Sustainable lifestyles and wise wetlands use

India recently introduced a Resolution on ‘Promoting Sustainable Lifestyles for the Wise Use of Wetlands’ at the Ramsar 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) that was held at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

Recognising the potential of behavioural changes towards sustainable lifestyles to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development, the Resolution calls upon member states and stakeholders to create the necessary evidence-based enabling conditions, foster public and private collaboration, pursue education at all levels, and promote awareness-raising initiatives in support of empowering citizens to make informed choices about sustainable lifestyles. According to an Indian Press Information Bureau (PIB) report. The resolution received overwhelming support from the 172 Ramsar Contracting Parties, Six International Organisation Partners, and other observers and was formally adopted at the plenary session on July 30, 2025.

The resolution highlights the need for integrating behavioural change and sustainable consumption patterns into wetland conservation strategies. It also aligns with Mission Life (Lifestyle for Environment), launched by India, which encourages the country to adopt pro-planet practices. The PIB report adds that sustainable lifestyles are ‘ways of living, social behaviours and choices’ that (a) minimize environmental degradation (by conserving resources and reducing waste generation); (b) support equitable socio-economic development (by being conscious of impacts of lifestyle choices across all strata of society and generations, and embracing environmentally conscious consumption); and c) facilitate better quality of life (enabled by physical and mental health, access to basic material for good life, including security, and good social relationships).

By adopting this resolution, the Contracting Parties have endorsed the important role that individual and societal choices play in wetlands conservation, and work towards a pro-planet lifestyle, within their national circumstances and contexts. This resolution is also an important step towards ‘whole of society’ approach needed for addressing wetlands conservation in the contemporary world. The countries at the COP15 used the newly released Global Wetland Outlook (GWO) 2025 as their reference point.

The GWO 2025 is the most comprehensive assessment to date of the state of wetlands worldwide, their value, and their future. Since 1970, an estimated 411 million hectares of wetlands — approximately 22% of the global total — have been lost, with an ongoing annual decline of 0.52%. Degradation now rivals outright loss. Around 25% of the remaining wetlands are in poor ecological condition, and this proportion is increasing in all regions. Multiple interacting pressures, including agricultural expansion, pollution, infrastructure development, hydrological disruption and the impacts of climate change, are making restoration more complex and urgent. Wetlands offer unparalleled benefits to biodiversity, the climate, water resources and human health. They regulate floods, store carbon, purify water and support food security for billions of people. When managed effectively, the remaining 1.4 billion hectares of wetlands deliver ecosystem services worth up to $39 trillion annually – more than any other type of ecosystem. Investing in wetlands is investing in our shared future. The GWO findings confirmed continued wetland loss in every region, with consequences for biodiversity, water security, and climate stability.

The Ramsar Convention was adopted in 1971 in the city of Ramsar in Iran and came into force in 1975. It was the first intergovernmental agreement focused exclusively on a specific ecosystem, i.e., wetlands. The Convention uses a broad definition of wetlands. This includes all lakes and rivers, underground aquifers, swamps and marshes, wet grasslands, peatlands, oases, estuaries, deltas and tidal flats, mangroves and other coastal areas, coral reefs, and all human-made sites such as fish ponds, rice paddies, reservoirs and salt pans. Wetlands are among the world’s most productive environments and are cradles of biological diversity.

At the centre of the Convention on Wetlands philosophy is the “wise use” of wetlands. When they accede to the Convention, Contracting Parties commit to work towards the wise use of all the wetlands and water resources in their territory, through national plans, policies and legislation, management actions and public education.

The Convention defines wise use of wetlands as “the maintenance of their ecological character, achieved through the implementation of ecosystem approaches, within the context of sustainable development”. Wise use of wetlands can thus be seen as the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands and all the services they provide, for the benefit of people and nature.