Development of indicators framework in the sustainable management of wetland ecosystem to support informed the biosphere reserve governance: case study in Danube Delta biosphere reserve

Abstract

Wetlands ecosystems provide human societies with ecosystem services such as recreational uses, climate regulation, carbon storage, fisheries, and water for crop production, which are in high demands. These demands make managing wetlands ecosystems a challenging task, involving manifold synergies and conflicts between the different Ecosystem Services. Moreover, the health of these valuable ecosystems is increasingly threatened with environmental changes and pressures induced by anthropogenic activities. There is therefore an urgent need to develop an appropriate framework of indicators to support the informed decisions making for sustainable management of wetland ecosystem from the three main dimensions of sustainability -environmental, social and economic dimensions. Based on the Internationally agreed approaches and frameworks (e.g. SDG indicators, DPSIR), the author reviews the wetland-related indicators and preselect the most important and relevant sustainability indicators from the existing literature review on sustainable wetland management to better bridge the science-policy gap. Biosphere reserves of UNESCO Man and Biosphere Programme are experimental places to test innovative solutions for sustainable development. The preselected indicator sets will be contextualized and tailored to the wetland management in Danube Delta transboundary biosphere reserve shared by Romania and Ukraine. The contextualization will be realized through the co-construction process with the local stakeholders including stakeholder mapping, priority scoring exercise adapted to multi-stakeholder setting, open consultation, etc. The tailored framework of indicators will be recommended to test and pilot in Danube Delta biosphere reserve to access the Multidimensional sustainability and to promote the sustainable management of the wetland ecosystem.