Improving the health of coastal wetlands
Coastal wetlands provide important ecological and economic benefits. They purify water, offer flood and shoreline protection and serve as habitat for fish, birds and other wildlife including many species at risk.
There are over 202,342 hectares of coastal wetlands in the Great Lakes basin. Wetlands face several threats, such as:
- residential and commercial development
- invasive species
- poor water quality upstream
- extreme changes in water levels
- climate change impacts
Canada and United States promote activities that improve native biodiversity in wetlands, as outlined in the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. Some of these key activities include:
- reducing the loss of native species and habitat, recovering populations of native species at risk and restoring degraded habitat
- developing and implementing lakewide habitat and species protection and restoration strategies
- making coastal wetlands more resilient to climate change
Funding through the Great Lakes Protection Initiative supports efforts to understand the current status of Great Lakes coastal wetlands and projected changes, resulting from climate change impacts, to identify coastal wetlands that are most at risk to become degraded, fragmented or lost. Through the Initiative, Canada is also exploring approaches best suited for increasing the resilience of Great Lakes coastal wetlands to projected future changes. This information will be used to work with stakeholders and partners to develop priorities for action to improve the health of coastal wetlands.
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