MedWet

MedWet is the Mediterranean initiative of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. It was founded in 1991 to encourage international collaboration in protecting wetlands among Mediterranean countries. Its main objective is to contribute to the conservation and wise use of Mediterranean wetlands.

In 1997 MedWet became officially a regional initiative of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. MedWet has been recognised as a model of regional cooperation and has inspired many other wetland initiatives around the world.

Its mandate can be expressed in 4 cardinal objectives:

• To promote and participate to the implementation of the Ramsar objectives in the Mediterranean region;
• To develop and reinforce capacities in areas where these are lacking, and especially to ensure adaptive management of Ramsar sites and cooperation between their management bodies;
• To transfer and exchange knowledge and expertise to key conservation actors;
• To coordinate with other international initiatives in the region, and globally.

These four objectives are pursued within an overall strategy that is organised along 7 pillars of actions: inventories of wetlands, socio-economic analysis of wetland values, wetland management, capacity building, public awareness, dissemination of research results, and integrated water resource management for agriculture and nature.

The MedWet initiative is built around a Mediterranean wetlands network made of 27 countries and entities represented by their Ramsar National Focal Points, 5 inter-governmental organisations and 5 international NGOs.

The MedWet Secretariat is based at Kifissia in Greece.