20th Meeting of the Scientific and Technical Review Panel

The 20^th meeting of the Ramsar Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP20) took place at the Secretariat’s headquarters in Gland, Switzerland from 13-17 February 2017.

42 participants including STRP members, representatives from Invited Observer Organizations and International Organization Partners, as well as STRP National Focal Points from Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, and the United Kingdom attended the meeting.

The main purpose of the meeting was to progress the nine high priority tasks in the STRP work plan (2016-2018), as designated by the Standing Committee.

• Draft policy briefs on Integrating multiple wetland values into decision making and Wetlands and Disaster Risk Reduction were refined.
• A Draft Briefing Note on wetland restoration was also refined.
• Progress was made with the draft report on the State of the World’s Wetlands and their Services to People, a first draft of which is expected to be ready for consultation of STRP National Focal Points in April 2017.
• The Panel also progressed a draft guidance on designation of peatlands as Ramsar Sites,
• a draft Ramsar Technical Report on the use of Earth Observation for wetland inventory, assessment and monitoring.

Part of the meeting was also devoted to begin identifying priorities for next triennium’s work plan, which will undergo consultation in due course and be submitted to COP13 for adoption. To help inform this process, representatives from the Secretariats of the CBD and UNCCD and the Technical Committee of AEWA provided presentations on possible opportunities for future collaboration.