The DUE Globwetland-2 Project

The overall objective of the Ramsar convention is the conservation and wise use of wetlands by national actions and international cooperation as a means to achieving sustainable development. This complex and challenging task requires national, local and international bodies involved in the implementation of the convention to rely on suitable geo-information in order to better understand wetland areas, complete national inventories, perform monitoring activities, carry out assessments and put in practice suitable management plans based on up to date and reliable information. In the recent years, the use of satellite earth observations (EO) within innovative geo-spatial analysis has revealed to be a key tool and unique information source to support the environmental community in different application domains, including wetlands conservation and management. The paper presents the main results and findings of the GlobWetland I project, providing an overview of the current capabilities and limits of EO technology as a tool to support the implementation of the Ramsar convention. It also summarises the major recommendations of the GlobWetland symposium "GlobWetland: Looking at Wetlands from Space" which principal aim was to strengthen the links between the different actors involved in the implementation of the Ramsar convention, and the earth observation community, in order to review the state of the art in the use of EO technology for wetlands management. Finally it presents the objective and scope of the GlobWetland II project, which will contribute to the establishment of a Global Wetlands Observing System (G-WOS) in accordance with the Strategic Plan 2009-2015 of the Ramsar convention on wetlands adopted as the last Conference of the Parties. The GlobWetland II project aims principally at developing a G-WOS pilot information system for the production of a number of wetland related geo-information maps and indicators, over 200 wetland sites and surrounding areas, selected over the coastal catchment areas of the Southern and Eastern part of the Mediterranean basin, from Morocco to Turkey.