Bringing the swamp in from the periphery: Australian wetlands as sites of climate resilience and political agency

Abstract

Wetlands serve two increasingly critical functions in a climate-changed world, namely sequestering atmospheric carbon and moderating extremes in regional water cycles. These functions are particularly crucial in Australia, where climate change is likely to increase extreme weather events and impact water cycles. Yet despite multiscalar legal protections, Australia’s total wetland cover is decreasing over time. We examine two contested wetland case studies and find that while legal mechanisms of protection exist in deliberative processes, good environmental outcomes are often undermined by the political mobility of competing commercial and industrial interests. Wetlands must be brought in from the periphery of social and political consciousness and placed at the heart of climate adaptation discourse and policy. Increasing the political mobility and agency of wetland protection has the capacity to simultaneously improve the environmental outcomes of deliberative processes and provide a legitimate pathway to greater regional climate resilience.

Keywords:

• wetlands
• climate change
• policy
• contested development
• Australia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Wise use section.

2 Environmental water refers to managed return of water to wetlands and rivers, compensating for a recent history of natural flow cycle disruption as a result of dams and weirs. The NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) manages natural water distribution to key rivers and wetlands across the state (NSW OEH 2018).

3 Note, for example, that we have not disentangled public/private approaches in identifying these broad trends.

4 Whereby the decision-making authority for any state significant mining development in NSW must attribute equal weight to factors of environmental, economic or social significance in assessment considerations.

5 Since renamed Independent Planning Commission (IPAC).

6 Including the Blue Mountains Water Skink (Eulamprus leuranensis), a species with a recovery plan under 269A of the EPBC Act, and the Giant Dragonfly (Petalura gigangtea), classified as endangered under the TSC.

7 Clause 10 of Part 2 of the State Environmental Planning Policy (Sydney Drinking Water Catchment) 2011 (NSW).

8 4nature Incorporated v Centennial Springvale Pty Ltd [2016] NSWLEC 121.

9 4nature Incorporated v Centennial Springvale Pty Ltd [2017] NSWCA 191.

10 “The Bill also altered the laws on protection of Sydney’s drinking water to allow projects like the Springvale mine to be assessed against current pollution levels (as opposed to the test set out by the Court of Appeal, which required such applications to be assessed against water quality that would occur should the project not be approved). The law in relation to completely new project applications has not changed and the test set out by the Court of Appeal for water quality will continue to apply to such applications.” (EDO NSW 2018: paragraph seven).