Securing water resources the focus of Stetson’s Edward and Bonnie Foreman Biodiversity Lecture

Nick Davidson, Deputy Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, presented “Natural Solutions for our Water Security” on March 21 at Stetson Law in Gulfport. The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, called the Ramsar Convention, is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.

Nick Davidson spoke at Stetson on March 21.

Nick Davidson spoke at Stetson on March 21.

“The amount of water we have on the planet is finite,” Davidson said. Davidson explained that we continue to destroy wetlands despite the fact that we depend on water for our life, livelihoods and sustainable businesses.

His lecture described how protecting wetlands and natural systems can provide solutions to threats to water security.

“There’s a need for a paradigm shift in thinking, in water governance, in decision-making,” Davidson said. “We’ve got to place water at the heart of a green economy. We’ve got to realize that wetlands are part of our water management infrastructure, not something competing with it.”

Davidson’s lecture was the last in the series this semester at Stetson. Stetson’s Edward and Bonnie Foreman Biodiversity Lecture Series brings leading experts to campus to speak on a range of environmental topics.

Stetson offers an environmental law certificate of concentration, and is the host of the annual International Environmental Moot Court Competition and the  Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy. For more information about environmental law at Stetson, visit the Institute for Biodiversity Law and Policy.