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    International Waters

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    Olivier Adissin
    FAO works to protect international water sources and sinks by addressing unsustainable use of aquatic ecosystems and the impacts of climate change and variability. This includes promoting more sustainable agricultural practices to reduce pollution of fresh and marine waters. FAO also facilitates international cooperation on shared river basins, lakes, and marine ecosystems through projects, partnerships with stakeholders, and support for organizations managing transboundary resources. Specifically, FAO provides policy advice and technical support to reverse degradation trends and adapt agriculture, forestry, and fisheries to global demands in an environmentally responsible way.

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    International Waters

    Uploaded by

    Olivier Adissin
    33 views2 pages
    FAO works to protect international water sources and sinks by addressing unsustainable use of aquatic ecosystems and the impacts of climate change and variability. This includes promoting more sustainable agricultural practices to reduce pollution of fresh and marine waters. FAO also facilitates international cooperation on shared river basins, lakes, and marine ecosystems through projects, partnerships with stakeholders, and support for organizations managing transboundary resources. Specifically, FAO provides policy advice and technical support to reverse degradation trends and adapt agriculture, forestry, and fisheries to global demands in an environmentally responsible way.

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    FAO works to protect international water sources and sinks by addressing unsustainable use of aquatic ecosystems and the impacts of climate change and variability. This includes promoting more sustainable agricultural practices to reduce pollution of fresh and marine waters. FAO also facilitates international cooperation on shared river basins, lakes, and marine ecosystems through projects, partnerships with stakeholders, and support for organizations managing transboundary resources. Specifically, FAO provides policy advice and technical support to reverse degradation trends and adapt agriculture, forestry, and fisheries to global demands in an environmentally responsible way.

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    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    33 views2 pages

    International Waters

    Uploaded by

    Olivier Adissin
    FAO works to protect international water sources and sinks by addressing unsustainable use of aquatic ecosystems and the impacts of climate change and variability. This includes promoting more sustainable agricultural practices to reduce pollution of fresh and marine waters. FAO also facilitates international cooperation on shared river basins, lakes, and marine ecosystems through projects, partnerships with stakeholders, and support for organizations managing transboundary resources. Specifically, FAO provides policy advice and technical support to reverse degradation trends and adapt agriculture, forestry, and fisheries to global demands in an environmentally responsible way.

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    FAO safeguarding the Global Environment

    International Waters

    International Waters protecting sources and sinks


    The demands placed upon our freshwater and marine

    ecosystems to produce food, fibre and biofuels are unrelenting. The prospects for these systems in the face of 9 billion peak population with more sophisticated diets are bleak. Intensification of agricultural practices is altering terrestrial hydrological cycles, producing more land-based pollution and inducing eutrophication of fresh and marine waters. There is a particular concern over the impact of intensification on aquifers and the groundwater that circulates through them. In many instances, aquifers are the ultimate source of water for on-demand irrigation services, and also the ultimate sink for nutrients and pesticides. A global assessment of groundwater use by agriculture is currently underway as part of FAOs AQUASTAT programme to address priorities in groundwater management. The unsustainable use of aquatic ecosystems together with the anticipated impacts of climate variability and change are putting aquatic food production systems at risk, and can have devastating consequences for marine and inland fishery resources. These impacts already severely compromise the ability of aquatic ecosystems to deliver a broad range of goods and services. To reverse these trends, alternative solutions have to be found within agricultural and fishery practices and in concert with natural resource management both at national levels and across international borders.

    range from international river basin organizations to regional fisheries bodies and from national policy-makers to farmer field schools in natural resource management. The lessons learned are then fed into the freshwater and marine global fora, including UN-Water, the World Water Forum, the FAO Committee on Fisheries and such initiatives as the Fisheries Resources Monitoring System (FIRMS). On the operational side, FAOs strategy includes catalyzing funding to reverse trends and mitigate the impacts of agricultural development on aquatic resources. This includes promoting national agricultural and fisheries policy shifts, and innovative demonstrations along with systemic approaches to agricultural water management and marine and inland fisheries to help stakeholders address ecosystem management issues within and beyond their sectoral interests. This strategy matches the Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA) and Strategic Action Plan (SAP) processes adopted as part of the GEF International Waters focal area strategy.

    FAO in action facilitating international cooperation on international waters


    With its broad expertise in such areas as surface and groundwater resource management, sustainable forest and fisheries management, water and natural resource law, land use planning, agrobiodiversity and conservation, FAO assists member countries in the development, implementation and supervision of a wide range of projects. Interdisciplinarity, innovative approaches and working in partnership with the stakeholders, line ministries, scientific and economic institutions dealing with natural resource management, NGOs and the donor community are core aspects of the approach. Through these partnerships, support systems have been developed that span international river basins, their associated lakes and large marine ecosystems (LMEs). The Nile Basin Initiative is an example of a programme that has grown out of such partnerships and networking. FAO is also involved in a number of GEF international waters projects including Okavango, Benguela Current LME, Bay of Bengal LME, and Canary Current LME.

    FAOs strategy in international waters


    FAO works with governmental and non-governmental stakeholders to go beyond natural resource development and establish partnerships for co-managing ecosystem services. FAO continues to support countries in adapting agriculture, forestry, fisheries and rural development to the demands of globalization in a responsible fashion. Specifically, FAO provides policy and technical advice and support to its member countries on natural resource management through programmes delivered by specialists in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, environmental economics and rural institutions. The targets for this technical support

    The Canary Current Large Marine Ecosystem (CCLME) Project


    The CCLME Project is unique in its strategic combination of fisheries and ecosystem governance frameworks and will, through governance reforms, investments and management programs, enable participating countries (Cape Verde, Guinea, GuineaBissau, Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal and The Gambia) to address priority transboundary concerns on declining fisheries, associated biodiversity and water quality. The long-term environmental goal is to reverse the degradation of the CCLME caused by overfishing, habitat modification and changes in water quality by adopting an ecosystem-based management approach. Implementation of the five-year project, which is co-financed by GEF, started in April 2010.

    Environmental protection and sustainable management of the Okavango River Basin (EPSMO)
    Increasing socio-economic pressures on the Okavango River Basin in Angola, Botswana and Namibia is threatening to change the character of the basin, which could lead to the loss of environmental and economic benefits it provides. Through a partnership between FAO, UNDP, the Okavango River Basin Commission (OKACOM) and the governments, the GEF co-financed EPSMO project carried out an innovative Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA) designed to: anticipate the environmental, social and economic impacts and the requisite policy and institutional challenges of flow regime change; identify potential threats and consequences of a development pathway based on increasing water resources development; and provide a bridge between water resources development and the potential for accruing global benefits without generating further loss of ecosystem function. A Strategic Action Programme (SAP) has been developed in parallel with the TDA to allow fine tuning of TDA information and investment priorities for SAP implementation. In this way, the TDA has set the agenda for SAP which will now comprise key programme areas of alternative land and water development to obtain global environmental benefits across the Okavango system. This development priority is particularly important for the two subbasins in Angola, the Cubango and Cuito, where the rural population is entering a period of sustained resettlement and the SAP agenda can pre-empt land, water and aquatic ecosystem degradation.

    Knowledge management: FAO supports a range of worldclass reference databases, standards and regulatory norms including: state of land (TERRASTAT), water (AQUASTAT) and aquatic (FISHSTAT) resources; water administration (FAOLEX); food safety and quality (WHO/FAO guidelines); and responsible fisheries. These add up to crucial underpinnings for compiling economic and environmental baselines, for example for TDAs carried out in international river basins or in large marine ecosystems. These databases are in the public domain and openly shared. Programme analysis and formulation: Analysis and formulation of investment programmes is supported by the economic projections of FAOs Global Perspective Unit and the project development expertise of FAOs Investment Centre. These activities focus on sustainable agricultural and rural development but also address impacts of urbanization and agricultural intensification, particularly in relation to agricultural chemicals, drainage and salinity. Field programme results and expert studies are synthesized and culminate in global publications, such as FAOs State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA) and FAOs major contribution to the World Water Development Report produced by UN-Water.

    Taking international water management to scale


    FAO is expanding its assistance to member countries in developing and implementing international waters projects. The aim is to scale-up support and build capacities of regional organizations dealing with transboundary river basins, aquifers, lakes and marine ecosystems to assess impacts of agricultural development, fisheries and aquaculture development, competition from other sectors, and valuation of natural resource endowments. In looking toward the future, FAO has committed to expanding its collaboration with UN agencies and international environmental NGOs to support the GEF International Waters focal area through: n increased capacities in multidisciplinary, teambased, innovative approaches and their application to sustainable use of ecosystem goods and services,
    n

    increased leveraging of financing from bilateral partners in areas of water control, land degradation and marine and inland capture fisheries, and n enhanced resource mobilization through extended partner networks.
    For further information please visit: FAO Land and Water Division, www.fao.org/nr/water FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, www.fao.org/fi Or contact: Jacob Burke, Senior Water Policy Officer, Land and Water Division, GEF IW Task Force Member, jacob.burke@fao.org, Merete Tandstad, Fishery Resources Officer, Fisheries and Aquaculture Resources Use and Conservation Division, merete.tandstad@fao.org

    C. Rajapakse

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