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Gardner, Alex --- "The Legal Protection of Ramsar Wetlands: Australian Reforms" [2012] ELECD 272; in Martin, Paul; Zhiping, Li; Tianbao, Qin; Du Plessis, Anel; Le Bouthillier, Yves; Williams, Angela (eds), "Environmental Governance and Sustainability" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Environmental Governance and Sustainability

Editor(s): Martin, Paul; Zhiping, Li; Tianbao, Qin; Du Plessis, Anel; Le Bouthillier, Yves; Williams, Angela

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781781000472

Section: Chapter 9

Section Title: The Legal Protection of Ramsar Wetlands: Australian Reforms

Author(s): Gardner, Alex

Number of pages: 25

Extract:

9. The legal protection of Ramsar
Wetlands: Australian reforms
Alex Gardner

INTRODUCTION: ENVIRONMENTAL WATER FOR
WETLANDS AND WATERFOWL
The Ramsar Strategic Plan 2009­2015 identifies `the inadequate availability
of water to wetlands' as the first of a number of key issues causing continued
deterioration and loss of wetlands and their services (Ramsar Convention on
Wetlands, 2008, para. 20). Water that sustains wetlands and their services is
termed `environmental water'. Frequently, the inadequate flow of such water
is the direct result of demands for water abstraction for human consumptive
use, particularly for irrigated agriculture. Another key issue is `the impacts of
a changing and increasingly extreme and unpredictable climate' (Ramsar
Convention on Wetlands, 2008, para. 20).
These issues are testing Australia's management of wetlands of intern-
ational importance that it is obliged to protect under the Ramsar Convention
on Wetlands of International Importance, especially as Waterfowl Habitat
(1971). Some of the Australian Ramsar listed wetlands are also the habitat of
migratory birds that are to be protected under bilateral international legal
obligations, such as the China-Australia Migratory Bird Agreement (CAMBA
1988). Australia faces huge challenges in implementing these international
obligations because of a dramatic decline in the flow of environmental water
to a number of wetlands, as was recently acknowledged by the Australian
Government (Australian Government, 2008, p. 15). The scale of those chal-
lenges is well illustrated by the critical situation facing the `Lower Lakes' of
the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB). The MDB features an extensive network of
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