The World Coastal Forum was officially launched at the COP14 Ramsar meeting in Geneva today (8^th November, 2022).

An International Advisory Meeting on the World Coastal Forum held on Jan 10, 2022 in Yancheng City, China with global online participation of government agencies, conventions, international NGOs and experts, agreed to establish a “World Coastal Forum (WCF)”. The meeting was hosted by the People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) and Jiangsu Provincial People’s Government.

WCF has been developed by a consortium of international NGOs as a response to Convention on Wetlands Resolution XIII.20, Promoting the conservation & wise use of intertidal wetlands & ecologically-associated habitats (2018) and Resolutions/Decisions of CMS (2017), CBD (2018) & IUCN (2020).

The WCF is foreseen to be an international, multi-stakeholder platform to catalyse, facilitate and upscale local and national coastal conservation efforts including to:

•  Collect, share and disseminate evidence and expertise, including international best practices, for the conservation, management and restoration of coastal wetland ecosystems.
•  Promote and encourage coordinated, concerted and cooperative implementation of priority actions at an international scale.
•  Support capacity building including through mentoring, site twinning and networks of demonstration sites, especially in developing countries.
•  Enhance communication, education and public awareness, including youth engagement, on the value and conservation of coastal wetland ecosystems.

The WCF will identify ways of working in synergy with the various existing international initiatives including those of the global conventions.

The launch will feature reports from the WCFEG on background & progress including:

1. launching Terms of Reference for the first initiatives of the WCF, including a regularly repeated State of the World’s Coastal Ecosystems report & Toolkit on coastal ecosystem protection, sustainable management & restoration
2. introducing the programme of work of the WCF & work plan of the WCF Secretariat
3. announcing the host city & dates in 2023 of the first meeting of the WCF.

The initiative is supported by WWT, Birdlife International, TNC, IUCN, Wetlands International, amongst others. Information on the launch at COP14 can be found here. Further information on the World Coastal Forum can be read here.