Manawatu¯’s remaining wetlands ‘need to be protected’

More than 95 per cent of Manawatu¯ ’s wetlands have diminished and environmentalists fear they will continue to degrade.

On World Wetlands Day last week, Forest and Bird warned that New Zealand’s wetlands would keep suffering if more wasn’t done to protect them.

Forest and Bird’s freshwater advocate Annabeth Cohen said 99 per cent of New Zealand’s original wetlands had been destroyed by agricultural and urban development.

‘‘We aren’t doing a very good job of protecting what’s left.’’

New Zealand has lost 2.2 million hectares of wetland and only 249,776ha remain.

Before human occupation, the Manawatu¯ -Whanganui region had 264,511ha of wetland ecosystem. Now 6983ha remains, less than 3 per cent.

Cohen said wetlands provided a unique habitat for threatened plants, birds and fish, and they also improved water quality.

A fifth of native bird species used wetlands as their primary habitat, relying on a linked series of wetlands for resting and feeding, she said.

‘‘The trouble is, our original wetlands have been drained for agriculture, and the now rare remnants can’t cope with the huge amounts of nutrient and sedimentloaded runoff, which degrades the quality of the water, making it very difficult for whitebait, eels, and other native freshwater species to survive there.

‘‘Regional councils must do more to protect wetlands. That means better management of surrounding agriculture, enforcing rules to prevent illegal vegetation clearance and wetland drainage, and working with community, iwi, and [the Department of Conservation] to restore wetlands that have become degraded.’’

Horizons Regional Council natural resources and partnerships group manager Dr Jon Roygard said the One Plan put in place protections for wetlands, including rules about drainage and measures for change in land use.

Wellington’s wetlands have also suffered. There were an estimated 122,804ha of wetland ecosystem before human habitation. Just over 2 per cent remain.