A Continental Dataset Analysis on Strategy Implementation from the COP14 Ramsar National Reports

The Ramsar Convention has become a central framework for international cooperation in conserving and sustainably managing wetlands. The national reports of the 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP14) provide the most comprehensive official dataset for assessing strategy-specific and region-specific progress. This study reconstructed and quantified the 17 strategic areas of the COP14 reporting framework to enable a comparative analysis across six continents. Results showed clear variability in achievement levels among strategies and regions. Strategies related to threat identification and response, ecological character maintenance, and regional initiatives exhibited comparatively high levels across multiple continents, whereas strategies requiring integrated resource management, capacity building, or long-term institutional arrangements consistently showed lower performance. Considerable within-region variation was observed in Africa and Latin America, while Asia and Europe demonstrated relatively stable mid-to-high achievement patterns. North America and Oceania showed large fluctuations due to high standard errors and uneven strategy performance. These patterns indicate that the implementation of Ramsar strategies is strongly shaped by differences in administrative capacity, institutional maturity, and the structural difficulty of each strategy. Overall, the findings highlight persistent imbalances in global wetland governance at the time of COP14 and suggest that strengthening capacity, improving integrated management, and enhancing long-term institutional support will be essential for addressing low-performing strategic areas.