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Find the right tools for freshwater restoration and protection
A curated and expert-screened set of 44 tools, frameworks and guidance for designing, implementing and monitoring plans for rivers, lakes, wetlands and their basins — built especially for decision makers and teams delivering on ambitious goals for inland waters conservation and restoration.
Last updated October 10, 2026
Developed in support of the Freshwater Challenge
—a global initiative to restore 350 million hectares of wetlands and 300,000 km of rivers by 2030.
Plan
Identify locations for restoration and protection, assess current status, prioritise.
Protect
Design protected-area networks and conservation programmes.
Restore
Methods, guidelines and data for restoring rivers, wetlands and peatlands.
Track & report
Indicators, monitoring systems and national reporting (SDG, GBF, Freshwater Challenge).
Toolkit for National Wetland Inventories
Ramsar guidance for designing and running a national wetland inventory.
Organisation:
Supports:
A step-by-step framework for building the wetland baseline that targets and reporting depend on.
Open the tool ↗nwi-toolkit
Toolkit for National Wetland Inventories
Ramsar guidance for designing and running a national wetland inventory.
Before you open it
How to use this resource
Nature-Based Solutions Benefits Explorer
Web-based tool to explore investments in nature-based solutions: benefit identification, accounting and valuation.
Organisation:
Supports:
Compare green versus grey infrastructure benefits at municipal, state or federal level; supports pre-feasibility work for NbS budgets.
nbs-benefits-explorer
Nature-Based Solutions Benefits Explorer
Web-based tool to explore investments in nature-based solutions: benefit identification, accounting and valuation.
Before you open it
How to use this resource
Key Biodiversity Area Atlas
A global spatial database of areas defined by the presence of threatened or highly endemic species.
Organisation:
Supports:
Identify priority areas for restoration or protection based on species threat and endemism. Incomplete for freshwater species.
kba-atlas
Key Biodiversity Area Atlas
A global spatial database of areas defined by the presence of threatened or highly endemic species.
Before you open it
How to use this resource
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
A global spatial database of species categorised by threat status, with distribution maps and data on habitats, ecology, threats and conservation actions.
Organisation:
Supports:
Identify priority areas for restoration based on high species diversity, endemism or levels of threat.
iucn-red-list
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
A global spatial database of species categorised by threat status, with distribution maps and data on habitats, ecology, threats and conservation actions.
Before you open it
How to use this resource
Wetland Extent Trends (WET) Index
Measures wetland loss over time and so identifies areas of restoration need (Dixon et al. 2016, Biological Conservation 193).
Organisation:
Supports:
Indicates where wetland extent has declined most, pointing to restoration priorities. The global database must be requested from UNEP-WCMC.
wet-index
Wetland Extent Trends (WET) Index
Measures wetland loss over time and so identifies areas of restoration need (Dixon et al. 2016, Biological Conservation 193).
Before you open it
How to use this resource
Water Risk Filter
Assess and respond to water risks to enhance resilience: a corporate and portfolio-level screening tool to prioritise action on what and where it matters most.
Organisation:
Supports:
Screens basins for physical, regulatory and reputational water risk. Best suited to corporate portfolios; less useful for country-specific and sub-national assessments.
Open the tool ↗water-risk-filter
Water Risk Filter
Assess and respond to water risks to enhance resilience: a corporate and portfolio-level screening tool to prioritise action on what and where it matters most.
Before you open it
How to use this resource
Global Wetland Watch
Satellite-based mapping and monitoring of changes to wetland ecosystems worldwide.
Organisation:
Supports:
Baseline wetland extent and change data for countries without a national inventory.
Open the tool ↗global-wetland-watch
Global Wetland Watch
Satellite-based mapping and monitoring of changes to wetland ecosystems worldwide.
Before you open it
How to use this resource
Global Wetland Gap Map
Maps wetlands against the gaps between their conservation status, policy coverage, and socio-economic threats and opportunities.
Organisation:
Supports:
Prioritisation, inventorisation and communication of wetland gaps at national level.
wetland-gap-map
Global Wetland Gap Map
Maps wetlands against the gaps between their conservation status, policy coverage, and socio-economic threats and opportunities.
Before you open it
How to use this resource
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