ISSUE 38:
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2005
network of research and training centres/programmes
FRONT PAGE | ARCHIVE |
Integrating water and ecosystem management
The need for integrated management of water resources and the ecosystems of which they are a component brought scientists and researchers from 14 countries to the Ontario headquarters of UNU International Network on Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) for a three-day workshop.
Participants considered case studies from around the world illustrating attempts to integrate water and ecosystem management. The aim was to identify transferable lessons as well as highlight contrasts and comparisons between differing regional contexts.
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In particular, the scientists looked at current management regimes in the various regions and the present state of integration between management of water resources and ecosystems. By identifying gaps in the integration of these domains, they also highlighted the areas of need for human and institutional capacity development.
Projections of future water demand and availability have already demonstrated that growing pressures are likely to be placed on freshwater supplies as all regions of the world continue to develop. Integrated Water Resources Management is widely recognized as an essential means of protecting our water supplies for the future.
However, over-extraction of fresh water also has profound long-term consequences for the ability of natural systems to continue to supply essential services such as food, vegetation and waste assimilation, as well as to provide evaporation and rainfall.
The recent Millennium Ecosystem Assessment has documented the decline in health of many of the worlds freshwater ecosystems due to human activity and manipulation of watercourses. Already, a number of large lakes, rivers and inland seas have ceased to provide life supporting water flows or natural habitats for edible fish and other food sources.
Scientists are now calling on water managers to further integrate water management approaches with measures for ecosystem conservation. On the one hand, the survival of our ecosystems depends on freshwater flows as surface waters and vapours. And on the other, it is also becoming apparent that solutions to many water management challenges, including problems of both water scarcity and water quality, can be harnessed from naturally occurring processes, such as regulation by plants and wetlands.
The timely development of such creative synergies between water management and ecosystem protection may yet enable us to ensure the natural resources for our future. Conclusions from the workshop – entitled Water and Ecosystems: Water Resources Management in Diverse Ecosystems and Providing for Human Needs – regarding necessary capacity building for the development of integrated water resources and ecosystem management will be collected as a book to be produced by UNU-INWEH.
© 2005 United Nations University