Social Awareness of Temporary Wetlands: A Southern Hemisphere Perspective on the Past, Present and Future

Social awareness of temporary wetlands continues to change as human needs for wetland resources change. Attitudes toward temporary wetlands differ between continents and nations and within societies, and are driven by the universally valuable commodity, water. Although international agreements (e.g. Ramsar Convention) encourage awareness, conservation and management of all types of wetlands to maintain their values in conjunction with human use, many temporary wetlands have been neglected, altered or lost before their values could be recognized and protected. In this paper, I set the framework for the conference discussions on social awareness of Mediterranean Temporary Wetlands. I give a southern-hemisphere perspective on changes over time in social attitudes to a broader range of temporary wetlands in landscapes and climates where rainfall is often unpredictable and the timing, duration, frequency and extent of flooding of temporary wetlands highly variable