South African Wetland Society

Excellence, Professionalism and Ethics in the Wetland Community of Practice of South Africa

Wetland Resources

The following is a list of wetland tools and guidelines that are available for download from the SA Wetland Society’s Google Drive. Notifications regarding any updates will be sent via our mailing list.

Please note that all information and documents are provided here as is. Should you have any recommendations, find errors, or updates that need to be made, please make contact with the society in this regard.

Inventory of South African Wetland Tools and Guidelines
  1. Delineation, mapping, and classifications.
  2. Assessments of ecological conditions.
  3. Wetlands in the context of Water Resource Management.
  4. Assessing and valuing ecosystem services.
  5. Sustainable use.
  6. Wetland rehabilitation and offets.
  7. Institutional and governance.
  8. Wetland restoration.
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Wetland Practitioner Competency

The development of wetland practitioners is challenging in the wetland field of practice since a formal qualification in wetland science and/or management does not exist in South Africa. Rather, the wetland community of practice is built on specialists in various fields of practices that intersect within the wetland realm (ecology, botany, geology, hydrology, soil science, geomorphology, environmental science, etc).


Becoming a wetland specialist currently relies on short courses, conferences, capacity development within organisations and professional mentorship. A result of this is that there is no standard as to what constitutes a competent practitioner. This leaves a significant space for unregulated, poor practice. With this document, SAWS put forward what the competencies and skills are that a wetland scientist would require to conduct scientifically sound wetland work in South Africa

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