Natural Resources Management
Promoting Sound Water Resources Management to Sustain Watershed, Coastal, and Freshwater Ecosystem Services
The freshwater and marine hydrological cycle serves vital ecological functions beyond the provision of fresh water as a commodity for human use. Habitats such as wetlands, forested watersheds, estuaries, riparian, and marine environments sustain biodiversity, moderate floods and droughts, filter contaminants, form the foundation of coastal and aquatic food chains, and provide other diverse ecosystem services. These systems are rapidly being disrupted and destroyed by unconstrained development and exploitation. Aquatic ecosystems are under the greatest threat of all ecosystems on the planet and coastal and marine environments are especially subject to severe impacts by dense human settlement.
Management efforts must focus on recognizing and sustaining aquatic ecosystem values and services as the foundation for further sustainable development. Opportunities to protect, restore and rehabilitate aquatic systems must be explored, while decisions must be based on sound science and meaningful analysis of costs and benefits. An IWRM approach involving multiple stakeholders will help ensure that aquatic biodiversity and its many values and services will have a voice in such decision-making.
More than half the world’s population lives in about 300 river basins that are shared across international boundaries, and dozens of other nations share coastlines and coastal waters. Disputes among countries over limited freshwater supplies or marine resources already occur, and will likely increase in the future. Internal to individual nations, civil strife can be exacerbated by disputes over water resources, while effective management tools can also create many opportunities for cooperation in otherwise tense political environments. Through an IWRM approach, exploring creative ways to link program areas can greatly increase the effectiveness of these efforts and help develop collaborative solutions to complex interdisciplinary problems.
The Natural Resources Management activity area includes three categories of activities described below:
- IWRM and Watershed Protection
- Coastal Zone Management
- Freshwater Ecosystems Management
Watershed Protection and Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM)
Watershed Protection and IWRM activities support the management of ground and surface water resources and their watersheds. The category includes broad-based, water-related policy development and institutional strengthening to help governments, civil society, and communities implement planning, financial, and regulatory instruments for equitable water resources allocation and management based on multi-stakeholder dialogue and input. The IWRM and Watershed Protection category also encompasses structures and strategies to conserve the quality and supply of water, slow runoff, and buffer storm flows; surveys dealing with water balances, water supply, aquatic life, and habitat protection; and transboundary water resources management focused on data sharing and common water protocol development in river basins shared by two or more countries. Some IWRM activities that have a targeted, sectoral focus, such as hydropower policy, finance reform for urban water service delivery, strengthening irrigation water user associations, or mariculture policy development, are included under other water-related categories. Hydro-meteorological monitoring is included under the Disaster Preparedness activity area.
Coastal Zone Management
Coastal Zone Management activities are designed to improve the management or protection of coastal and marine environments and natural resources for sustainable utilization. The coastal zone comprises both land and water in the vicinity of the interface between land and sea. Coastal zones include resources management of land areas and land use near the coast, and marine nearshore resources within these areas, such as the intertidal zone, coral reefs and nearshore waters, and saline and brackish water marshes. The Coastal Zone Management category also includes coral reef conservation and activities that support environmental management and protection of coral reefs, and are specifically designed to improve sustainable utilization of the biological resources derived from these systems.
Freshwater Ecosystems Management
Freshwater Ecosystems Management activities are directed at environmental management and protection of freshwater wetland and aquatic habitats and are specifically designed to improve their management and protection.
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