Riverine and Coastal Wetlands for Biodiversity and Climate
ENCA Recommendations
River floodplains and coastal wetlands are essential for preserving biodiversity and combatting climate change. While the United Nations Climate Change Conference was taking place in Dubai, the European Network of Nature Conservation Agencies (ENCA) published recommendations for action to protect and restore these vital ecosystems in Europe.
The ENCA Recommendations are aimed at actors from politics, science and practice at the interface of biodiversity and climate change. They summarise the results of the fifth European Conference on Biodiversity and Climate Change, which focused on riverine and coastal wetlands. The conference was organised by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) and ENCA in September 2023, in cooperation with the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UfZ), the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and adelphi. The event contributed to the implementation of the the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Experts from 24 countries discussed concrete steps and measures for protecting Europe's increasingly degraded wetlands, which are severely threatened by climate change. Healthy floodplains and coastal wetlands are vital for the conservation of biodiversity, for adaptation to climate change, as long-term carbon stores and because of the many other social and economic services they provide for people.
The recommendations for action now published address necessary political changes for wetland conservation, the practical implementation of restoration measures, the communication and expansion of scientific research on the topic as well as better transdisciplinary cooperation between all involved actors.
Further Information:
ENCA Recommendations
BioClim-Wetlands conference booklet
BioClim-Wetlands website
BioClim-Wetlands discussion paper