Environmental & Social Rights for Wetlands & Communities

Despite recognition that nature delivers multiple benefits, particularly for the poor and marginalized, widespread loss and deterioration of nature continues contributing to climate destabilisation and biodiversity declines. This is especially true of wetland ecosystems as over 35% of wetlands have been lost since 1970 and a fifth are currently in a degraded condition. 

New approaches are required for wetland conservation and to sustain wetland benefits. The project ‘Rights of Wetlands Operationalisation for Biodiversity and Community Resilience’, funded by The Darwin Initiative, United Kingdom investigated the implementation of the Rights of Wetlands approach in Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, Kenya and Sri Lanka. It looked at how to embed the right for a wetland to function and exist through community management, legal instruments and governance frameworks leading to successful biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation (https://cobracollective.org/projects/rights-of-wetlands-operationalisation-for-biodiversity-and-community-resilience.php ).

Although this online course was developed with partners in Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, Kenya and Sri Lanka, it builds on work by the Cobra Collective on several projects and is available and applicable to anyone that wants to work with their community or another community to improve our relationship with nature, implement better management and better understand social and environmental rights. This course focuses on wetland habitats, but the approaches and techniques presented are applicable for use with all ecosystems.

Learning outcomes

This course covers lots of different topics to help you better understand what wetlands are, what solutions communities can use to conserve and protect wetlands, how to deliver better wetland management planning and to understand Rights of Nature and Rights of Wetlands approaches, social and environmental rights and the importance of traditional knowledge in conservation. It can help communities, government agencies and civil society organisations develop better management approaches and deliver better policies in relation to nature. The following topics are covered in this course:

Course:

1. Introduction to wetlands


• What are wetlands
• Types of wetland habitats
• Wetland characteristics


2. Wetland solutions
   
   • Challenges and threats facing wetlands and communities
   • Solutions for wetlands and communities
   
   
3. Rights of Nature and Rights of Wetlands


• Why we need Rights of Wetlands
• What are Rights of Wetlands and Rights of Nature
• How to implement Rights of Wetlands


4. Wetland management planning 


• Wetland management planning - Unit 1
• How to plan
• Techniques for stakeholder engagement


• Wetland management planning - Unit 2
• How to describe your wetland
• How to evaluate the key features of the wetland


• Wetland management planning - Unit 3
• How to set management objectives for the key wetland features


• Wetland management planning - Unit 4
• How to develop a management plan of activities
• Monitoring and review of the plan


5. Social & Environmental Rights


• Social & Environmental Rights - Unit 1
• What are Social Rights?
• What are Environmental Rights?


• Social & Environmental Rights - Unit 2
• Social & Environmental Rights in Bolivia


• Social & Environmental Rights - Unit 3
• Social & Environmental Rights in Ecuador


• Social & Environmental Rights - Unit 4
• Social & Environmental Rights in Guyana


• Social & Environmental Rights - Unit 5
• Social & Environmental Rights in Kenya


• Social & Environmental Rights - Unit 6
• Social & Environmental Rights in Sri Lanka


6. Traditional Knowledge


• Traditional Knowledge - Unit 1
• Importance of traditional knowledge


• Traditional Knowledge - Unit 2
• Relevant international conventions, agreements and resources for Indigenous and local people’s rights and knowledge


• Traditional Knowledge - Unit 3
• Rights of Nature and traditional knowledge


• Traditional Knowledge - Unit 4
• What does good practice of traditional knowledge inclusion look like?


• Traditional Knowledge - Unit 5
• Challenges and solutions for inclusion of traditional knowledge


• Traditional Knowledge - Unit 6
• Recommendations regarding the inclusion of traditional knowledge

Who should study the course?

There are no prerequisite skills or knowledge needed before taking this course. Just openness, curiosity and interest in learning about how to engage with communities and nature in a constructive, respectful way. This course is designed to be useful for a community member that wants to mobilise their community to deliver a more equitable relationship with nature or to engage with policy makers to deliver positive change for the community and nature. It has also been designed to be useful for practitioners that work for government agencies or non-governmental organisations that want to more effectively work with communities and nature.

How learners can go about the course and the self assessment

On the home page of each course unit (you will need to enrol on each) you will find the following tabs: “Course description”, “Course content” and “Course review”. The “Course description”, where you are now, contains a brief course description and outcomes. By clicking the “Course content tab” you can see the list of the course lessons. Each lesson contains a video, suggested activities and a final self-assessment quiz. The videos can be directly played within the course page. 

To access the quizzes click on the icon

To start the quiz click “Start Attempt”. After you’ve answered all questions make sure you click “Finish Attempt” and then “Submit all and finish” to see the quiz evaluation. You will need to achieve a grade of 70% or more to pass the quiz. You can take all the quizzes as often as you'd like. To go back to the other lessons click on “Course content”. You can take the self-assessment quizzes as many times as you want. We recommend you take them until you get everything correct to make sure you fully understand the material. If you want to send us any feedback on the course you can go to the Homepage and click on the “Course Review” tab.

Gain a statement of participation

By studying the course you will have the opportunity to gain a statement of participation upon completing the course – you need to click on the ‘Enrol’ button to be able to do the quizzes and activities and to download your statement of participation.

About this course

To complete the online course it will take approximately 24 hours. 

Copyright information

This course is made available under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: Cobra Collective

Any third-party materials featured in this course are used with permission and are not ours to give away. These materials are not subject to the Creative Commons licence. See the terms and conditions and our FAQs. Please see the course acknowledgements for further information about copyright details.

Citation for the course

Cobra Collective. 2025. Environmental & Social Rights for Wetlands & Communities Online Training Course.

Acknowledgments

Illustrations were produced by Ed Dingli (www.eddingli.com). 

Animations were produced by Rosie Miles (www.rosiesmiles.com).

The Traditional Knowledge units were adapted from an e-module developed by Dr Lisa Ingwall-King through a project on traditional knowledge in Guyana: https://cobracollective.org/projects/traditional-knowledge-and-conservation.php

Project partners include:

• Wetlands International Kenya
• Wetlands International Global Office, Netherlands
• Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, USA
• Cobra Collective, UK
• International Water Management Institute, Sri Lanka
• Ministry of Environment, Sri Lanka
• North Rupununi District Development Board, Guyana
• ATAYAK - Asociación de Yachak del Pueblo de Sarayaku, Ecuador
• Worcester State University, USA
• Universidad Católica de Bolivia "San Pablo", Bolivia
• Practical Action in Bolivia, Bolivia