Prioritising healthy wetlands in Europe

Wetlands are among the most valuable ecosystems in Europe, with a wide range of benefits for both the environment and society. At the same time, wetlands in Europe face systemic degradation driven by drainage, infrastructure development, and climate change. The joint white paper led by IUCN NL, draws on the evidence of several EU-funded initiatives to synthesize policy recommendations for wetland conservation and restoration in Europe.

Header photo: Weerribben-Wieden National Park © KNEIA

Advancing wetland restoration

Policy recommendations

Despite policy ambition and the urgency of wetland conservation and restoration, effective and large-scale implementation across Europe remains limited. This is primarily due to structural barriers: fragmented governance, misaligned incentives, insufficient financing, uneven implementation capacity, gaps in monitoring, and insufficient participation and social legitimacy.

This paper identifies four priority areas for policy action:

REWET: a laboratory on European scale 

REWET is a laboratory for the restoration of wetlands on a European scale. In the REWET project, funded by the European Union, NGOs, universities, companies and institutions joined forces to study the full potential of wetland areas. With information from seven open laboratories, we are developing a comprehensive understanding of how European wetlands can best contribute to climate mitigation and adaptation.