Wetland Management
Wetland Rehabilitation and Wise Use
Source: http://www.dlwc.nsw.gov.au/care/wetlands/wetlandmanagement/specific_issues.html
Wise Use
The old DLWC website still exists and has information to help readers understand why wetland rehabilitation is important and how wetland rehabilitation can be incorporated within existing farm management.
The concept ‘Wise use’ was defined at a meeting of the Ramsar Convention, an International Conference on Wetland management as:
“the sustainable utilization of wetlands for benefit of humankind in a way compatible with the maintenance of the natural properties of the ecosystem”.
Wise use can incorporate activities including very little or no farming or other use of the wetland, to active resource exploitation, as long as it is sustainable.
Very few wetlands are not currently being utilised by people in some way. Wetland management should be adapted to specific local circumstances, sensitive to local cultures and respectful of traditional uses. Management therefore is not a universal concept that can be broadly applied; rather, it needs to be adapted to suit local conditions (see Ramsar Bureau Website, 2000: http://www.ramsar.org/).
Wetland Rehabilitation
Wetland Rehabilitation includes:
- Active works to improve wetland function such as weed removal, rubbish removal, replacement of plant types that have been lost from the plant community.
- The maintenance of the wetland in good condition, or avoiding degradation of a wetland, for example by fencing out stock.
Rehabilitating wetlands involves identifying the natural processes of the wetland and minimising or decreasing threatening activities. Any works undertaken to improve the status of a wetland should be simple and introduced slowly so that a minimum amount of disturbance occurs.
A rehabilitation exercise should involve:
- Assessment of existing condition;
- Identification of the wetland’s water source;
- Identification of the water regime of the wetland in terms of seasonality, frequency and duration of inundation, etc.; and
- consideration of the activities which need to be undertaken to rehabilitate the wetland.
Activities may include:
- ceasing grazing in the wetland;
- slashing or mowing firebreaks around wetlands which are not grazed;
- control pest animals and plants; and
- blocking drains that drain water from or divert polluted water to the wetland.
For more information see:
http://www.dlwc.nsw.gov.au/care/wetlands/wetlandmanagement/specific_issues.html
