Wetland Restoration Incentive Program

Water Stewardship Division | Conservation and Water Stewardship has announced a new program that provides incentives to landowners to restore wetlands on their land. Working together with project partners Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation and Ducks Unlimited Canada this new program provides financial incentives, technical support, and advice to landowners wanting to restore wetlands on their property.

The goal of the program is to provide immediate greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions up to 2012 and significant long-term GHG reductions to 2050 and beyond. Multiple benefits include: improved water quality, water storage capacity, habitat restoration, biodiversity enhancement, and other climate change adaptation benefits.

Landowners will first enter into a Conservation Agreement with either Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation or with Ducks Unlimited Canada, and will then be offered an additional “ecological goods and services payment” to restore wetlands on the secured land. The Conservation Agreement ensures that the wetlands are permanently protected and the ecological goods and services payment recognizes the value of the restored wetlands and helps provides an offset for the operational costs incurred by the landowner in retaining the wetlands on their land.

Conservation Agreements are voluntary legal agreements between a landowner and a conservation agency that provide long-term protection of habitat but do not interfere with activities on the landowner’s more productive agricultural lands. As well, activities like haying, grazing, trapping and hunting may continue on lands under a Conservation Agreement. Each agreement is individually negotiated and tailored to meet the needs of the landowner.

Under a Conservation Agreement, the landowner retains title to the land, controls access and may continue to use the land under the terms of the agreement. The Conservation Agreement identifies the habitat on the property that is to be protected and determines what uses are acceptable while still maintaining the ecological integrity of the land.

The new Wetland Restoration Incentive Program provides, in addition to the Conservation Agreements payment, a one-time ecological goods and services payment to landowners willing to restore degraded or lost wetlands on land that is protected under the Conservation Agreement. The ecological goods and services payment is based on the acreage of the wetlands being restored.

Our project partners will provide the technical expertise, manpower and equipment needed for the reconstruction of the wetlands ensuring maximum benefits from the wetlands and minimal disruption to the landowner.

View the Wetland Restoration Incentive Program factsheet in pdf format.

For more information please contact:

Rhonda Dyck-Pankratz, Wetland Planner, Water Stewardship Division | Conservation and Water Stewardship
Email: Rhonda.Pankratz@gov.mb.ca
Phone: (204) 945-1007