Closing the driver–response loop for halting and reversing wetland degradation and loss from agriculture.

Context: The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands has considered agriculture–wetland interactions, but without linking policy responses to agricultural drivers of change. Aims: Assess the disconnect between the rhetoric of analysing and reporting on the role of agriculture in wetland loss and degradation (the 'drivers') with actions on the ground (the 'responses'). Methods: An analysis of almost 400 Convention documents was undertaken to understand how the Convention has addressed agriculture and what responses were identified. The documents were filtered through a word search for their relevance to the direct and indirect drivers of degradation in wetlands. Key results: Although there was a focus on issues and problem framing and generic responses, they were insufficient to address the range of drivers underpinning agriculture–wetland interactions. They also present a generic and partial view of agriculture and broader food systems. Conclusions: We make the following four recommendations for addressing the driver–response gap: deepening our understanding of the drivers in agriculture that affect wetlands; exploring and exploiting windows of opportunities within agriculture that are aligned with wetland use; enhancing our ability to work with indirect drivers; and ensuring that resolutions agreed through the Convention are more specific on key drivers of adverse change in wetlands. Implications: The current impetus for 'agriculture transformation' creates an opportunity for the Convention to broaden its engagement in wetland–agriculture interactions and close the driver–response loop. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands has addressed wetland–agriculture interactions, but without linking policy responses to agricultural drivers of change. An analysis of Convention documents led to four conclusions to close the loop. These covered deepening our understanding of how agriculture affects wetlands; exploring appropriate opportunities within agriculture to reduce impacts on wetlands; enhancing our ability to work with indirect drivers such as the demands for food; and ensuring that Convention documents were specific about the drivers of change and possible responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]