We are living in extraordinary times. The world order is being reshaped – as are the Earth’s systems themselves. The climate is changing rapidly. Ecosystems are being degraded. Species populations are plummeting. The result is that our societies and economies are facing growing risks – many of which are directly linked to the ongoing loss and degradation of the world’s wetlands. But all is not doom and gloom. There are solutions that can be scaled up, wetland positive policies and practices that can be rolled out and replicated. That is why we at Wetlands International are launching an ambitious Strategy for the next decade – a new approach that will drive transformative change in wetlands for the benefit of people, nature and climate. 

Often undervalued and overlooked, freshwater and coastal wetlands are our life support systems. They provide almost all our drinking water, while rivers alone support over a third of global food production. Wetlands are also climate superheroes. Not only do mangroves, peatlands, and seagrass meadows absorb large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere, but healthy wetlands also buffer our communities from the worsening impacts of our warming world, such as extreme floods, storms, droughts and sea level rise. And wetlands are biodiversity havens. From iconic species like jaguars in the Pantanal and river dolphins in the Ganges to thousands of fish and waterbird species across the globe, wetlands sustain an immense variety of life both big and small.  

Yet despite their fundamental importance, wetlands continue to be lost and degraded at an alarming pace. This is not only an environmental crisis; it is an existential one. 

Over the past century, an estimated 70% of the world’s wetlands have disappeared. Freshwater species populations have declined by more than 85% since 1970. We have crossed the planetary boundary for freshwater, and climate change is accelerating the pressures on already stressed wetland systems. The consequences are increasingly visible: water insecurity, collapsing fisheries, rising disaster risks, and deepening vulnerability for communities who depend directly on wetlands for their livelihoods. 

Protecting and restoring wetlands is central to tackling these challenges: enhancing water and food security, mitigating and adapting to climate change, reversing nature loss and driving sustainable development. 

And the world is waking up to wetlands. More people are becoming aware of the critical role of wetlands in their lives – and the need to safeguard them. More decision makers are grasping the importance of healthy wetlands for their societies and economies. Wetlands are now firmly recognized in global agreements on climate, biodiversity, and sustainable development. Ambitious targets have been set, finance for nature-based solutions is growing, and new coalitions are emerging. 

But progress remains far too slow – and investment in wetland action far too little. What is needed now is transformative change. A future-oriented, positive agenda which drives action for our wetlands worldwide. 

Wetlands for Life (2026-35) sets out how Wetlands International will contribute to that transformation, detailing the strategic approaches and ambitious goals that we believe will help to accelerate progress towards the global goals for 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.   

From now on, everything we do must help trigger transformative change. Collaborating with a wide array of partners from communities to cities, companies and countries, we will work to change the systems that continue to degrade wetlands: the policies that ignore their diverse and irreplaceable values, the economic models that reward short-term extraction over long-term resilience, and the financial flows that fuel degradation rather than protection and restoration. 

We will focus on four key pillars – demonstrating impact through our site and landscape level interventions, leading through knowledge, creating a movement, and leveraging systemic change in policy, business and finance. While continuing to work across the globe on rivers, lakes, peatlands and coastal wetlands, we will deepen our existing work in 12 flagship landscapes across Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America, where wetland action can trigger transformative change for societies and economies in the near term. 

This strategy is ambitious by design. The global goals for wetlands — conserving hundreds of millions of hectares of wetlands, ensuring 300,000km of degraded rivers and 350 million hectares of degraded wetlands, and leveraging hundreds of billions in investment — are daunting. Wetlands International can directly deliver only a tiny fraction of these goals, but our new strategy is about what we can help deliver indirectly through driving systemic change. Working with partners, we will prove and promote wetland solutions, and unlock the collective action needed to accelerate progress towards those goals. 

Above all, this strategy is grounded in a simple truth: if the world successfully scales up efforts to safeguard and restore wetlands, we will have made a giant leap towards stabilising our climate, restoring biodiversity, enhancing water and food security, strengthening peace and security, and building more resilient societies and economies worldwide.  

As Wetlands International, we have always been grounded in local realities and always prided ourselves on genuine, inclusive collaboration. The development of Wetlands for Life has adhered to this. It is the result of a lengthy process of consultation with our partners, members, donors, and colleagues across the Wetlands International network, who have helped to shape it and who share the commitment to turn it into action. 

The coming decade will be decisive. We believe this Strategy positions Wetlands International to lead a new era of wetland action with partners to safeguard and restore the world’s priceless wetlands. Together – we can rise to the challenge. 

Coenraad Krijger 
CEO Wetlands International