Rehabilitation of seagrass and mangrove sites - successes and failures in NSW

There is a general community perception that as the natural lands of catchments are converted to agricultural, residential and industrial sites, large areas of wetlands have been lost. Although this is probably true in many instances, there is a marked lack of information on which to base this assumption. Not only is there a lack of information about what wetlands have been lost, there is even less information about the impact of the losses on associated communities. Examples of changes to some of the major estuarine wetlands, mangroves and seagrasses in NSW waters will be presented and some of the consequences will be discussed. Rehabilitation of wetland areas is an obvious response to past losses, however on what basis should these often expensive restoration works be undertaken, how feasible is restoration and what should be the outcome of restoration? A number of rehabilitation and pilot projects have been carried out over the last decade and some of the problems they have raised, as well as the results they have achieved, will be summarised.