Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
allowing determination to be made of where intervention can be most effective—a
prescription, therefore, of where management should be delivered (Young and Batt
2004).
Some areas leap out as the optimal setting for management such as protecting
existing habitat because it represents the best of the best in supporting waterfowl.
Other areas are indicated where the management organization would probably
choose not to work, due to, for example, either irreparably degraded wetland systems
or an absence of any grassland cover. In other areas, the grassland cover might be
reasonably good and the management team might want to go back and undertake
some wetland restoration. For another area, active management might be suggested
in a landscape characterized by an abundance of wetlands but little grassland. This
is an oversimplification, but basically what developing such a framework has done
is that, by using good data, it has allowed Ducks Unlimited to be able to deliver a
product—a very effective conservation product—in a complex landscape which, like
the Iraqi marshlands, spans international borders and is truly immense in its scope
(Young and Batt 2004).
The Iraqi marshlands comprise a wetland and agricultural landscape inhabited by
wildlife and humans (Young 1977; France 2009, 2010). Ducks Unlimited has devel-
oped considerable managerial experience in such areas where it has had to become
engaged with local farmers and other stakeholders in, for example, rotational graz-
ing schemes. This becomes a very important dimension because in order to deliver
its management product, Ducks Unlimited has had to work in concert with the land
owners. Much of these efforts are guided by good social science due to the recogni-
tion that if the conservation work cannot be undertaken without good socioeconomic
underpinnings, the program delivery will not be very effective. So the objective in
such circumstances is to keep multigenerational ranchers on the landscape by pro-
viding them with an economic incentive to continue a ranching lifestyle that is com-
patible with Ducks Unlimited's own conservation needs (Young and Batt 2004). So,
in such a case, Ducks Unlimited works with ranchers to develop rotational grazing
schemes, allowing grasslands to be kept intact in order to meet waterfowl objectives
rather than converting the land into soybeans. Additionally, Ducks Unlimited pro-
motes conservation easements for grasslands to preserve these ecosystems. Ducks
Unlimited is also engaged in working with the agricultural and the academic com-
munities to develop different strains of winter wheat crops that will provide good
cover, reduce input costs for the rancher and the farmer, and also provide wildlife
benefits. And, finally, Ducks Unlimited is also heavily involved in direct wetland
restoration work in degraded landscapes.
CASE STUDIES
Ducks Unlimited is involved in over fourteen thousand restoration and manage-
ment projects. The few examples reviewed in this chapter pertain to those dealing
with larger landscapes, on a scale similar to or even exceeding in size the pre-
drainage area of the marshes of southern Iraq. Each of these projects is charac-
terized by a high degree of ecological and institutional complexity and is based
on the integration of expertise and data assembled over a long time frame, and
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