Values and perspectives inform management of coastal wetlands in Nova Scotia
Over 400 barachois ponds, or coastal lagoon wetlands, are located along the shores of the Bras d’Or Lake in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia; a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 2011. Not all ponds have undergone a rapid wetland assessment, leaving an incomplete understanding of the full ecological value that each of these wetlands may possess.
Ecologically, coastal lagoons are important for supporting important biodiversity, isolated barriers can provide protection from predators for migratory birds, while the ponds act as coastal “digesters” that contribute to food chains.
Read this open access paper on the FACETS website.
These coastal wetlands are also highly valued socially for fisheries services and food access, recreation, tourism and real estate value, coastal natural infrastructure, anchorage, and protection from weather. Yet land-based and marine construction, water-quality issues, and sea-level rise are destroying these ecosystem habitats faster than corrective policy action is taking place.
Despite our general understanding of their ecological and social valuation, significant knowledge gaps still exist. Additionally, no clear pathways exist for groups wishing to protect certain barachois ponds as Wetlands of Special Significance for having particular social and cultural importance, aside from one narrowly defined assessment criterion used by wetland practitioners, and rarely applied to barachois ponds.
The dynamic brackish nature of barachois ponds in addition to the range of ecotones present in these systems, including woods and fields, freshwater marshes and swamps, brackish vegetation, salt marshes and halophytes, barrier beaches, and submerged aquatic vegetation, results in complicated jurisdictional issues between municipal, provincial, and Crown authorities.
Resource managers and decision-makers who work with barachois ponds in Nova Scotia and elsewhere require multidisciplinary knowledge to inform decision making processes, yet face an incomplete understanding of both the social and ecological importance of barachois ponds. This study used mixed methods, Q methodology, to identify four dominant perspectives around the management of these coastal wetlands, as well as six key issue themes for managers and decision-makers to consider.
Thirty-three participants from five stakeholder groups (academia, business, government, local, nongovernmental organization) generated four domain perspectives that included: the leave-them-be conservationists, the sustainable developers, the management reformists, and the science-based conservationists.
This research also identified areas of consensus and points of disagreement between the four perspectives, usable as a starting point for future discussions.
Lastly, six key issue themes provide a range of management concerns expressed by different perspectives including: alteration permitting processes, inventory and sub-classification, stakeholder education, coordinating integrated management, social and cultural importance criteria, and functional assessment protocols.
This research aimed to fill knowledge gaps around barachois pond valuation in Nova Scotia, and coastal lagoons more generally, to further advance informed management decisions around these important coastal wetlands.
Read the paper — Mobilizing values: using perceptions of barachois ponds in Nova Scotia to advance informed management by Lydia Ross and Lucia Fanning.
