Sardinian Wetland Observatory

Environmental Monitoring Platform for the Ramsar Sites of Sardinia

Sustainable Development Goals:

What is the Local Wetlands Observatory?

The Wetlands Observatory supports the protection and sustainable management of Sardinia’s wetlands. It serves as a hub for collecting and analyzing environmental data that describe the health of ecosystems, the pressures threatening them, and the effectiveness of ongoing conservation strategies. This information is made accessible through a dedicated geo-portal, as well as via technical reports and fact sheets.

The Observatory is much more than a monitoring system: it transforms data into useful knowledge, supporting policy-makers, local authorities, scientific communities, NGOs, and citizens. It promotes participatory and integrated management, placing collaboration between institutions and local communities at its core.

Through an evidence-based approach, the Observatory helps protect biodiversity, enhance ecosystem services, and raise public awareness of the importance of wetlands in tackling climate change. This method supports the development of more effective management strategies, increases collective awareness, and stimulates concrete actions for environmental conservation and resilience.

Main Objectives

• Provide timely, high-quality information on the status and trends of wetlands.

• Monitor threats and identify actions for the protection, sustainable use, and restoration of wetlands.

• Assess the role of wetlands in local and regional sustainable development.

• Oversee the implementation of the Coastal Wetlands Contract of the Oristano area to ensure integrated governance of the entire lagoon system of the Gulf of Oristano.

How does the Observatory work?

The Observatory is one of the actions outlined in the Action Plan of the Coastal Wetlands Contract. Starting from the monitoring of wetlands in the Oristano area, the aim is to extend monitoring to other Ramsar sites in Sardinia.

The Observatory uses a monitoring system structured around four key themes:

• Biodiversity and ecosystem integrity

• Environmental pressures and threats to wetlands

• Ecosystem services and their role in development processes

• State of governance and management of wetland areas

Monitoring is based on a set of environmental and socio-economic indicators that provide a comprehensive picture of wetland conditions and the pressures they face. Data are collected at multiple territorial scales—from the municipal and regional level to protected areas such as Ramsar sites and Natura 2000 network zones—allowing for detailed, context-specific analyses.

The launch and maintenance of the Observatory are supported by the projects RICREA, WaterLands in Sardinia and TransformAr.

Factsheet

Following the model of the factsheets developed within the Wetland Based Solutions initiative, the Sardinia Wetlands Observatory has published the following information sheets:

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