How much wetland restoration is needed?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-04-21 10:44

New Zealand

What does this mean?

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New Zealand has protected around 30% of its land area in accordance with the IUCN’s Global Biodiversity Framework - but how do we know that our restoration efforts are targeted in areas where they’ll make a difference? Researchers at Victoria University of Wellington modelled outcomes of wetland restoration in the Ruamahanga Basin to show how percentage targets produce different results when measured at different scales. They found that at smaller scales, restoring 60% of historic wetlands reduced in-stream nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations to an acceptable level. However, at a regional scale there was no level at which more wetland restoration stopped improving water quality and ecosystem health. Authors of the study say their results prove the effectiveness of local, sub-catchment-scale restoration projects, which has policy implications for conservation management.