Overview

The International Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership (ICWRP) is an innovative, voluntary, private-public global initiative to restore impaired but ecologically important wetlands and other aquatic habitat throughout the world. ICWRP’s objectives are to fully engage the private sector, and develop a cohesive multi-stakeholder partnership that joins technical, administrative and financial resources to more efficiently and effectively improve critical aquatic habitats. The activities of ICWRP are addressed through cooperation with the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar), the Coastal America Foundation, UNESCO's World Heritage Centre and the United Nations Foundation (UN Foundation).

ICWRP recognizes that the health of wetlands and other aquatic habitat is invaluable to our society, our environmental heritage, and national and global economies. These critical natural resources purify our water, help prevent flood damage, support our fisheries, and are the homes of a multitude of diverse plant and animal life including rare and endangered species. Besides providing these critical ecological functions, wetlands and other aquatic habitats contribute many hundreds of billions of dollars annually to the global economy through tourism, commercial and sports fishing, outdoor recreation and related forms of commerce.

History of ICWRP

ICWRP has arisen from a highly successful national-scale program based in the United States—The Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership (CWRP). Recognizing the need to more fully involve the corporate sector in restoring these vitally important aquatic habitats, The Gillette Company joined with the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in July 1999 to create the CWRP Partnership in Massachusetts. With the invaluable assistance of Coastal America, itself a partnership of federal departments and agencies, the group expanded from its Massachusetts base to the New England region in January 2000 and launched the National CWRP in May 2000.

The CWRP is a way for environmentally responsible companies to reach out to their communities, beyond the boundaries of their own facilities. It is not a substitute for corporate compliance with federal permitting requirements. Instead, it allows private companies to make voluntary donations of funds or in-kind services to a state trust fund or a non-profit organization. These funds or in-kind services are then used, at the company’s direction, to help support coastal habitat restoration or public education projects that have been selected and approved by the Coastal America Regional Implementation Teams. Chapters of CWRP currently exist in thirteen states, with more Chapters being created every year.

Building upon the success of CWRP, ICWRP has been created to protect, enhance and restore critically important wetlands, coasts and waterways around the world. It was formally launched during a ceremony on March 22, 2004 at the White Water to Blue Water Conference in Miami, Florida.