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• W4247385259 abstract "Last winter's Indian Ocean tsunami promised another busy year for the growing industry of engineers and scientists who specialize in rebuilding wetlands. The disaster claimed over 200 000 lives, and devastated the coastal marshes that support fishing, farming, and tourism in several nations. It thereby drove home – again – the huge economic value of wetlands that, one way or another, are being destroyed at an unprecedented rate around the world. As Joni Mitchell once sang, “You don't know what you've got ‘til it's gone”. Early this year, the non-profit group Wetlands International sponsored an evening of talks on the “unseen” role of wetlands. Swamps and marshes are habitat both for wildlife and for humans. Along riverbanks and coasts, such ecosystems filter water for drinking, protect fisheries, and even help maintain local air quality. Yet, particularly in the past decade, grandscale disasters and unparalleled human development have highlighted the value of wetlands by revealing the cost to human survival of their absence. In a process that began some two decades before the tsunami, more than 15 000 square kilometers of Iraq's wetlands – twice the size of Florida's Everglades – have been lost, leaving “scorched earth and brownfields”, according to Curtis Richardson, director of the Duke University Wetland Center. The Mesopotamian marshlands, which some historians believe were the model for the biblical Garden of Eden, began to decline in the 1980s, when dams were built along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. But former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein did far more damage in his more recent efforts to eradicate the Ma'dan culture, established there for several thousand years. Iraqi troops drained the marshes, poisoned fish, and cut down date palms, says Richardson. Today, sandstorms blight the air above deserts once covered by water, vast tracts of land are now too saline to farm, and habitat for dozens of rare species has been lost. More than 80 000 marsh Arabs who used to live off the wetlands' fish and adjoining farmland now try to eke out a living in the wilderness or city slums. “Many would go back to the marshes if they knew they could plant and fish there again”, says Richardson. While some some areas are being re-flooded, there's little hope that the land can be completely restored. Yet bad as the Iraq wetlands plight remains, Southern Asia's tsunami damage is far more widespread, extending along the coasts of at least ten nations. “Rather than tens of thousands, you're talking about millions of people whose lives have been changed”, says ecologist and wetland restoration expert Kevin Erwin, who is coordinating assessment and restoration projects for a coalition of entities led by Wetlands International. Erwin points out that satellite images taken before and after the Asian tsunami revealed another “unseen” function of wetlands: people living along coastlines with intact mangrove swamps were less affected by the tsunami than were populations residing in coastal areas dominated by fish farms or residential developments. Back in the US, wetlands have suffered mainly from human development, which has wiped out about half of what existed before the Pilgrims' landing. Because laws stemming from the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act of the 1970s have required builders to “mitigate” the harm they do to wetlands – in some cases by actually creating the ecosystems someplace else – increasing fortunes have fueled the growth of a wetlands-construction business. Google around, and you'll find lists of companies with names like Diversified Habitats, Wetlands Solutions Inc, and Wildlands Inc. Yet many ecologists protest that the so-called mitigation projects are too often attempted by government agencies and consultants who lack the necessary scientific expertise, and that few projects are adequately monitored afterwards. The main trick in reconstructing wetlands, says Richardson, is to restore the hydrology as closely as possible to its original state. In some cases, this is only possible by removing dams to recreate the previous patterns of flow and depth of water. Obviously, it's also important that the water coming back to the area isn't substantially polluted. As Richardson notes, once that's done, most native species come back naturally. In other cases, severe damage to the landscape makes it vulnerable to invasions by exotics, thereby requiring more intensive management. Politics and economics can bring thornier complications, as is certainly the case in Iraq and Southeast Asia. If, for instance, Turkey and Iran continue to build upstream dams or, worse, if reports of oil under the former marshes are confirmed, Iraq's wetlands restoration project could come to a premature end. In Southeast Asia, meanwhile, Erwin anticipates conflicts between former inhabitants, developers, governments, and environmental organizations, all pushing their own agendas for rebuilding the devastated coast. Yet he also anticipates a new surge of support for restoring the mangroves. “I'm an optimist”, he says, “but maybe if enough of these events are strung together, people will start thinking differently about the economic value of natural systems in general.” Katherine Ellison" @default.
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• W4247385259 date "2005-04-01" @default.
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• W4247385259 title "From Wasteland to Wetland" @default.
• W4247385259 doi "https://doi.org/10.2307/3868547" @default.
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