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Wetlands provide food and habitat for about one-third of bird species
in the United States and more than 200 species in Canada. They are also
home to some 5 000 plant species and 190 kinds of amphibians in the United
States and 50 species of mammals and 45 species of waterfowl in Canada.
About one-third of North America's threatened and endangered species live
in wetlands (NRC 2001).
Prior to the 1970s, government programmes encouraged wetland drainage
and filling to allow conversion to agriculture, settlements and industrial
sites (US EPA 1997). As a result, North America, excluding Alaska and
Canada's undeveloped northern regions, lost more than one-half of its
original wetland habitat (EC 1999) with agricultural expansion responsible
for between 85 and 87 per cent of the losses (NRC 2001). Since the 1980s,
wetland losses have slowed considerably. Changes in agricultural policies,
particularly improvements in hydrological conditions and cooperative efforts
to conserve wetlands for waterfowl were factors in these achievements
(NAWMP 1998). Although more than 250 000 ha of wetlands were lost in the
United States between 1986 and 1997, this was an 80 per cent reduction
from the previous decade (US FWS 2000).
At the global level, both countries are parties to the Ramsar Convention
on Wetlands of International Importance. North America currently has 53
Wetlands of International Importance - 36 in Canada and 17 in the United
States (Ramsar 2000).
| Wetlands and waterfowl |
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Cooperation between governments and NGOs to restore and improve
wetlands across North America is an ongoing success story. Ducks
Unlimited, a private organization originally established to preserve
waterfowl for hunters, began a cooperative programme between its
branches in Canada, Mexico and the United States in the 1990s that
has improved more than 3.8 million ha of wetlands (Ducks Unlimited
2000).
Canada and the United States signed the North American Waterfowl
Management Plan (NAWMP) in 1986 and Mexico joined in 1994. NAWMP
is a partnership between government, NGOs, the private sector and
landowners for improving wetlands. During 1988-93, more than 850
000 ha of wetlands and associated habitats were protected in Canada
alone through NAWMP (NRC 2001).
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More than 70 per cent of Canada's wetland resources are now covered by
federal and provincial wetland policies and about 15 US states regulate
inland wetlands (NRC 2001, Schmid 2000). In the United States, federal
subsidies that allowed wetlands to be converted to agriculture ceased
in 1985 and a Wetland Plan was issued in 1993 to make wetland regulation
more fair, flexible and effective (US EPA 1999, Schmid 2000). Although
past US government authority over wetlands has been fragmented and inconsistent,
plans for the restoration of the Florida Everglades are testimony to the
success of combined efforts among many levels of government, business
and environmental NGOs (Schmid 2000).
The Canadian government does not currently track or report on the status
of its wetland resources but Canada was the first nation to adopt a federal
policy on wetland conservation. Wetland ecosystems make up about 17 per
cent of Canada's national parks, and about 10 per cent are excluded from
development (Rubec and Thibault 1998).
The reduction in the rate of wetland loss is a considerable achievement
but wetlands are still being lost to development. The future of wetland
habitat and the biodiversity it harbours may be compromised by changing
conditions such as population growth, expansion of agricultural production,
economic growth and changes in hydrological conditions and the flow of
people (Wilcove and others 1998).
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