Wetlands International is a locally-led global organisation, whose mission is to inspire and mobilise society to safeguard and restore wetlands for people and nature. We are a unique network of country, regional and global offices that originated locally and joined forces in 1996 to ensure worldwide reach and impact. With currently 18 offices across the globe and around 300 staff we have delivered impact for wetlands in over 100 countries. We are an official International Organization Partner of the Convention on Wetlands and a member of its Scientific and Technical Review Panel.

Over the past 30 years, we have delivered conservation impact, thought leadership, and policy advocacy based on science and enriched by traditional and local knowledge. We have co-created innovative solutions and best practices that we have road-tested in many different settings, cultures and geographies. These range from award-winning solutions to integrate nature into coastal engineering to fire and grazing management in the Pantanal, wet agriculture (paludiculture) to sustain peatlands, and successful savings and loans mechanisms.

Throughout our history we have worked in alliances across sectors, connecting communities, civil society organisations, companies, investors, and countries in the understanding that different perspectives are needed to co-create solutions that can reach scale and persist over time. We are strengthened by our government and NGO membership and associate experts.

Our inspiring track record means we are in a unique position to lead global wetland action in the required transformation. Together with partners large and small, from communities to companies and local to global levels, we believe that this new strategy will enable us to achieve our vision.

Our Vision

A world where wetlands are treasured and nurtured for their beauty, the life they support and the resources they provide.

Our Mission

To inspire and mobilise society to safeguard and restore wetlands for people and nature.

Our Strategy

Wetlands for Life (2026-35) sets out how Wetlands International will deliver solutions and drive transformative change in wetlands for the benefit of people, nature and climate. The strategy builds on our 30-year track record as a locally led, global network organization, working hand in hand with communities, partners, companies and governments. While we will continue to co-create solutions and deliver significant wetland impact with partners at site level, our primary added value is not as an implementing agency but as a driver of systemic change at national, landscape and global levels.  

Our History

Wetlands International and its predecessors have worked to protect wetlands since 1937. Back then we were known as the International Wildfowl Inquiry. Our work began as part of the British Section of the International Committee of Bird Preservation with a focus on protecting waterbirds.

In 1954, our name became International Waterfowl & Wetlands Research Bureau (IWRB) and our scope expanded to include the protection of wetland areas. We were based initially at the Museum of Natural History in London, then hosted by Tour du Valat in the Camargue (France) until 1968, and then by the Wildfowl Trust in Slimbridge (UK) until 1995.

Meanwhile, organisations with similar objectives emerged in Asia and the Americas: the Asian Wetland Bureau (AWB) was launched as INTERWADER in 1983, and Wetlands for the Americas (WA) formed in 1989. These three organisations started to work closely together in 1991.

This working relationship evolved into a single global organisation, which adopted the name Wetlands International and established its headquarters in the Netherlands in 1996.