Putting community resilience into practice

At the halfway point in implementation of the Partners for Resilience programme (PfR), a wealth of initial successes and lessons learnt have been identified. Based on the PfR resilience vision of eight key principles, the partners have now gathered case studies that illustrate how this is currently being translated into practice.

Integrating ecosystems in resilience practice

The integration of ecosystems and natural resource management in disaster risk reduction (DRR) has been largely overlooked to date. This document introduces a set of criteria, which can be used by policy makers and practitioners to better integrate the management of ecosystems and natural resources in their DRR work.

Migratory Birds for People Newsletter 15 (Feb2013)

Another year and a fresh “Migratory Birds for People” - newsletter to start with!

A lot of work is being done in protecting our migratory birds by implementing international treaties, by increasing enhanced scientific research and improvement of the management also by training programmes.

Annual IWC Count Totals: African-Eurasian Waterbird Census

This annual report summarises the totals per country per species of all waterbirds counted under the International Waterbird Census in the African-Eurasian region. The 2012 report includes counts from 72 countries between 2009 - 2012. The data in this report has been collected by thousands of individuals and collated by National Coordinators, whose names and organisations are listed in the file "Contributors".

Migratory Birds for People Newsletter 14 (Nov2012)

The "Migratory Birds for People"-network is developing well and we have now started engaging the ‘scientific world’ with the network-programme. This newsletter provides an update news from the network and progress made during the meetings in September and 24th of October in Genk in Belgium (side meeting during the Eurosite / Europarc Annual Conference) and the launch of the Takern Centre in Sweden.
 

Challenges to the integration of wetlands into IWRM: The case of the Inner Niger Delta (Mali) and the Lobau Floodplain (Austria)

The authors recognize that wetlands are poorly integrated in river basin management. Governments that endorsed the Ramsar Convention recognise the importance of the wetlands in Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) using the "critical path" approach but is not widely implemented.

Storm Surge Reduction by Mangroves

Mangroves can reduce storm surge water levels by slowing the flow of water and reducing surface waves. Therefore mangroves can potentially play a role in coastal defence and disaster risk reduction, either alone or alongside other risk reduction measures such as early warning systems and engineered coastal defence structures (e.g. sea walls).

A vision for the practice of risk reduction

Wetlands International is working closely with Red Cross, Cordaid, Red Cross Climate Centre and CARE to implement a range of activities in Asia, Latin America and Africa to increase people's resilience against (climate related) disasters via ecosystem restoration and management. Together we have formed the “Partners for Resilience” (PfR).

Peatlands – guidance for climate change mitigation by conservation, rehabilitation and sustainable use

This is the second edition of the publication that informs on management and finance options to achieve emissions reductions and enhance other vital ecosystem services from peatlands.

Saving peatlands (brochure)

Peatlands support millions of people around the world, store twice as much carbon as all forests worldwide, and are home to many threatened species of plants and animals. Peatland degradation has devastating economic and social consequences. Wetlands International promotes global and national land use practices and policies that counter peatland destruction and degradation, promote conservation incentives and support local communities.

Population trends for coastal migratory Waterbirds in the East Atlantic Flyway:

This poster displays how - as part of a broader initiative to strengthen the conservation of migratory waterbirds - the Wadden Sea Flyway Initiative (in the framework of Wadden Sea World Heritage activities) and the Conservation of Migratory Birds project (BirdLife International and Wetlands International) are improving the monitoring of waterbirds in especially the coastal zone of West-Africa.

Flyway trends for waterbird species important in lakes Ijsselmeer and Markermeer

The Lakes IJsselmeer and Markermeer form the largest fresh water lake complex in the Netherlands. They have a very important function for waterbirds as breeding, moulting, migration and wintering sites. Despite having protected status under the EU Birds Directive and the Ramsar Convention several important key species are in decline and identifying drivers behind this is important for future policy and management decisions.

Integrating human health into wetland management for the Inner Niger Delta, Mali

Livelihood and water-related diseases are strongly linked to wetland management. The majority of wetland stakeholders in the Inner Niger Delta, Mali considered human health and sanitation the most important criteria of a list of challenges and water-related pressures. Yet, a methodology to integrate health risks and opportunities into wetland management plans has previously not been proposed, despite the clear links and substantial real-life challenges. In this paper, a framework is presented to do this in data-poor context structured around the process to evaluate and prioritise the appropriateness of management options to improve human health.

Waterbird Populations Estimates Fifth Edition

This is the Summary Report of the Fifth Edition of the Waterbird Population Estimates, whose main objective is to provide a global overview of the status and trends of world’s waterbird populations; one of the most remarkable components of global biodiversity. It accompanies the searchable online Waterbird Information Portal (http://www.wetlands.org), which provides unprecedented access to all the data and information from five editions, as part of Wetlands InternationaI’s continuing commitment to supporting the Ramsar Convention and all those concerned with wetland and waterbird conservation and wise use.

Investigating Avian Influenza Infection Hotspots in Old- World Shorebirds

In this study the authors, including our own Bouba Fofana of our Mali Office and Associate Expert Tim Dodman, looked for Avian Influenza Virus (AIV) hotspots associated with other shorebird species and/or with some of the larger congregation sites of shorebirds in the old world. They assembled and analysed a regionally extensive dataset of AIV prevalence from 69 shorebird species sampled in 25 countries across Africa and Western Eurasia. Despite this diverse and extensive coverage we did not detect any new shorebird AIV hotspots. Neither large shorebird congregation sites nor the ruddy turnstone were consistently associated with AIV hotspots.