Geneva, Switzerland – A groundbreaking report, Taking Animals into Account, released today on World Wetlands Day, reveals how wild animals play an underestimated but vital role in keeping the world’s wetlands functional and resilient. Compiled by the Global Rewilding Alliance and ten partner organisations, the study outlines impactful evidence that reintroducing and protecting key wild animal species could be a game-changer in tackling climate change, biodiversity loss, invasive species control, and water security challenges.
Taking Animals into Account underscores the urgent need to rewild both inland and coastal wetlands by restoring the wild animal species that keep these wetland ecosystems thriving.
Compelling case studies
Wetlands are often celebrated for their role in regulating water cycles, storing carbon, and supporting biodiversity. However, this new report sheds light on an overlooked reality: the essential role of wild animals in wetland ecosystem health.
Taking Animals into Account presents compelling evidence on how species such as salmon, beavers, hippos, seabirds, terrapins, and even ants act as ‘ecosystem engineers’ —shaping landscapes, dispersing nutrients, improving water quality, and stabilizing shorelines. Among the more surprising revelations:
- Neotropical fish disperse the seeds of more than 100 tree species, maintaining the diverse tropical Amazon forests that border their rivers.
- Beavers mitigate droughts and floods by creating natural reservoirs and wetlands that store water in extreme weather.
- Seabirds boost the health of mangroves and coral reefs by nesting and defecating, spreading nutrients, after returning from the open ocean.
- Predatory crabs, sea otters and terrapins prevent saltmarsh collapse, ensuring these coastal habitats remain resilient amidst rising sea levels.
- Sharks and parrotfish are critical for the wellbeing of the world’s coral reefs.
- Migrating salmon nurture the biodiverse temperate rainforests along the Pacific Coast of North America by transporting vital nutrients upstream that sustain entire ecosystems.
- Waterbirds transport aquatic invertebrates, plants and even fish eggs between lakes, ponds and rivers over huge distances.
- Hippos and water buffalo fertilize wetland ecosystems, increasing plant productivity and supporting fish populations.
The report details how the decline of these species has led to the weakening of critical ecosystem functions, urging for their restoration not just as a key conservation strategy but an essential approach to assure all of the benefits that wetlands provide for local communities and society as a whole.
More success stories from around the world
The report draws from eleven case studies across Asia, Europe, and Latin America, showing real-world success in rewilding wetlands. Highlights include:
- Scotland’s beaver ponds: Bringing back beavers has restored natural water cycles, improving biodiversity and reducing flood risks.
- The wetland giants of the Netherlands: Large herbivores, such as domestic water buffalo, are causing the return of huge biodiversity within wetlands, thereby improving their resilience.
- White-clawed crayfish in the Central Apennines, Italy, maintain the health of the streams by providing food for animals like otters, fish, and birds, and keep waterways clean through their consumption of decaying organic matter.
These case studies illustrate how reintroducing and protecting animal species can significantly enhance wetland ecosystems and restore the array of ecosystem services they provide, and we benefit from.
A Call to Action: Rewilding as a Wetland Restoration Strategy
The report warns that the ‘defaunation’ of wetlands—where key animal species are lost—threatens their ability to provide essential ecosystem services that we all depend on. With 85% of global wetlands already degraded, conservation efforts must integrate the restoration of wild animals as a core strategy.
“This is not just about saving species—it’s about saving the very processes that make wetlands exist, maintain resilience in a changing world, and thrive with life,” said Magnus Sylvén, Director of Science-Policy-Practice for the Global Rewilding Alliance and lead author of the report. “Rewilding - specifically the return of key wild animals - is a nature-based solution that brings practical hope in the face of the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity loss.”
“The evidence is clear: wetlands cannot function as we need them to without wild animals. It’s time to rethink how we protect and restore these vital ecosystems by prioritizing the role of nature’s own engineers”.
A message for all global policymakers
Amid the global decline in wildlife and a lack of adequate recognition of wild animals in conservation policies, the new insights of the study outline an opportunity for more effective wetland restoration and conservation; a new ‘way forward’ that recognises the essential role of wild animals.
While this study represents only an initial effort to summarize current knowledge on wildlife-ecosystem connections for wetlands, the results underscore the need to place wild animal species at the core of the ecological functional agenda of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. The Conference of the Parties this year provides an opportunity to do this.
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Notes for Editors
To learn more: access the full report and accompanying case studies, and a summary for non specialists: main study summary & case studies summary.
Contributors
The following conservation practitioners co-authored the new paper:
We are grateful for comments and suggestions provided by individual members of the Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP) of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
The publication was supported by: Rewilding Chile, Rewilding Europe, Biophilia Foundation, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Re:wild, Ben Goldsmith & André Hoffmann.
The Global Rewilding Alliance
The Alliance is a network of 225+ rewilding organisations working across all continents to rewild the land and sea. Together, they are currently helping to influence the rewilding of 2.2 million sq.km of land and 5 million sq.km of sea in 124 countries.
The mission of Global Rewilding Alliance is to build the global rewilding movement to mainstream rewilding in science, policy and practice globally by 2030.
**This press release was shared by Global Rewilding Alliance in commemoration of World Wetlands Day 2025.