Good intentions mean nothing without action on the ground.
LAURA MACKENZIE SENIOR ADVOCACY OFFICER
Protests at UN Climate Change Conference COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt
I’m Laura MacKenzie and I joined Wetlands International in May 2022, as a Senior Advocacy Officer based in the global office in the Netherlands. Working closely with the team and colleagues across the Wetlands International network, my role is all about influencing global policies and processes, building powerful coalitions, and advocating for increased investment in wetlands, with an emphasis on freshwater and biodiversity. Wetlands International has a wealth of outstanding expertise, knowledge, and success stories of wetland conservation and restoration for the benefit of people and nature, all of which are powerful ingredients for impactful advocacy. My focus in 2022 was engagement with the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and influencing around the Global Biodiversity Framework, which was adopted in Montreal in December and included hugely positive provisions for the future of wetlands. Meeting and collaborating with colleagues from all across the network, especially during the Ramsar Conference of Parties in November, was a highlight of the year. Our challenge now is to ensure wetlands receive the attention they deserve as countries translate the new global biodiversity targets into tangible national action plans and policies. Growing up on a Scottish island, a connection with nature has shaped my perspective and career. With previous roles across a range of environmental NGOs, and as a senior adviser and speechwriter in the UK Parliament specializing in climate, nature, and economic policy and legislation, I bring extensive policy and advocacy experience and expertise to the role. Looking ahead, we need wetland protection and restoration to become a higher priority for decision makers in all sectors, alongside action to address the underlying causes of wetland loss, and a shift towards nature- positive economic and financial systems. It’s exciting to be part of an organisation that encompasses initiatives such as the Rights of Wetlands, which can also contribute to the transformative changes that the science shows are urgently needed.
Growing recognition The place given to wetlands in the new Global Biodiversity Framework underlines and reinforces the critical advances that wetlands have made in environmental agendas – in part because of the growing recognition of their importance in achieving climate and sustainability goals. Days before the Montreal conference, signatories to the long-standing Ramsar wetlands convention met in Wuhan and Geneva and reinforced the need for wetlands targets, and UN climate negotiators meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, for the first time gave wetlands equal prominence with forests as carbon stores that can deliver Nature-Based Solutions to climate change. And the conference, with the Global Mangrove Alliance, launched the Mangrove Breakthrough, a call to action for conserving mangroves to both capture carbon and protect low-lying coastlines from rising sea levels and worsening storms. Wetlands have long been seen by many in the conservation world as the poor relations of conservation. But in 2022 they perhaps finally took their rightful place as critical ecosystems in the fight to head off climate change, halt biodiversity loss and achieve a sustainable world. But good intentions mean nothing without action on the ground. The hard work starts now.
We have in recent years been engaged in 29 restoration projects on 14 types of wetlands around the world. We work with a wide range of community and financial partners, and local and national governments, to scale up successes. For instance, in 2022, China, India, the Philippines and Malaysia signed up to replicate techniques we piloted in our award- winning Building with Nature project in Indonesia that used natural coastal processes to restore mangroves lost to shrimp ponds. But unless we tackle the root causes of wetland destruction – by transforming agriculture, ending harmful subsidies, and reorienting economic and financial systems to be positive for nature – the goals of this historic biodiversity agreement will not be met. African Sahel and Ethiopia’s Rift Valley Wetlands International’s current work in the African Sahel and Ethiopia’s Rift Valley, which we report on elsewhere in this review, exemplifies how we convene stakeholders to find new, more equitable ways of sharing water to protect wetlands and maximise local wellbeing. The challenge is to take those lessons to a global scale.
Inverpolly, Scotland
Wetlands International Annual Review 2022
Wetlands International Annual Review 2022
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