World Water Week: Water, ecosystems and human development | IUCN

Water, ecosystems and human development is the leading theme of this year’s World Water Week. The annual conference on water is held in Stockholm, Sweden from 26 to 31 August and gathers scientists, business leaders, policy makers and water managers to convene and discuss challenges and solutions for our planet’s most precious resource.

“The theme ‘water, ecosystems and human development’ recognises an inseparable trio. Development does not exist without water. Without water, ecosystems and people suffer and development stalls. Without healthy ecosystems, water degrades and development brings risks and insecurity. For development to prosper and flourish, water and ecosystems need to be given the chance to do the same”, says James Dalton, Director of the IUCN Global Water Programme.

World Water Week offers an international platform for government, business, and science to convene and address the many challenges posed to our planet’s dwindling and degrading water resources. Earlier this year, the UN focused on nature-based solutions as the theme for the 2018 World Water Development Report. IUCN pioneered nature-based solutions over a decade ago and continues to implement them widely on the ground.

Nature-based solutions represent our reliance on natural systems. We rely on the natural properties, distribution, and functioning of our natural ecosystems and biodiversity that provide us with freshwater. Mangroves naturally protect coastlines, provide habitat, and store carbon. Floodplains have shaped our landscapes for millions of years, providing fertile land for agriculture and habitat for biodiversity and human livelihoods. Wetlands help to slow down floodwaters, distribute nutrients and improve water quality.

If we safeguard nature’s health, and therefore performance, we could save billions in water services that are provided by nature based solutions, and also help avoid loss of human life caused by large-scale disasters and conflict.

Now in the second year of implementation, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) address water challenges through SDG 6, specifically target 6: ‘by 2020, protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes’. Considering the UN Biodiversity Conference will take place in late 2018, the biodiversity dimension of ecosystem development and water resource management will be given special attention in Stockholm by the IUCN Water Programme.

A new Alliance for Freshwater Life (AFL) will be launched at WWW, a global collaboration to halt and reverse the decline of freshwater biodiversity. The AFL is an interdisciplinary network which will work to improve the conservation and sustainable use of freshwater ecosystems and the biodiversity therein. During another special session, the results of five years implementation of IUCN’s Partnership for Environmental Governance in West Africa (PAGE) will be presented. The PAGE programme was implemented in West Africa, specifically in the Volta, Niger, Senegal and Mono river basins.

One of IUCN’s key sessions at WWW ‘Water, Biodiversity & Development: a magic formula for the SDGs’ will address

Full article: World Water Week: Water, ecosystems and human development | IUCN

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