Building global collaboration in tropical wetland research

This article was derived from a SWS symposium held in 2007 and describes research undertaken in the tropics and subtropics by partners in the Global Wetland Consortium. It explores the role of global collaboration in science and tropical wetlands and maps out a pathway for enhanced inter-change and exchange of information and practical experience. Whilst scientific initiatives for a range of earth systems have been previously been developed, a systematic and global research initiative for wetlands that crosses cultural, scientific and economic divides is not yet operational. One option when considering such initiatives is to investigate the utility of using the more than 1800 wetlands designated as internationally important under the Ramsar Convention as the basis of an integrated and multi-node field research and global observation program for detecting and even preempting ecological change in wetlands.