent need for more effective conservation measures. The information provided here is important for wetland conservation planning and reveals that the current paradigm of wetland protection may be inadequate.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
A lack of effective basin-scale planning and failure to address exogenous threats have limited the biodiversity benefits of protection.
“A lack of effective basin-scale planning and failure to address exogenous threats have also limited the biodiversity benefits of protection (Reis et al. 2017).”
From Bending the Curve of Global Freshwater Biodiversity Loss: An Emergency Recovery Plan (2020) · cites this paper as Reis et al. 2017
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
How much wetland has the world lost? Long-term and recent trends in global wetland area
Davidson, N. C. (2014) · Marine and Freshwater Research · doi:10.1071/mf14173 · Cited by 2,177 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 23
- Abell R, Lehner B, Thieme M, Linke S. 2016. Looking beyond the fenceline: Assessing protection gaps for the world's rivers. Conservation Letters. (7 April 2017; http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/conl.12312/full) · DOI
- Austin MP, Margules CR. 1986. Assessing representativeness. Pages 45-67 in Usher MB, ed. Wildlife Conservation Evaluation. Chapman and Hall.
- Hermoso V, Ward DP, Kennard MJ. 2012b. Using water residency time to enhance spatio-temporal connectivity for conservation planning in seasonally dynamic freshwater ecosystems. Journal of Applied Ecology 49: 1028-1035.
- Keddy PA. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation. Cambridge University Press.
- Lehner B, Döll P. 2004. Development and validation of a global database of lakes, reservoirs and wetlands. Journal of Hydrology 296: 1-22.
- Lewis WMJ, et al. 1995. Wetlands: Characteristics and Boundaries. National Academy Press.
- Maltby E, Acreman MC. 2011. Ecosystem services of wetlands: Pathfinder for a new paradigm. Hydrological Sciences Journal 56: 1341-1359.
- Mitsch WJ. 1994. Wetlands: Old World and New World. Elsevier.
- Nel JL, Roux DJ, Abell R, Ashton PJ, Cowling RM, Higgins JV, Thieme M, Viers JH. 2009. Progress and challenges in freshwater conservation planning. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 19: 474-485.
- Pittock J, et al. 2015. Managing freshwater, river, wetland and estuarine pro- tected areas. Pages 569-608 in
- Worboys GL, Lockwood M, Kothari A, Feary S, Pulsford I, eds. Protected Area Governance and Management. ANU Press.
- Possingham H, Wilson KA, Andelman SJ, Vynne CH. 2006. Protected areas: Goals, limitations, and design. Pages 507-549 in Groom MJ, Meffe GK, Carroll CR, eds. Principles of Conservation Biology. Macmillan Education.
- Prigent C, Papa F, Aires F, Rossow WB, Matthews E. 2007. Global inunda- tion dynamics inferred from multiple satellite observations, 1993-2000. Journal of Geophysical Research 112: 1993-2000.
- Saunders DL, Meeuwig JJ, Vincent ACJ. 2002. Freshwater protected areas: Strategies for conservation. Conservation Biology 16: 30-41.
- Soulé ME. 1987. Viable Populations for Conservation. Cambridge University Press.
- Strayer DL, Dudgeon D. 2010. Freshwater biodiversity conservation: Recent progress and future challenges. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 29: 344-358.
- Thieme ML, Rudulph J, Higgins J, Takats JA. 2012. Protected areas and freshwater conservation: A survey of protected area manag- ers in the Tennessee and Cumberland River Basins, USA. Journal of Environmental Management 109: 189-199.
- Thieme ML, Sindorf N, Higgins J, Abell R, Takats JA, Naidoo R, Barnett A. 2016. Freshwater conservation potential of protected areas in the Tennessee and Cumberland River Basins, USA. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 26: 60-77.
- Verdonschot PFM, Spears BM, Feld CK, Brucet S, Keizer-Vlek H, Borja A, Elliott M, Kernan M, Johnson RK. 2013. A comparative review of recovery processes in rivers, lakes, estuarine and coastal waters. Hydrobiologia 704: 453-474.
- Watson JEM, Grantham HS, Wilson KA, Possingham HP. 2011. Systematic conservation planning: Past, present and future. Pages 136-160 in Ladle RJ, Whittaker RJ, eds. Conservation Biogeography. Wiley.
- Wildlife Conservation Society, [CIESIN] Center for International Earth Science Information Network, Columbia University. 2005. Global Human Footprint Dataset (Geographic). Last of the Wild Project, ver- sion 2 (LWP-2). (10 July 2015; http://dx.doi.org/10.7927/H4M61H5F) · DOI
- Worboys GL, Lockwood M, Kothari A, Feary S, Pulsford I. 2015. Protected Area Governance and Management. ANU Press.
- Zedler JB, Kercher S. 2005. Wetland resources: Status, trends, ecosys- tem services, and restorability. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 30: 39-74.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Bending the Curve of Global Freshwater Biodiversity Loss: An Emergency Recovery Plan
Tickner, D., Opperman, J. J., Abell, R., Acreman, M., Arthington, A. H., Bunn, S. E., Cooke, S. J., Dalton, J., Darwall, W., Edwards, G., et al. (2020) · BioScience · doi:10.1093/biosci/biaa002 · Cited by 1,241 · see citing works
The Brisbane Declaration and Global Action Agenda on Environmental Flows (2018)
Arthington, A. H., Bhaduri, A., Bunn, S. E., Jackson, S. E., Tharme, R. E., Tickner, D., Young, B., Acreman, M., Baker, N., Capon, S., et al. (2018) · Frontiers in Environmental Science · doi:10.3389/fenvs.2018.00045 · Cited by 473 · see citing works
A long-term monthly surface water storage dataset for the Congo basin from 1992 to 2015
Kitambo, B. M., Papa, F., Paris, A., Tshimanga, R. M., Frappart, F., Calmant, S., Elmi, O., Fleischmann, A. S., Becker, M., Tourian, M. J., et al. (2023) · Earth System Science Data · doi:10.5194/essd-15-2957-2023 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
- Authors
- Reis, V., Hermoso, V., Hamilton, S. K., Ward, D., Fluet-Chouinard, E., Lehner, B., & Linke, S.
- Affiliations
- Griffith University (AU)
- Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia (ES)
- McGill University (CA)
- Venue
- BioScience
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2017-06
- Volume
- 67
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 523-533
- ISSN
- 0006-3568 (ISSN-L)
- 1525-3244
- OpenAlex
- W2619158487
- Cited by
- 267
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 30 · 2025: 40 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 39 · 2022: 41 · 2021: 38 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 24 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 2 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 12.21
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- BioScience (publishedVersion)
- Griffith Research Online (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Australian Research Council (DE130100565)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Ocean Engineering › Wetland Management and Conservation
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Environmental Changes in China
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Aquatic Ecosystems and Biodiversity
- Keywords
- inland wetlands, wetland conservation, protected areas, flood inundation area, Ramsar site, IUCN protected area categories, seasonal wetlands, conservation planning, wetland threats, global assessment
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
