Around the world, people are gaining a deeper appreciation of wetlands as essential, nature-based tools for climate resilience.
Following efforts by Tamar Estuary Management Taskforce members and locals to clean up the estuary and improve water quality, the taskforce is exploring how restoring local wetlands can slow river flows during floods, stabilise mudflats and reduce sediment.
A five-year trial wetland restoration project is running on the North Esk River, in an area of Crown Land between Henry Street and Hoblers Bridge, near Ravenswood.
The Department of State Growth is partnering with NRM North to restore the wetland, with in-kind support from the City of Launceston. The project will run until mid-2028.
Find out more about the project by watching the video below.
Credits: Drone footage/pilot: Juan Jose Noriega Quintero, NRM North
Production: Department of State Growth
This project is funded by the Australian Government’s Urban Rivers and Catchments Program, with the support of the Tasmanian Government.
World Wetlands Day is held annually on 2 February, the anniversary of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, an international treaty signed in 1971 to protect the world’s wetlands, named for its host city of Ramsar, Iran.
Wetlands are often renowned for their traditional cultural significance, but for European settlers they have usually been seen as unproductive land. Thanks to science, we now understand how important wetlands are to a healthy environment, by helping to maintain water quality, absorbing carbon dioxide, managing flooding and sediment, protecting coastlines from rising sea levels, cooling urban areas and providing essential sites for biodiversity.
Australia listed the world’s first Ramsar wetland in the Northern Territory in 1974, and Tasmania has 10 wetlands listed as internationally significant under the convention, along with many other important sites, including the rich wetlands along the Tamar estuary.
Click on the pins below to find out more about some of Tasmania’s wetlands.
If you would like a wetland project pinned to the map, please email TEMT@stategrowth.tas.gov.au
For more local information about wetland restoration projects in your area check with your local council.
The Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania (NRE) has excellent information about the different kinds of wetlands found across Tasmania’s 8 bioregions, including alpine, moorland, inland saline, estuarine, freshwater and subterranean wetlands.
You can read more about the Ramsar Convention on the website of the Australian Government’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.