South East Water helps to protect Ramsar-listed wetlands

South East Water is helping to protect internationally significant wetlands in Melbourne’s south east with a $20,000 contribution to the Ramsar Protection Program.

The Ramsar Convention lists Western Port as a Wetlands of International Importance.

The wetlands are important feeding grounds and nurseries for various unique plant and bird species, some of which are under threat. There are also a number of Indigenous cultural heritage sites along the Western Port shoreline.

Since 2010, the Ramsar Protection Program has been a key conservation and protection project for the Port Phillip and Westernport Catchment Management Authority (PPWCMA).

The program aims to reduce threats to the region’s Ramsar-listed wetlands through the control and eradication of pest animals, including feral cats, foxes, rabbits and goats, and removing invasive weeds, such as African Boxthorn and Spartina.

South East Water will help support PPWCMA and partner organisations such as Bass Coast Landcare Network and the City of Casey to deliver environmental protection in two key areas:

• Jam Jerrup (south of Lang Lang) – controlling predators such as foxes to protect the nesting and roosting habitat of shorebirds, waterbirds and other threatened species; and herbivore control to reduce the damage caused by grazing rabbits to habitat and threatened ecological communities (coastal saltmarsh).
  
• Blind Bight – the protection of shorebirds, waterbirds and other species threatened by predators such as foxes. This area is also situated near South East Water’s Blind Bight Water Recycling Plant. 
  

The Black-winged Stilt is one of the many species of bird protected from predators by the Ramsar Protection Program (credit - PPCMA Andrew Morrison).

South East Water’s General Manager Liveable Water Solutions, Charlie Littlefair recognised the importance of the program in managing the health and liveability of the wetlands and the species that depended on them.