ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability is a global network working with more than 2,500 local and regional governments committed to sustainable urban development.

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ICLEI World Secretariat
Kaiser-Friedrich-Str. 7
53113 Bonn
Germany

ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability is a global network working with more than 2,500 local and regional governments committed to sustainable urban development.

ICLEI Regional Secretariats and country offices

World Coastal Forum

WCF
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ACTIVITY INFORMATION
What we are doing

Coastal wetlands and ecologically associated habitats, are of critical importance as nature-based solutions to the climate crisis; they protect coastal communities from sea level rise, they reduce disaster risk in the face of climate change-exacerbated extreme weather events and provide blue carbon storage. They also provide an effective connection between terrestrial and marine ecosystems, and a wide range of other ecosystem services, including fisheries, other natural products, recreation and tourism, and purification of water and air. Finally, they are often integrally linked to the livelihoods and wellbeing of local communities and provide essential economic opportunities for local people. These ecosystems are also vital to the survival of many migratory species, such as waterbirds, that ecologically connect nations and continents. Indeed, as all seas are connected, coasts are the most internationally-shared ecosystems. The challenges and opportunities of managing them sustainably are similar the world over. Despite their extreme importance, coastal ecosystems, including wetlands, are often poorly conserved, in part due to fragmented governance. In the face of sea level rise and other climate change effects, as well as rapidly declining biodiversity, there has never been a more urgent need for concerted actions from government agencies, business and other stakeholders to conserve these habitats, ensuring that any use of them is sustainable.

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What we are achieving

Resolutions/decisions of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS, 2017), Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (2018), Convention on Biological Diversity (2018) and IUCN (2020) have called for establishment of a multistakeholder global coastal forum that brings together key actors to facilitate the protection, management and restoration of these habitats. To help answer this call, a range of informal consultations and meetings organised by various international NGOs with government agencies, conventions and experts has taken place since 2017 to find more effective means of providing science- and evidence-based processes to support and upscale local, national and international conservation efforts. In January 2022, the International Advisory Meeting in Yancheng, China, agreed to establish the World Coastal Forum (WCF), hosted by China's Ministry of Natural Resources and Jiangsu Provincial Government. Since then, a voluntary WCF Coordination Group (WCFCG) has overseen the forum's establishment, with progress recognized by key international agreements. In September 2023, the World Coastal Forum Partnership Initiative was launched to engage stakeholders in advancing the WCF’s mission.

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