network of research and training centres/programmes
Pantanal may become next Everglades, UNU experts warn
South America's giant Pantanal wetlands, one of the world's most biodiverse ecosystems, is at growing risk from intensive peripheral agricultural, industrial and urban development – problems expected to be compounded by climate change, United Nations University experts warn.
 |
"Without extremely careful integrated management, one of the planet's greatest environmental treasures will be altered forever by human encroachment,"
said Prof. Hans van Ginkel, UN Under Secretary-General and Rector of UN University.
UN University and Brazil's Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso jointly run the
Pantanal Regional Environment Programme (UNU-PREP), under the direction of Dr. Paulo Teixeira de Sousa Jr.
Covering more than 165,000 square kilometers – an area roughly equal to Florida – in the heart of South America, the Pantanal is the world's largest freshwater wetland, of active interest to U.S. scientists for insights into the lost biodiversity of Florida's famed Everglades, altered by drainage projects starting in the 1940s to make way for development and agriculture.
In a message to mark World Water Day, March 22, UNU said the Pantanal provides enormous environmental services by storing and purifying water, providing storm protection and flood mitigation, and stabilizing the local climate, particularly rainfall and temperature.
Today, however, these services are compromised by the global problem of climate change while local pollution, habitat destruction and narrowing migration corridors for many species are among the consequences of introducing intensive agriculture, modern cattle ranching, energy production, mining and other changes in land use in and around the Pantanal.
According to an analysis by UNU-PREP and the Japan-based UNU Institute for Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS): "While large parts of the Pantanal have remained pristine, today the ecosystem is under unprecedented pressure from economic development, alterations of its water courses and conversion to other land uses."
"Moreover, global climate change poses great environmental threats to wetlands," according to the analysis, "fundamentally altering their ecology, biodiversity and species composition."
The UNU analysis says a warming of 3-4°C could eliminate 85% of all remaining wetlands in the world. It says wetlands hold roughly one-sixth of all carbon held in terrestrial sinks, most of it organic matter in soil which can be released when the soil is disturbed, for example through wetlands drainage and destruction.
"Traditional Pantanal commodities - mainly cattle and fishing - cannot compete in today's marketplace," says UNU-PREP Director Dr. Teixeira. "Traditional farmers are selling their land to outsiders and large scale agriculture is taking place in the highlands surrounding the Pantanal. In most cases, these newcomers do not know how to manage the land in a sustainable way."
Several major development projects have been initiated, aimed at increasing the contribution of the Pantanal and its catchment area to the economy. "This economic development and consequent population growth, pose a new threat to the Pantanal due to their negative environmental consequences," the analysis says.
Roads and electricity lines have been constructed, while large agri-industrial projects have emerged on the Pantanal's periphery - large-scale cattle ranching and plantations of soybean and sugarcane - all fostering population growth.
"The resultant pollution of water and soil from farm chemicals, as well as increasing industrial pollution from urban centres, has become a problem."
The complex interconnections and inter-linkages at the ecological level - as for example, between climate change and biodiversity - underline the need to develop inter-linkages at the policy level as well, UNU says. In other words, the environmental, economic, and social impacts of activities of stakeholders in the Pantanal should be considered in managing the wetlands.
It says improved coordination at the regional level will lead to more effective management of the Pantanal and similar wetlands.
"In order to identify and effectively use the synergies that exist in the natural environment, a systematic approach to environmental decision making and management is urgently needed. The Interlinkages approach offers a coordinated way to achieve this goal," the analysis says.
"Because of the transboundary nature of many ecosystems and environmental problems, they are often addressed at the regional level; the Pantanal is a case in point. Regional institutions can take global environmental issues and refocus them into priorities and a manageable agenda for national governments…"
"So far, however, most work on Inter-linkages has been undertaken at the global rather than regional or national levels. Recognizing the importance of cooperation at the regional level between Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay-the three countries in whose territory the wetland lies- stakeholders at the workshop convened by UNU-PREP and UNU IAS in Brazil in October 2003 expressed their willingness to draft a treaty for the sustainable management of the Pantanal wetland.
"The challenge now is to translate this will into action."
MEDIA COVERAGE: AP | Reuters | EFE | BBC Brazil | O Globo | O Estado
© 2005 United Nations University