Wetlands

Wetlands are a critically important ecosystem for flood mitigation, biodiversity, migratory bird habitat, food production, and as valued places in the landscape. Wetlands were, and continue to be, places of great importance and value to Māori. Understanding how wetlands work, what threatens them, and what enhances them, enables New Zealand to better protect these resources. New Zealand is a signatory to the international Ramsar convention on wetlands, and has 7 wetlands recognised as internationally significant.

At Manaaki Whenua (MWLR), our wetland research underpins wetland restoration, and equally importantly, safeguarding and enhancing the condition and extent of existing wetlands, and efforts to report and monitor on these. Our research focuses on natural wetlands, particularly those within the coastline, where terrestrial processes dominate.

Our expertise

Our expertise ranges from national-scale to local-scale:

National-scale:

1. We produce a regularly updated map of land cover in New Zealand, that includes wetland coverage at the national scale.
   See: LCDB v5.0 - Land Cover Database version 5.0, Mainland, New Zealand
   Lead researcher: Laise Harris
2. We have previously produced an assessment of pre-human wetland extent and are currently working on updating the methodology, focussing on three case study catchments
   See: Prediction of wetlands before humans arrived
   Lead researcher: Olivia Burge

Regional-scale:

1. Regional councils are responsible for mapping and monitoring wetlands in their area. We have provided a set of guidance to guide councils on this work. This work includes a Lucid key to wetland type, which complements the Wetland Types of New Zealand book and is a guide to diagnosing what kind of wetland you see.
2. We assist regional councils with designing, and sometimes implementing, monitoring plans for their wetlands.
   See: Tukituki Catchment. State of the Environment monitoring of Hawke's Bay wetlands
3. We produced the widely-used Handbook for monitoring wetland condition

Local-scale:

1. Alongside the handbook for assessing wetland condition (above) we have produced a series of handbooks relating to wetland restoration and cultural importance of wetlands.
2. We work with iwi and other groups on protecting and restoring wetlands.
   See: Whenua Koiora: Resilient restoration of wetlands informed by mātauranga-ā-hapū