Global wetland outlook: state of the world’s wetlands and their services to people 2018

Natural wetlands are in long-term decline around the world says this global report on the state of wetlands. Between 1970 and 2015, inland and marine/coastal wetlands both declined by approximately 35%, where data are available, three times the rate of forest loss.

Wetlands are disappearing at an alarming rate across the globe, an international environmental group reported, urging policymakers to do more. Wetlands disappeared by 35 percent between 1970 and 2015, a rate three times that of forests, due to climate change and other “global megatrends” such as population increase and urbanization, according to the Ramsar Convention, the sole international treaty focused on wetlands.