Managing freshwater, river, wetland and estuarine protected areas

Abstract

Better practices for managing inland aquatic ecosystems in protected areas—including rivers, other brackish and freshwater ecosystems, and coastal estuaries—are the focus of this chapter. Most natural protected areas are designated as ‘terrestrial’ or ‘marine’, and the obvious question for most managers is ‘why should I worry about the (usually) small portion of my protected area that involves freshwater habitat’. In this chapter, we argue that freshwater and estuarine habitats are significant for conserving biodiversity in most land-based protected areas and that managers need to apply the freshwater-specific conservation tools outlined here to do a good job.