ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Simonetta Cheli, said, “We are proud to formalise our longstanding collaboration with the Convention on Wetlands through this Memorandum of Intent. Earth observation offers powerful tools to help reverse wetland loss – providing consistent, high-quality, and scalable data for wetland inventory, monitoring, assessment, and restoration.

“We look forward to deepening our cooperation to support national wetland inventories, enhance monitoring of Wetlands of International Importance, advance restoration efforts, and jointly develop training and capacity-building initiatives that empower countries to better protect these vital ecosystems.”

Dr Musonda Mumba, Secretary General of the Convention on Wetlands, added, “This partnership with ESA goes beyond adding Earth observation data to our approach – it transforms how we collaborate with countries to map, understand and protect wetlands. By integrating this technology, we gain the precision needed to move past general assumptions, offering actionable, real-time information that supports smarter decisions in wetland management.”

Under the new agreement, ESA and the Convention on Wetlands will align and strengthen their respective programmes related to wetland inventory, monitoring and conservation. A key focus will be empowering countries with the tools and capacity to use satellite data operationally – supporting better decision-making and long-term sustainability.

The collaboration will also prioritise the integration of multiple data sources, including satellite, in-situ, and model-based data – ensuring transparency, quality assurance and scientific integrity across all activities.

The aim is to ensure that Earth observation-based tools, methods, and indicators are interoperable and transferable, so they can be applied consistently across different regions and wetland types. ESA will provide its data, tools and technical expertise to assist in developing and updating national wetland inventories, including through mechanisms under the Convention on Wetlands and its Scientific and Technical Review Panel.

Efforts will also focus on expanding access to datasets and tools, particularly for countries that face resource or data constraints.