Introduction

The wise use of wetlands involves participatory management that recognizes their ecosystem services and ensures sustainable use while maintaining their natural properties. The Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, under the National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Ecosystems (NPCA), has developed guidelines for integrated management plans (IMP) for wetlands, emphasizing diagnostic and participatory evaluations.

The Ramsar Wetland Inventory, Assessment, and Monitoring System (WIAMS) supports ecosystem-based wetland management and is integrated into NPCA guidelines. WIAMS helps in creating baseline data, assessing features and institutional arrangements, and setting management objectives.

An expert consultation in New Delhi in July 2019 adapted WIAMS for Indian wetlands, identifying essential parameters for inventory, assessment, and monitoring. These parameters are prioritized based on relevance, practicality, cost-effectiveness, time, and resource availability to aid wetland managers in understanding ecological characters, setting objectives, and prioritizing actions effectively.