Key points
Wetlands are an important store of native biodiversity and provide a range of environmental services, such as improving water quality and reducing the effects of floods. Environment Waikato monitors changes in the amount of freshwater wetland vegetation in the Waikato region using information from satellite photographs (Land Cover Database1). Our Regional Indigenous Vegetation Inventory provides an estimate of historic wetland vegetation (1840).
- Before European settlement freshwater wetlands covered 5 percent of the Waikato Region.
- Today 1 percent of the region is in wetland vegetation, 25 percent of the amount present in 1840.
Source: Environment Waikato
What agencies are doing
- Environment Waikato tracks changes in native freshwater wetland vegetation to update this indicator and to assist with policy making and resource consent decisions.
- We are helping to protect areas of freshwater wetland through education, regulation (wetland drainage rules in and near wetlands) and funding support (for example through the Environmental Initiatives Fund).
- We provide staff time and expertise to support Landcare groups in the Region that are involved in activities that enhance native biodiversity in the Region such as planting and fencing. Find out more about care groups in our Region.
- We provide environmental information including factsheets with practical advice on restoring and maintaining freshwater wetlands. Find out more about restoring a wetland, or order a copy of our wetlands factsheets.
What you can do to help
- Learn more about wetlands from our webpages or the National Wetland Trust.
- Join or form a landcare group in your area.
- Join an environmental group that purchases and manages natural areas, such as the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society.
- Create freshwater wetlands by planting areas that are unsuitable for other uses, such as boggy paddocks that offer poor grazing.
- Retire unproductive boggy areas from grazing and let them revert to native freshwater wetlands.
- Landowners with freshwater wetlands can help maintain them by: controlling plant and animal pests; fencing to keep stock out; and protecting the land legally through covenants, for example with the QEII National Trust or with district councils.
More information
More detail on this indicator, including how and where this information is collected, is available here.
What we want to achieve
The community outcomes we are seeking to achieve by monitoring the extent of wetlands are:
- The iconic landscapes and natural features of our environment define and sustain us. We respect and celebrate them as taonga.
- Our natural environment is protected and respected. Its ecological balance is restored, its air, soil and water quality is improved and its native biodiversity is enhanced.
- The traditional role of iwi and hapu as kaitiaki is acknowledged, respected and enabled.
- Our region’s waterways have consistently high water quality.