Since its founding, the America’s WETLAND Foundation has served as a neutral convener and partnered with The State of Louisiana, local elected and administrative officials, NGOs, state and federal agencies of government, academic institutions, and businesses on programs and initiatives to advance the sustainability of valuable wetlands.
America's WETLAND - where vast estuaries and highly productive regions enrich the Mississippi River Delta - is one of the largest threatened ecosystems on the planet. This valuable landscape extending along Louisiana's coast is disappearing at a rate of over 16 square miles per year, the equivalent to a football field's worth of land every hour. The America's WETLAND Foundation (AWF), established in Louisiana and working throughout the Gulf region, was founded in 2002 in response to a comprehensive coastal study calling on the need to alert the nation of the devastating loss of Louisiana's coastal wetlands and how the loss impacts the rest of the nation. As a balanced forum for problem-solving and sharing of best practices for environmental and economic interests, AWF's goal has been to transcend historic and parochial differences for the higher good of saving national environmental and economic assets that support the U.S. economy and provide for domestic energy security. AWF serves successfully as a neutral arbiter, bringing diverse interests to the table to seek and establish solutions for ensuring the sustainability of the Gulf Coast, yielding critical environmental and economic benefits for the nation, particularly the 31 states of the Mississippi watershed. Today, AWF is supported by a growing coalition of world, national, state and local conservation and environmental organizations and has drawn private support from businesses that view Gulf Coast wetlands protection as a key to economic growth.
