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Percentage of change in fresh water ecosystems

This indicator is proposed as an indicator for Sustainable Development Target 06.6 By 2020, protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes.

Linkages

This indicator can inform on the following targets:

• #sdt091 - Develop quality, reliable, sustainable & resilient infrastructure, including regional & trans-border,
• #sdt092 - promote inclusive & sustainable industrialization, & by 2030 raise significantly industry’s share of employment &GDP..,
• #sdt115 - by 2030 significantly reduce the number of deaths & the number of affected people &decrease by y% the economic loss..,
• #sdt116 - by 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention....,
• #sdt117 - by 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, particularly for...,
• #sdt122 - by 2030 achieve sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources,
• #sdt124 - by 2020 achieve environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle ...,
• #sdt131 - strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate related hazards and natural disasters in all countries,
• #sdt141 - by 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, particularly from land-based activities,..,
• #sdt142 - by 2020, sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems to avoid significant adverse impacts, ...,
• #sdt145 - by 2020, conserve at least 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, consistent with national & international law..,
• #sdt151 - by 2020 ensure conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems ...,
• #sdt152 - by 2020, promote the implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests, halt deforestation, ... and
• #sdt153 - by 2020, combat desertification, and restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, ...

Data

Organisations
CBD and UNEP, on behalf of UN-Water Assessments are undertaken by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, in collaboration with CBD (including the biodiversity indicators partnership) and UNEP, through the GEMI monitoring initiative. Under the UN-Water umbrella, the GEMI monitoring initiative will integrate the monitoring Framework in place under the SoWWS (see description of GEMI under 6.3.1). Baseline data are available at the global level. Historical records are available for some regions and wetlands types from the 1700's. The baseline assessment will be 2015 (first SoWWS report) with remote sensing data using 1970 as the baseline year. Currently, 169 Parties regularly report on trends in wetlands to the Ramsar Convention. Other data sources enable fully global coverage.

Instruments
The indicator uses the existing Living Planet Index methodology for data collection and analysis. Data are compiled and disseminated through the Ramsar Convention’s “State of the World’s Wetlands and their Services” (SoWWS) reports which are overseen by its Scientific and Technical Review Panel. The data originates from multiple sources including national reports submitted to the Ramsar Convention, published scientific papers and, increasingly, through analysis of remote sensing data. Currently, 169 Parties regularly report on trends in wetlands to the Ramsar Convention. Other data sources enable fully global coverage. The data can be disaggregated by wetland type: for example, for lakes, floodplains, coastal wetlands or artificial/constructed wetlands. Wetland area is most accurately estimated through manual digitalization of aerial or satellite images, a methodology that in the coming years will be advanced by remote sensing. Supplementary information comes through scientific papers and national reports. Heterogeneous datasets are considered to be acceptable, if not desirable: change in extent will still be captured and heterogeneous datasets allow for more discrete analysis by wetland type, location and region.