Transboundary river basin case studies

Water-Energy-Food Security

Presentation Outline Importance of transboundary basins

IWRM—Integration

State of IWRM implementation study

Case studies—ES offers a “benefits sharing” approach

Lessons and Framework

Evolution of IWRM for W-E-F integration

Transboundary Watersheds

Source: Revenga et. al. 2003. IUCN, IWMI, Ramsar Convention Bureau and WRI.

Integrated Water Resources Management IWRM—Coordinated management of water, land and

related resources to equitably maximize the resulting economic and social welfare without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems.

Main Hypotheses: • IWRM is the practical means for advancing large-scale ecosystem

management.

• However, institutional capacity and instruments for IWRM are weakly

developed and are complex at the transboundary level.

• Communicating ecosystem service benefits and harnessing ecosystem markets are promising ways to strengthen IWRM.

Integrated Water Resources Management

Principles

Structure

Economic Performance

Social Performance- Equity

Environmental Performance- Sustainability

Management Instruments • Assessment • Information • Allocation

Enabling Instruments • Policy • Legislation • Economic

Incentives

Institutional Framework • Scale • River Basin

Organization • Partnerships

and resources

Water for livelihood, water as resource, Water as ecosystem good

Source: Adapted from Global Water Partnership IWRM Framework

IWRM Commitments and Adoption

Source: UN-Water

Transboundary Case Studies

• Red River Basin (North America)

• Jordan River Basin (West Asia)

• Mekong River Basin (Asia Pacific)

• Danube River Basin (Europe)

• La Plata River Basin (Latin

America and the Caribbean)

• Okavango River Basin (Africa)

• Congo River Basin (Africa)

Red River Basin Case Study

• Basin area: 116,550 km2

• Basin countries: Canada, United States

• Primary issues for management: Floods, droughts, nutrient management

Source: Schindelka, R. 1999. http://www.rrbdin.org/data/redriverbasin.pdf

Manitoba Saskatchewan

Winnipeg

Lake

Winnipeg

Red River and

Basin

Red River Sub-Basin Ecosystem Service

Analysis—changing the discourse Pre-settlement to

present comparative

analysis

Value of ES lost:

CAD$0.2b–

CAD$2.05b/annually

~80% climate and

water regulation

Policy Shift to

Sustainable

Agriculture and

Wetlands

Protection

Red River Sub-Basin Ecosystem Service

Analysis—changing the discourse Pre-settlement to

present comparative

analysis

Value of ES lost:

CAD$0.2b–

CAD$2.05b/annually

~80% climate and

water regulation

Policy Shift to

Sustainable

Agriculture and

Wetlands

Protection

Jordan River Basin

• Basin area: 18,000 km2

• Basin countries: Syria, Israel, Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon

• Primary management issues: Water quantity, water quality and equitable sharing of the resource

Source: UNEP/DEWA/GRID~Europe

Jordan River Basin

• Long history of political and water-based conflict

• No institutional mechanism for basin-wide management

• IWRM strengthening led by Scientific and NGO communities—notably:

• GLOWA project emphasizing mgmt tools, and

• FoEME conservation and trust-building projects among municipal leaders

• Recommendations for incorporation of ecosystem services approach (Al-Jayyousi and Bergkamp, 2008)

Photographer: Bryan Oborne

Mekong River Basin Case Study

• Basin area: 795,000 km2

• Basin countries: China, Myanmar, Lao PDR, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam

• Primary management issues: Flood management, fisheries, agriculture, navigation, hydropower and environment

Source: Revenga, et al. 1998, 2-92

Mekong River Basin Case Study: Key IWRM Agency: Mekong River Commission

• Fragmented basin management amongst MRC and upper riparians—although probably not the critical management issue

• Economic goals—largely hydropower development vs. wetland and biodiversity protection.

• MRC has an IWRM agenda, while other agencies—ASEAN, GMS Economic Cooperation Program, MWRAS—have hydropower agenda

• Ecosystem services framework to potentially provide common ground for basin-wide management—detailed analysis of the services associated with the Sonle Tap wetlands of Cambodia probably most illustrative of synergies and tradeoffs with other basin development objectives

Photographer: Dimple Roy

• Basin area: 801,463 km2

• Basin countries: Austria, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Ukraine

• Primary management issues: loss of biodiversity, NPS impacts from agriculture on water quality,

Danube River Basin Case Study

Source: Revenga, et al. 1998, 2-38

Danube River Basin Case Study Key IWRM Agency: ICPDR

• WFD provides strong guidance but its complexity and the EU/non-EU distinction and income gradient offer significant challenges to implementation.

• Loss of ecosystem services include wetland losses, forest services, declines in water availability and quality and loss of recreational and aesthetic value.

• Implementation challenges are magnified by the lack of agricultural and regional development representation on ICPDR as implementing agencies at national level.

• WWF is working on promoting an ecosystem services approach in the basin from the top-down (at the EU level) as well as bottom-up (with regional pilot initiatives).

Photographer: Alec Crawford

La Plata River Basin Case Study

• Basin area: 3,100,000 km2

• Basin countries: Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia

• Primary issues for management: Water quality, flooding, deforestation, biodiversity, invasive species, fish losses, and climate change, aquifer depletion and contamination

Source: Revenga , et al. 1998, 2-157

La Plata River Basin Case Study Key IWRM Agency: CIC • Long history of bilateral and trilateral agreements among riparians generally for hydropower and navigation

• Ecosystem services approach as a means of demonstrating the impacts of development schemes on upstream wetlands; Pantanal Wetland—modulates hydrology; retains nutrients, extremely biodiverse and threatened by the Hydrovia project.

• Yacreta hydro project currently constrained by ecosystem impacts

• Successful protection of Guarani aquifer demonstrates that co-operative management can protect key ecological assets.

Photographer: Alec Crawford

Okavango River Basin Case Study

• Basin area: 704,000 km2

• Basin countries: Angola, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe

• Primary issues for management: Water quality, Soil erosion, urban development, tourism, biodiversity and the management of the Okavango Delta.

Source: Revenga, et al. 1998, 2-26

Okavango River Basin Case Study

Source: Cubango-Okavango River Basin Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis, 2011

Source: Cubango-Okavango River Basin Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis, 2011

Congo River Basin Case Study—extremely biodiverse; Key IWRM Agency: CICOS

• Basin area: 3,680,000 km2

• Basin countries: Angola, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, and the Democratic Republic of Congo

• Primary management issues: Deforestation, navigation, water pollution, invasive species and water transfers

Source: Revenga, et al. 1998, 2-11

Congo River Basin Case Study

• As usual, interest for basin-scale IWRM comes from hydro and navigation—both of which are threatened by deforestation/biodiversity loss (loss of the water towers).

• CICOS strategic action plan in development—refers to links with UNDP/GEF Strategic Program for SFM in Congo Basin and the Congo Basin Forest Partnership.

• Links to Carbon and Biodiversity Markets obvious but undeveloped

Case Studies Synthesis

• IWRM—while mainstreamed as framework, under-resourced and undermined in implementation.

• Very early days for Ecosystem Approach-IWRM

• Ecosystem Management and Climate Adaptation issues are asserting themselves as high priorities in all basins.

• Only La Plata and Okavango had an ES valuation analysis—protection of Guarani aquifer and the Okavango Delta play important role.

• Jordan—ES deemed essential for progress

• Danube—WWF piloting PES schemes

• Mekong and Congo – ES analysis would help highlight trade-offs and synergies between ecosystem protection and conventional development.

• Basin-scale Ecosystem Service inventory and trend analysis can help basin analysts understand a whole new class of win-win opportunities.

• Next-generation IWRM institutional capacity building will involve ES analysis and visualization, ES communication, ES market development.

ES Approach to IWRM

BioEconomy as a facilitator of IWRM

$$ Localized bioenergy production

$$ Biomass-based value chains

$$ Increased food security

$$ Habitat and biodiversity production

$$ Recreation

$$ Nutrient management and recycling for fertilizers

$$ Water storage for flood and drought mitigation

$$ Public health benefits of nutrient and hydrologic management

Water

Security

Food

Security

Energy

Security

Bioeconomy

benefits and

value chains

as potential

drivers

Evolution of IWRM using EGS and Bioeconomy as drivers