Foreword
The wetlands of New Zealand have always been an important part of the New Zealand environment. It was around the coastal estuaries and lagoons that the earliest Maori settled and harvested the shellfish, fish and eels that abounded. It was from the flax swamps that material for weaving was collected and waterfowl snared. To the early Pakeha the swamp brought an export product - flax fibre stronger than any fibre yet in use in the world - to help establish the settlement on a firm economic footing. And it was the enormous flat swamplands that yielded fertile soil when drained, sustaining farmers and supporting sheep and dairy cows. Drainage became a major cultural activity, like the bush clearance a symbol of the "great work" of turning New Zealand into an economically productive land.
Today, however, times have changed. With few of our lowland wetlands intact the many other uses are being recognised - habitats for rare plants and wildlife, landscapes in sharp contrast to the more uniform image of farmland, water storage systems and filtration plants for managing floods and water quality, recreational pursuits like hunting waterfowl and fishing.
But it is hard to reverse a trend. There is little legislation for protecting wetlands, and a lot of policy, equipment and expertise ready to facilitate destruction. The agencies of government responsible for wetlands are scattered so that a coordinated policy for protection is difficult to achieve. Information about wetlands is scattered and usually incomplete so that priorities for protection are difficult to recognise.
It is the extent of wetland depletion, the many positive values they have as intact ecosystems, the fragmented administration and conflicting policies, that have led the Government to ratify this New Zealand Wetlands Policy. It is a policy designed to show the way, rather than to specify particular actions. It foreshadows the establishment of the Department of Conservation which will clearly become the major advocate for wetland protection. Armed with this policy and WERI (the national wetlands inventory which will serve as the data base for the implementation of the policy), the new environmental administration will be in a position to foster the sensitive management of remaining wetlands: as beautiful, complex productive ecosystems, rich in unique plants and animals, rich in historical memory of how our culture developed. Just as the indigenous forest policy has served to enlighten and lead forest protection on crown lands, so will this Wetlands Policy help us find an ecological perspective for one of our most characteristic natural features.
Minister of Conservation
Minister for the Environment
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