MedWet owes its origins to an international conference organized by the International Waterfowl & Wetlands Research Bureau (IWRB), now Wetlands International, which took place in Grado, Italy in February 1991.

In June 1996, the Mediterranean Wetlands Conference which took place in Venice, Italy, approved a Mediterranean Wetlands Strategy to guide the work of MedWet until the year 2006. It was developed through extensive consultations with member nations and other MedWet stakeholders and provides the authoritative framework for the future programmes of MedWet.

In the same year, 1996, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, under whose guidance the MedWet Initiative had been developed, established the Mediterranean Wetlands Committee. Its role is to review and guide the MedWet Wetlands Strategy and its implementation.

In 2002 MedWet became a formal inter-regional structure for the implementation of the Ramsar convention and serves as a model for regional collaboration on wetlands.

Click here  to read the Resolution of the Ramsar Contracting Parties formally recognizing MedWet as a regional initiative under the Ramsar aegis.