On the 19th of March, MedWet, Tour du Valat, the Mediterranean Wetland Observatory (MWO), and the Union for the Mediterranean hosted a webinar on the third Mediterranean Wetlands Outlook 3 (MWO-3) and the newly developing Mediterranean Wetlands Geoportal. The event was attended by over 100 participants, and included an introduction from the Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, Musonda Mumba.

The event was chaired by Chris Rostron, MedWet Coordinator, and opened with remarks from Alessandra Sensi of the Union for the Mediterranean

Anis Guelmami, coordinator of the MWO, presented the key issues for wetland around the Mediterranean, using a DPSIR (Drivers-Pressures-State-Impacts-Response) approach, with some startling statistics such as:

– 56% of historical wetlands have disappeared, 69-92% of coastal marshes could be lost by 2100, and 40% of water-related species are in a worrying conservation status.

– However, the better news is the 36% of wetland habitats are protected, 43% of wintering waterbirds have increased in abundance thanks to specific management and protection measures. In addition, 88,000km² of lost wetlands in the Northern Mediterranean countries could be restored with relatively low effort.

The Mediterranean Wetland Geoportal was also presented by Michael Ronse, and this will be an interactive online platform, showing the status and trends of wetlands at national and local (site) scales, built on extensive desk study of national reports, Earth Observation derived data and long-term monitoring time series. This tool will be available early June this year and will continue to develop with regular updates from the MWO and partners.

The webinar recording is available below.