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Estuaries in NSW

Why protect estuaries?

Estuaries are valuable natural environmental assets that are under increasing pressure from development. Their health and integrity is vital to the proper functioning of the entire catchment ecosystem as well as to the communities that depend on them.

Around 80% of NSW's population now live in coastal areas, including the shores of estuaries. Coastal council areas are rapidly developing and growing faster than councils elsewhere in the State.

Unfortunately, this increasing concentration of people is upsetting the natural balance of estuarine ecosystems and threatening their integrity. Channels have been dredged, wetlands drained, saltmarshes and tidal flats filled, waters polluted, and shorelines reclaimed to accommodate housing, transportation, and agriculture needs.

Stresses caused by overuse of resources and unchecked land use practices have resulted in unsafe water for swimming, oyster harvesting closures, harmful algal blooms, unproductive fisheries, loss of habitat, fish kills, and a host of other human health and natural resource problems.

As our population grows, the demands imposed on our natural resources increase. So too does the importance of protecting and restoring these resources for all their natural, economic, and aesthetic values.

The main focus of the Estuary Management Program is the ecologically sustainable development of NSW's estuaries.

Through its approach of community-based planning and action on an estuary wide level, the Estuary Management Program is an important initiative in conserving our estuarine resources, and an effective model for the protection and management of other coastal areas.