Closing biodiversity data gaps is essential for monitoring Wetlands of International Importance [Policy Brief]

In this policy brief, we assessed whether open biodiversity data hosted in GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility) is sufficient to monitor Wetlands of International Importance under the Convention on Wetlands. Analysing 2,529 designated sites, we found significant gaps in the underlying infrastructure needed for monitoring. We found that 74% of sites lack up-to-date Ramsar Information Sheets (official information on the site including a list of species whose presence relates to the site’s international importance), and 35% lack digital boundaries, meaning occurrence records for many sites cannot be reliably linked. Among sites with RIS-listed species, we found that 41% have zero matching occurrences in GBIF, and even when we considered all available species data, 98% of sites still lacked sufficient coverage to calculate reliable biodiversity trends over time. We also found that coverage is geographically skewed. Based on these findings, we recommend strengthening data flow between Contracting Parties, the Convention, and open biodiversity repositories like GBIF. This benefits Parties directly by drawing on additional datasets on GBIF to evaluate the status and trends of sites more comprehensively while making species data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable (FAIR).