Adaptive and maladaptive features in managing the Macquarie Marshes
The Macquarie Marshes is one of Australia’s more important wetlands, a site for large colonies of waterbirds and extensive marshlands. The building of dams and regulation and abstraction of water have significantly affected the marshes and also meant that management decisions need to be made by governments and their agencies. As the primary conservation agency in NSW, the Department of Environment and Conservation is responsible for the management of the Macquarie Marshes Nature Reserve (about 10% of the wetland) and for the development of an Environmental Management Plan for the whole of the Macquarie Marshes. There are significant challenges of ecological complexity and institutional arrangement as different agencies are responsible for managing the Macquarie River, the main supplier of water to the Macquarie Marshes. This paper identifies the adaptive and maladaptive features that play out in the ongoing and difficult management of this unique wetland that is severely affected by river regulation.