THE FOCUS of this issue of BUSH is community management of wetlands and waterways. The biodiversity group of Environment Australia, formerly the Australian Nature Conservation Agency, administers two programs providing community groups and landholderswith the tools and opportunities to manage rivers, stream and creeks — the National Wetlands Program and Waterwatch Australia. The word wetland is a modern term covering swamps, billabongs, mudflats and mangroves Wetland also applies to more arid areasthat are only occasionally inundated — but then teem with life and become the focal points in the environment. Over the past 10 years, Australia, like the rest of the world, has come to appreciate that wetlands are not wastelands. This follows research showing the many values of wetlands, an appreciation that greater care needs to be taken on the treatment of water resources, and the international efforts of the Convention on Wetlands, also known as the Ramsar Convention.
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