RAMSAR CONVENTION ON WETLANDS
54th Meeting of the Standing Committee
Gland, Switzerland, 23–27 April 2018

Draft resolution on agriculture in wetlands

Doc. SC54-21.5

Submitted by the Czech Republic
Action requested:•The Standing Committee is invited to review the attached draft resolution for consideration at
the 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties.

Draft Resolution XIII.xx
Agriculture in Wetlands
1.

CONCERNED that up to 80% of wetlands have been lost in many areas of the world since 1700
(Davidson 2014), and that the key driver in the loss and degradation of wetlands, as indicatedby the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005), has been the conversion and drainage of land
for agriculture production, groundwater depletion and abstraction of water for crop irrigation,
as well as the use of agrochemicals, fertilizers and pesticides;

2.

FURTHER CONCERNED that many wetland areas that were for centuries used for sustainableagricultural production have been drained in the past 150 years, either intentionally bydrainage, with a sharp increase in drainage since the 1960s, or indirectly by groundwater
depletion;

3.

AWARE that in Resolution VIII.34 (2002), the Ramsar Convention has recognized that wetlands
can play important roles in relation to agriculture, such as abating the effects of storm and flood
events, thus helping to protect both habitation and agricultural land, and NOTED the highdependence of local communities on wetland resources, particularly in developing countries
and notably in terms of small-scale subsistence agriculture, domestic water supply, and otheruses that may contribute directly to poverty alleviation;

4.

FURTHER AWARE that the Resolutions X.31 (2008) and XI.15 (2012) stress the importance ofsustainable rice paddy cultivation for local and global livelihoods;

5.

RECALLING the recognition by the Rio+20 Conference in paragraph 111 of the Outcome
Document (Brazil, 2012) of the need to promote more sustainable agriculture and to maintainnatural ecological processes that support food production systems;

6.

RECALLING the 2015-Paris Pact on water and adaptation to climate change in the basins ofrivers, lakes and aquifers, which calls for enhancing the services of water-related ecosystems inadaptation to climate change through inter alia protection and restoration of wetlands andcoastlines, reforestation and other Natural Water Retention Measures (NWRM);

7.

REALIZING that wetlands are often intricately connected to groundwater - either by the wetland
replenishing groundwater or groundwater feeding the wetland, or a combination of the two
depending on time and space – human and climatic impact on one system will affect the other;

8.

REALIZING that the progressive lack of water in the landscape and scarce natural vegetation
cover have caused an increase in temperature fluctuations in terms of both their frequency andamplitude, and that, in many places of the world, the summer maximum temperatures aregetting too high and water shortages too severe for comfortable living both of humans andlivestock as well as for an optimum yield in crops;

9.

FURTHER REALIZING that severe shortages but also surpluses of water occur more and more
frequently in many parts of the world and that the increasing frequency of persistent droughts(Resolution VIII.35, 2002) as well as extreme weather events, such as thunderstorms/hailstorms
and also late frosts, lead to high losses of agricultural production and thus threaten foodsecurity and efforts to eradicate poverty;

10. CONCERNED that the expanding agriculture, which put little consideration for local soil andclimatic conditions, and land surface configuration, has an adverse impact on landscape andspecies diversity (including wetland biodiversity), leads to severe soil erosion and leaching ofnutrients, and consequently to the loss of soil fertility for agriculture and also of wetland values
and functions;
11. ALSO CONCERNED that climate change and accelerated desertification will have major impacts
on water availability and distribution (Resolution X.24, 2008), affecting wetland functions andvalues as well as agricultural production;
12. FURTHER CONCERNED that the continuing drainage of wetlands, and especially of peatlands, foragricultural production, forestry and natural resource exploitation further accelerates climatechange (Resolution XII.11, 2015);
13. AWARE that wetlands provide ample resources that can be used for human and animal
nutrition, as building materials and for energy production;
14. FURTHER AWARE of high primary and secondary production of some wetlands and of theirimportant role in nutrient and water retention as well as contribution to the mitigation ofclimate change (Resolution X.24, 2008);
15. ACKNOWLEDGING that many examples from all over the world show that agriculture andforestry have been conducted successfully while preserving wetlands and that many wetlands
worldwide still remain important sources for fisheries, crop production and animal husbandry;
THE CONFERENCE OF THE CONTRACTING PARTIES
16. CALLS UPON Contracting Parties to, instead of draining wetlands for agriculture, use anyopportunity to develop sustainable agriculture in wetlands to stop further land drainage andproperly manage aquifers, enhancing water retention time in the landscape, re-creating localatmospheric water cycles and contributing to climate change mitigation and alleviation ofadverse impacts of droughts as well as reducing peak water discharges coupled with highnutrient and organic matter runoff;

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17. ENCOURAGES Contracting Parties to identify and support traditional uses of wetlands and theirbiodiversity, ensuring sustainable and wise use of wetlands for fisheries, sustainable forms ofcrop cultivation, sustainable reed harvesting, wetland grazing or mowing, berry picking, andfloodplain forestry, as well as to search and promote novel uses of wetlands such as the use of
integrated buffer zones and constructed wetlands for the treatment of agricultural runoff or useof degraded peatlands for sphagnum-moss cultivation and other kinds of sustainable crop andanimal farming;
18. REQUESTS Contracting Parties to advocate for co-management of wetlands, other surface water
resources and groundwater resources. Wetland protection and management cannot be done inisolation and require active land use, surface and groundwater management. Land drainage,
managed groundwater replenishment and abstraction, and surface and groundwater quality
protection are key to wetland protection and restoration. Each integrated system needs to bewell understood in order to devise best management and adaptation strategies.
19. URGES Contracting Parties to strengthen the role of communication, education, participation,
and awareness (CEPA) to enhance community understanding that wetlands and agriculture canco-exist and even benefit from each other, notably:a)that agriculture in certain wetlands can benefit from their high primary and secondary
productivity;b)that wisely used wetlands can continuously provide many beneficial products, such as
biomass, building materials, food and fodder;c)that re-wetting the landscape by supporting and enhancing the natural retaining of floods
and runoff in wetlands and groundwater, not uniquely but also for agriculture, will result in
re-creating local atmospheric water cycles, increasing groundwater buffer storage,
reducing temperature amplitudes, increasing air humidity and reducing the frequency ofspring frost events, and if done on the landscape scale, it will diminish air convection, theresulting long-distance atmospheric transport of pollutants as well as the likelihoods ofthunderstorms;d)that wise use of wetlands provides options for receiving multiple benefits, such as diverse
production, water retention in the landscape, and prevention of floods, stablegroundwater storage, reduced runoff of nutrients, preservation of biodiversity, and carbon
storage as long as the water table is sufficiently high for a large part of the season;e)that thanks to their multiple benefits wetlands can support human well-being;

20. ENCOURAGES Contracting Parties to work with research institutions, farmers and otherstakeholders to identify and promote sustainable farming practices in wetlands; seek to support
basic and applied research and demonstration projects, and to examine the potential for
traditional and novel wetland products and production systems in wetlands;
21. ENCOURAGES Contracting Parties to review subsidies and government instruments in supportof agricultural practices and assess their effect on wetlands and their sustainability, including
the integrity of wetlands and long-term impact upon the sustainability of local livelihoods;
22. REQUESTS the STRP (including its International Organization Partners), in collaboration with
Contracting Parties, to compile and review information on the positive and negative impacts of

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agricultural practices on wetlands in terms of their biodiversity and ecosystem services, and todocument best practice examples of wetland use for agricultural production that preserves
wetland integrity and is sustainable in the long-term and in the context of climate change;
23. REQUESTS the STRP to support the implementation of this Resolution by providing data andoverview on the extent of intact, damaged and destroyed wetlands since 1970s and to provide
guidance for identifying wetlands suitable for restoration to provide ecosystem services,
including the provisioning ones, for the benefit of people and nature;
24. REQUESTS the Ramsar Secretariat, in collaboration with the Contracting Parties, to addressappropriate decision and policy makers and advice on withdrawing subsidies that endanger
wetlands.

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