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Wetland Futures Report 2013: The Value of Healthy Wetlands
Waterlogged wealth: realising the multiple benefits of healthy
wetlands
Professor Edward Maltby, Professor Emeritus in Wetland Science, Water and Ecosystem Management, University of Liverpool.
The benefits appreciated by early human cultures and
traditional users of wetlands, historically have been
ignored or dismissed as less valuable by more powerful
sectoral interest groups. This resulted in the significant loss
and degradation of the UK’s wetland resource, accelerated
by government policies and generally condoned by
insufficiently informed public opinion. Notwithstanding
any effects of climate change our present landscape is a
desiccated version of its more ‘natural’ condition and the
overarching impact of human activities has been to speed
the flow of water from the land to the sea.
The last 30 years or so have witnessed some remarkable
changes in attitudes towards wetlands prioritising them
on the conservation, scientific and even the political
agenda. Key features of this change has been increased
awareness of the socio-economic significance of wetland
functioning and the delivery of what are now called
‘ecosystem services’; the opportunities for wetlands to
provide improvements in the welfare and livelihoods of
local people; and progressive recognition of the potential
or actual role of wetlands in achieving sustainable
development. It is only when they have been lost that their
full value is often appreciated.
The wider value of the multifunctional wetland landscape
has been captured at a national scale by the
UK National
Ecosystem Assessment
. A range of examples is given
of the provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting
services that have been assessed by this government –
funded initiative. The Functional Assessment Procedures
tool provides one way of rapidly evaluating wetlands and
assisting decision-making.
Government is realising the value of
natural capital
and
ecosystem services of wetlands to the wider economy.
The Tamar 2000 and the more recent
‘Upstream Thinking’
projects in South West England are examples of good
practice in realising value from wetland restoration and
management. The challenge now to wetland science
is to adapt to the needs of civil society. There are also
challenges to the sectoral users of land and water with
new opportunities for agriculture and water companies
inter alia to make innovative contributions to more
effectively appreciate value from wetlands. To achieve
this goal a more holistic and integrated approach to
environment, economics and human well-being is
advocated and which challenges the traditional
sectoral organisation of government, institutions
and budgets.
Coastal farmland, North Uist, Outer Hebrides
photo: Hannah Freeman
