Keywords

Introduction

Scott and Jones (1995) have described the development of the Ramsar Convention’s typology of wetlands. It was formulated by Scott (1989) as one component of an initiative to describe the features of wetlands listed as internationally important (Ramsar sites) under the Convention. It was adopted by the Convention in 1990 along with an information sheet for describing Ramsar sites. The typology was loosely based on the Classification of Wetlands and Deepwater Habitats of the United States (Cowardin et al. 1979) and referred to the definition of wetlands adopted by the Convention in 1972, namely “... wetlands are areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural of artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed 6 m.” Given the breadth of the definition the classification covers a wider range of wetland types than many others.

The Ramsar definition was purposefully broad in an effort to embrace all the “wetland” habitats of migratory water birds given the emphasis on such species in the negotiations that led to the drafting of the text of the Convention (Matthews 1993). Hence, it includes marine water less than 6 m deep at low tide, which, in northern latitudes, are often important wintering habitats for loons (divers), grebes, and sea ducks. It also includes artificial wetlands, such as reservoirs and seasonally flooded agricultural land, which are often important habitats for ducks, geese, cranes, and shorebirds. Similarly, a large part of the world’s coral reefs and seagrass meadows qualify as wetlands. On a number of subsequent occasions, the coverage of wetland types was extended, for example, to incorporate karst wetlands and caves.

The Typology

The current version of the Ramsar typology recognizes three broad groups of wetlands: marine and coastal; inland; and human-made. Within each group, there are a number of types with codes that are used in the Ramsar Information Sheet when describing Ramsar sites. The purpose of the typology is to provide a broad framework to assist in the rapid identification of the main wetland habitats represented at each site. Within each grouping, a number of wetland types have been determined on the basis of settings (e.g., palustrine or riverine), water permanence (e.g., permanent, seasonal or intermittent), soils, substrates and vegetation. The typology contains 12 marine and coastal, 20 inland, and 10 human-made wetland types (Table 1).

Table 1 Ramsar typology of wetlands
Full size table

Semeniuk and Semeniuk (1997) in a review of the Inland Wetland component of the typology noted that mixed criteria were used to separate the wetlands, and that not all natural inland wetlands had been unambiguously addressed. For instance, there was repetition of types named as “marshes” and some types were ill-defined in that they encompassed a number of types (e.g., Alpine/tundra wetlands encompass bogs, meadows, and other mires). The mixed criteria included some that were generic (such as geothermal); some that were climatic, physiographic, or vegetational; and others that were vegetative in conjunction with hydroperiod and soil types (such as the various swamps and marshes). Despite the inconsistencies, the typology has served the purpose it was designed for – to provide a simple listing of the wetland types that were considered by the Convention.