Yurrun.ga wetlands ~album, intro
This album is focused on a remediated wetland. It is at a beginning – we will see where it goes.
Wetlands are important for a number of reasons: They are nurseries for fish and other freshwater and marine life (and are critical to Australia’s commercial and recreational fishing industries); They protect shorelines from erosion from wave action. They reduce the impacts of flooding. They filter pollution, improving water quality. Some have historical / cultural significance. The most important examples, being representative, rare or unique, or important for conserving biological diversity are Ramsar wetlands, designated under The Ramsar Convention.[i] Australia has 66 Ramsar wetlands that cover more than 8.3 million hectares.[ii] This site is a small wetland but important locally.
Broad aesthetic appreciation of nature is vital since, as J Baird Callicot argues, ‘our conservation and management decisions have been motivated by aesthetic rather than ethical values, by beauty instead of duty.’ [iii] However, this bias means that the natural environments are usually conserved because they are considered beautiful, not for ecological reasons, thus wetlands have been ignored. Grey-green mangrove coastlines have been seen as no value. Wetland loss and degradation has continued unabated across Australia for much of the 20th century.[iv] The situation is even worse world-wide. According to WWF’s Living Planet Report of 2020, approximately 85 per cent of wetlands have been lost due to conversion for agricultural or urban development purposes.[v]
. . . a splash congealing in the weft of quietness soaking through the soft membrane of these poems.
[i] The signing of the Convention on Wetlands took place in 1971 at the small Iranian town of Ramsar.
[ii] https://www.environment.gov.au/water/wetlands/ramsar
[iii] J. Baird Callicott, ‘The Land Aesthetic’, Renewable Resources Journal 10, 1992, p12-17.
[iv] CM Finlayson, ‘Loss and degradation of Australian wetlands’, presented at LAW ASIA Conference: Environmental law issues in the Asia-Pacific region. Internal Report 351, Dec 2000
[v] https://www.wwf.org.au/knowledge-centre/living-planet-report
