Protecting the future of Eyre Peninsula's wetlands

Until recently, not much was known about how healthy the Eyre Peninsula's 64,000 hectares of wetlands were, or what threats they faced. But the Eyre Peninsula Natural Resources Management Board is now working to ensure the wetlands' future.

"Wetlands are an important part of our environment, providing a home and food to a huge range of plant and animal species, including internationally protected migratory birds," the Water Resources Program Manager for the Eyre Peninsula Natural Resources Management Board Jonathan Clark said.

"But community knowledge and understanding has been lacking, with many people seeing them as wastelands.

"Our wetlands have been under a number of threats, including dumping, salinity, pollution and weeds."

Funding

Since 2004 the Australian Government has provided the Eyre Peninsula Natural Resources Management Board with more than $344,000 to complement the Board's contribution to ensure the future of the peninsula's wetlands. The South Australian Government has also provided support.

Activities

Jonathan said the first step of the Coordinated Approach to Wetland Management project was for the Board to map out the Peninsula wetlands.

"The wetlands we have vary from coastal wetlands to inland saltwater or freshwater lakes and swamps. They are all subject to the same pressures, but range from unspoiled to severely degraded," Jonathan said.

"We looked at the condition of the wetlands and identified the threats, to establish a baseline for future reference and we set up a monitoring program.

"The information we gathered has enabled us to identify priority wetlands for conservation, and has been invaluable in informing the community with signage, fact sheets and workshops."

Achievements

Jonathan said the project had led to the addition of two wetlands to the 11 Eyre Peninsula wetlands already declared of national importance.

"Hopefully, as we gather more information, we will be able to nominate more wetlands to be added to this list, or even to the International Ramsar Convention on Wetlands," he said.

The other major part of the project - to educate the community - is also proving successful.

"We wanted to empower people to manage the health of our wetlands, so we provide grants for landholders and environmental groups to help protect wetlands with fencing, replanting and erosion control," Jonathan said.

"We have certainly been witnessing a shift in community understanding."

More information

• Jonathan Clark, Eyre Peninsula Natural Resources Management Board Water Resources Program Manager: (08) 8682 5655 or jonathan@epnrm.com.au
• Jeanie Quilliam, Eyre Peninsula Regional Natural Resources Management Liaison Officer: (08) 8688 3413 or quilliam.jeanie@saugov.sa.gov.au

Australian Government NRM Team
GPO Box 787
Canberra ACT 2601 Australia
1800 552 008 (toll-free)

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Caring for our Country is an Australian Government initiative jointly administered by the Australian Government departments of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts