idb 2013 booklet en

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Natural SolutioNS or Water Security


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Published by the Secretariat o the Convention on Biological Diversity.

ISBN: 92-9225-498-7

Copyright 2013, Secretariat o the Convention on Biological Diversity.The designations employed and the presentation o material in this publication do not imply

the epression o any opinion whatsoever on the part o the Secretariat o the Conventionon Biological Diversity concerning the legal status o any country, territory, city or area oro its authorities, or concerning the delimitation o its rontiers or boundaries.

The views reported in this publication do not necessarily represent those o theSecretariat o the Convention on Biological Diversity.

This publication may be reproduced or educational or non-prot purposes without specialpermission rom the copyright holders, provided acknowledgement o the source is made.The Secretariat o the Convention on Biological Diversity would appreciate receiving a copyo any publications that use this document as a source.

Citation: Secretariat o the Convention on Biological Diversity (2013).

Water and Biodiversity Natural Solutions or Water Security. Montreal, 95 pages.

For Further inFormation, please ContaCt:

Secretariat o the Convention on Biological DiversityWorld Trade Centre413 St. Jacques Street, Suite 800Montreal, Quebec, Canada H2Y 1N9

Design & typesetting: DE Design + Environment

Cover photo: I Feel Happy Too by Fairuz Othman.www.fickr.com/photos/mdpai/3597782656 Creative Commons License

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m cc c b dd c:gdng w, h Wd W Dpmn rp Ss; nd gdng w nd

bds, th rp h Wk h exp Gp n Mnnng h ab

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t sc d cb c cdd Mike Acreman, Juliana Albertengo, Telmo Amado, Mao Amis, AileenAnderson, Isam Bacchur, Gottlieb Basch, Chris Binnie, Ademir Calegari, Nick A.

Chappell, Nakul Chettri, David Coates, Emmanuelle Cohen-Shacham, Sandra Corsi, Nick

Davidson, Carlos Rogrio de Mello, Renate Fleiner, Theodor Friedrich, Tom Goddard,

Emilio Gonzalez-Sanchez, Hans Gregersen, Richard Harwood, Meral Hussein,

Amir Kassam, Ik-Jae Kim, Kwi-Gon Kim, Francoise Laurent, Hongwen Li, Matthew

McCartney, Rob McInnes, Ivo Mello, Patricia Moreno-Casasola, Aziz Nurbekov,

Tomasz Okruszko, Roberto Peiretti, Jules Pretty, Ricardo Ralisch, Ja Carlos Morales

S, M. Wahid Shahriar, Asi Shari, Arun Bhakta Shrestha, Waidi Sinun, Wolgang

Sturny, Christian Thierelder, Norman Upho, Suhas Wani, and Ekaterina Yakushina.The Secretariat also appreciates the contributions o Rob McInnes, Emma Alesworth,

Marie Banks and Matthew Simpson in preparing this booklet.

Table o Contents

p: 1 (514) 288 2220F: 1 (514) 288 6588e-: [email protected]

wb: www.cbd.int

ForeworD .............. ................ ................ ................ ................ ................ ... 4

summary ............... ................ ................ ................ ................ ................ ... 8

introDuCtion............... ................ ................ ................ ................ ......... 13impn W ............................................. ............................................... 13

Bds W a Nw Pdgm .......................................................... 16

th N endng W c ................................................................ ............ 19

th S-enm cnx ................................................................... ............ 20

thm h 2013 innn D Bg Ds .............................. 26

water anD eCosystems ..................................................................26

Bkgnd .................................................. .................................................... .... 26

ss nd Wdnds ......................................................... .............................. 27

Wnds ............................................. ..................................................... ............ 30

Mnns .................................................... .................................................... .... 33

ubn essms ................................................ ................................................ 34

Ss th Hddn essm ........... ..................................................... ............ 37

ag N Sns W nd d S ............................ 39

water anD BioDiversity management Challenges ..........46

onng h chngs .............................................. ....................................... 45

th chng chngng cm .................. ............................................... 47Dss rsk rdn .................................................................. ..................... 54

eConomiC aDvantages oF natural inFrastruCture ......... 60

Cooperation anD partnerships ........................... ................ ...... 67

Wh Mngs W? ................................................... ...................................... 67

Pnshps B nd N ins Wkng tgh .................... 67

impd Pnshps M Gnn chngs .................................... 69

Pnshps ingnmn Dmnsns ................................................... 71

cpn s cs chng h B .............................. ............ 73

tnsbnd cpn ................................................................................. 75

what Can we Do? ...............................................................................77

oss s indd W Mngs ..................... ...................................... 77

Bsnsss s W Mngs .............................................................. ............ 78

notes .............. ................ ................ ................ ................ ................ ......... 90


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The International Day or Biological Diversity,

celebrated every year on 22 May, is a special occasion

to refect on the role o biodiversity or our lives. In

2013 the theme or the day is Water and Biodiversity in

recognition o the United Nations designation o 2013

as the International Year o Water Cooperation.

Although seemingly abundant, only a miniscule amount

o the total water on our planet (0.03%) is available

as liquid reshwater at or near the land surace; the

remainder is saltwater in the oceans or reshwater

locked away in the ice caps or deep groundwater.

This water supports all terrestrial and reshwaterbiodiversity, underpins most aspects o human welare

and is essential or sustainable development. Water

is recyclable but not replaceable. We have options

to produce energy and ood, but not water. Water

is essential or basic human needs, ood security

and most economic activities. The neus between

water, ood and energy is one o the most undamental

relationships - and increasing challenges - or society. Water is, thereore, our

most precious natural resource and it is important to be aware that Biodiversity

and particularly wetland ecosystems are increasingly understood to be at the

core o this neus.

We live in an increasingly water-insecure world where demands oten

outstrip supply and water quality oten ails to meet minimum requirements.

Under current trends, uture demands on water to eed growing human

populations, increasing consumption o water or intensive production

o goods and to support growing economies will not be met. Widespread

droughts and foods already refect the starkest o realities. Water

increasingly limits armers livelihoods and ood security. Women and young

girls in many countries continue to carry the ull burden o water inequality.

For too many, water is literally a matter o lie or death. Climate change

eerts its impacts on people and ecosystems largely through water and

thereore increases the already signicant risks. Few countries are immune.

Although developing countries ace the severest challenges, water is

becoming increasingly insecure in rich nations too. For these reasons water

is already very high on the public, political and economic agendas.

Against this background o pressing and immediate problems, biodiversity

and the ecosystem services it supports can help us achieve sustainable

water security. Water is an ecosystem service. Ecosystems, especially

orests and wetlands, play a central role in the water cycle and infuence

the local, regional and global availability and quality o water. This means

that ecosystem management has a central role to play in managing water.

Forests can help regulate soil erosion and protect water supplies. Wetlands

are natural inrastructures that can be used to store water, clean water,

allocate water to a wide range o user groups, rom the mountain to the

sea and reduce food risks. Soil biodiversity is critical or maintaining

water availability or plants, as well as supporting nutrient availability, and

together these attributes not only underpin ood security but also reduce

agricultural impacts on water. Using ecosystems to manage water has been

rapidly advancing in recent years as we search or more cost-eective and

sustainable solutions. There are signicant opportunities to urther upscale

the approach.

Governments have realized this and are acting. The tenth meeting o the

Conerence o the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, in

Nagoya, Japan in 2010, recognized the important links between water,

biodiversity and sustainable development. Water was incorporated into the

Strategic Plan or Biodiversity 2011-2020 and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets

adopted at the same meeting. The eleventh meeting o the Conerence o

Foreword

Water aND BioDiverSity4

NickChappell


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the Parties, in Hyderabad, India, 2012, urther recognized the

importance o the water cycle, and the infuence o climate

change upon it, to most areas o work o the Convention andto achieving most o the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. They also

recognized the role o the water cycle, as a cross-cutting

theme, when implementing the Strategic Plan or Biodiversity

2011-2020. A call was also made or a cooperative partnership

to promote awareness o, and capacity building or, ecosystem

based solutions or water resources management as a means

to enhance the implementation o the Strategic Plan or

Biodiversity 2011-2020 by the broadest range o stakeholders, as a

contribution to sustainable development and to the United Nations

International Year o Water Cooperation (2013). The meeting also recognized

the importance o ecosystem restoration and called or signicantly

enhanced eorts towards this. Restoring water-related services is one o

the most obvious and attractive social and economic benets o ecosystem

restoration and thereore also a major source o nancing.

This year also marks an acceleration o discussions around the progress

achieved towards the Millennium Development Goals and the discussion

on a post-2015 sustainable development agenda. Numerous orums and

consultations are already noting the high prole water should have in these

discussions and their outcome. Focus is rightly on the water-related uture

we want which, one way or another, centres on achieving universal water

security. But outcomes need to be accompanied by ways and means to

achieve them. This booklet eplains why biodiversity is central to achievingthe vision o a water secure world.

The central message throughout this booklet is that biodiversity is here

to help as a sustainable solution. Through this approach we can truly

demonstrate the concrete links between biodiversity conservation and

sustainable development. We are able to talk in tangible and immediately

relevant terms indeed about lie and death itsel. What subject could be

more compelling? Through this booklet and messaging we, as biodiversity

practitioners, are oering a partnership to collectively achieve a more

water secure world. We encourage you to spread this message and help

us move towards the ull cooperation among all that will be required to

overcome the signicant but not un-surmountable challenges ahead.

B F d sz D

ec sc, C Bc D

ad t

sc g, r C wd

Natural SolutioNS or Water Security 7Water aND BioDiverSity6

Mitchell/UNEP/AlphaPresse


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This years theme or the International Day or Biological Diversity, Water and

Biodiversity, was chosen to coincide with the United Nations designation o 2013

as the International Year o Water Cooperation. Sustainable water management

requires cooperation among a wide range o stakeholders, i not all.

Water is our most precious natural resource and central to sustainable

development. O all o the worlds water, only 0.03% is available as liquid reshwater

at or near the land surace. This water supports all terrestrial and reshwater

biodiversity, underpins most aspects o human welare and is essential or

sustainable development. Water is a renewable but a nite resource. It can be

recycled but not replaced. Water security is very high on the government, public

and business agenda. In a 2012 survey by the World Economic Forum, water supply

crises were listed as the second ranked global risk ater major systemic nancial

ailure, and ahead o ood shortage crises, chronic scal imbalances and etreme

volatility in energy and agricultural prices.

We live in a world suering rom rapidly increasing water insecurity. Currently

884 million people (12.5% o the global population) are living without sae

drinking water and 2.5 billion people (40%) do not have adequate sanitation.

By 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute

water scarcity, and two-thirds o the world population could be under

water stress conditions. The water etremes o drought and food are ever

increasing problems. Worldwide, more than 7,000 major disasters have been

recorded since 1970, causing at least US $2 trillion in damage and killing at

least 2.5 million people. Water-related hazards account or 90% o all natural

hazards, and their requency and intensity are generally rising. Some 373

natural disasters killed more than 296,800 people in 2010 alone, aected

nearly 208 million others and cost nearly US $110 billion.

Set against this background managing the impact o water on biodiversitywill be an increasingly dicult challenge. Faced with such pressing demands

on water, the stark realities o achieving access to and supply o water

as a human right, and the importance o water to economic growth, many

might place a low value on biodiversity in trade-os in water allocation and

management decisions. But water is an ecosystem service. Biodiversity is

critical to the maintenance o both the quality and quantity o water supplies

and plays a vital but oten under-acknowledged role in the water cycle. This

changes the water-biodiversity paradigm by requiring us to look at how

biodiversity infuences water. The equation becomes less about trade-os

and more about converging interests between biodiversity and water. We

shit rom potential confict to partnerships and cooperation.Summary

WE FORGET THAT THE WATER

CYCLE AND THE LIFE CYCLE ARE

ONE.

Jacques Yves Cousteau


Javie

rCarcamo-fickr.com/javic


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Water moves around the planet in the water cycle, which is infuenced

heavily by ecosystems and the lie associated with them. Forests, grasslands,

soils, wetlands all infuence water. Vegetated land cover regulates water

movement across land and water inltration into soils. Biodiversity supports

water and nutrient cycling in soils and thereore plants, including all ood

crops. Together these processes control land erosion and regulate water

quality. Plant transpiration, in turn, is a major contributor to local and

regional humidity and rainall. Wetlands in particular have particularly visible

hydrological unctions such as the ability to store water and hence some can

assist in helping us regulate foods. These unctions o ecosystems operate

at local, regional and global scales and oer us opportunities to consider

them as natural water inrastructure to be used in ways to achieve the

same objectives as hard engineered inrastructure such as dams, pipelines,

water treatment plants, irrigation systems, drainage networks and foodmanagement embankments. In most cases natural and hard-physical

inrastructure would work in parallel with the benets o each approach

delivering optimal benets overall in a mutually reinorcing way.

There is now a very substantial evidence base that natural inrastructure

solutions work and in most cases oer cost-eective and sustainable

solutions. Eamples include: using orests to protect water supplies;

wetlands or orest serving as buer strips to recycle pollutants and hence

improve water quality; rehabilitating soil biodiversity and unctions to deliver

improved water availability to crops and hence improve ood security,

whilst simultaneously reducing water use and o-arm impacts; replacing,

or reducing running costs o, water treatment acilities by rehabilitating

landscapes; reducing food, drought and erosion risks by restoring natural

water storage in catchments, in particular using wetlands but also through

restoring land cover and soil health; protecting coastal communities

rom storms through strengthening coastal ecosystems as buers; and

addressing desertication through restoring land cover and soils to keep

water where it is needed (in the ground). There are substantial opportunities

or natural inrastructure solutions or water and climate management or

sustainable cities. Natural inrastructure solutions are already widespread

and incorporated into many modern water management strategies. But there

is substantial opportunity to mainstream and upscale the approach. Natural

inrastructure can play a vital role in increasing resilience to disasters, and its

degradation is oten a primary cause o disasters in the rst place.

Natural inrastructure solutions also deliver substantial co-benets in

addition to improved water outcomes. These include tourism, recreation

and cultural benets, improved resilience and biodiversity conservation.

There is a rapidly epanding knowledge base demonstrating that

Natural SolutioNS or Water Security 11

Wate

r.org-fickr.com/waterdotorg


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We forget that the

water cycle and thelife cycle are one.

JACQUES YVES COUSTEAU

importanCe oF water

Water is the essence o lie. Our search or etra-terrestrial lie starts with the

search or water. The Earth without water is a planet without lie. With watercovering approimately two-thirds o the planet and accounting or more

than 65% o the human body, water is the essential ingredient in the comple

chemistry that makes all lie on Earth possible. The very vastness o water on

the planet gives it an aura o illimitability.

But in the words o the Ancient Mariner, Water, water everywhere, nor any

drop to drink reminds us that useul water, that in its reshwater orm, is

indeed etremely limited. O all the worlds water, less than 3% occurs as

reshwater but most o this is locked in the ice-caps and glaciers or deep

underground. Only 1% o this reshwater (0.03% o total water) is available as

liquid water at the Earth surace.

We forget that the



biodiversity conservation and development objectives can be

aligned through simple, practical and cost-eective approaches

to achieving water security.

The impacts o climate change are mediated largely through

water. Climate change aects the mean availability o water but in

particular will worsen the etremes o drought and food. Using the

natural water inrastructure o ecosystems is thereore a primary

response to adapt to climate change in order to protect both

human society and biodiversity rom increasing risks. Because

the water and carbon cycles are inter-dependent, using natural

inrastructure also orges strong links between climate change

mitigation (carbon) and adaptation (water).

Investing in natural inrastructure does not necessarily require new

nancial resources. In act, the approach can reduce investment

costs. Considerable sums o money are already spent on capital

and maintenance costs o water-related inrastructure and much

more is required. Using natural water inrastructure is already

a major source o biodiversity nancing and certainly a key

area with signicant urther potential. Even a small shit towards

urther integrating natural inrastructure solutions into ongoing

investment strategies can mobilise substantial nancial resources

or sustainable economies, ecosystems and biodiversity.

The water-biodiversity interace is best seen not as one o

confict and trade-os but one o cooperation or mutually

supporting ends. The key message is that bd

c c. The objectives o most

o the multilateral environment agreements (and in particular

the CBD, UNFCCC, UNCCD and the Ramsar Convention) reveal

common ground centred on cooperation regarding harnessing

the water related benets o healthy ecosystems. The Strategic

Plan or Biodiversity 2011-2020 has, at its heart, the sustainable

management o water related ecosystem services as a

contribution to sustainable development. This is also a central

theme in the current discussions o the sustainable development

agenda post-2015 and in particular regarding how environmental

sustainability is not only an important goal in itsel, but a means

or achieving most other objectives which are underpinned by

sustainable water security.

Introduction


PeteDeMarco-fickr.com/the-nomad-within


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Water is the critical natural resource which underpins all social and economic

activity. Without water ood production stops, cities cease to unction, economic

activity halts, green orests turn to desert. As demand rises and competition or this

precious resource increases, all users across the planet can no longer guarantee

uninterrupted access to water supplies and thereore the water dependent

benets such as agriculture, energy and health.

Water is required to support biodiversity. Without sucient water, stresseson species increase driving global biodiversity losses. Released in 2005, the

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment1, an analysis o the state o the Earths

ecosystems produced by over 1000 o the worlds leading scientists, concluded

that under all potential uture scenarios water withdrawals were considered to

eert continuing impacts on reshwater ecosystems. This viewpoint is nothing new.

A report produced by UK-based Non-Governmental Organisations in the mid-1990s

urged the Government to take on board proposed actions necessary to enable the

sustainable use o water resources across the country. The overriding tone o the

report is captured in the ollowing quote:

Species that depend on reshwater include not only those

living within it but all terrestrial species which require

reshwater to survive. The richness o reshwater dependent

species is in the region o 100 to 150 times higher than or

marine species on a volume o water basis (and is 10 ,000

- 15,000 times higher i rozen water and groundwater

volumes are discounted). This richness may be even greater

considering that many coastal and brackish-water species

depend on reshwater inputs.

Clean resh water is vital or lie and many species are adapted

to living in, on or beside water or watery habitats. Rivers and

wetlands are a major part o the UKs biodiversity heritage. They

are essential not just or wildlie, but or humans too. When the

water is sucked out o these habitats through over-abstraction,

whole river lengths disappear and wetlands slowly dry out.

Both people and wildlie suer.

Biodiversity is critical to the maintenance o both the quality and quantity o water

supplies and plays a vital but oten under-acknowledged role in the water cycle


AndrewHall-fickr.com/pusdaddy


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Biodiversity is critical to the maintenance o both the quality and quantity o watersupplies and plays a vital but oten under-acknowledged role in the water cycle.

The loss and degradation o biodiversity generates impacts on human well-being.

The benets people obtain rom ecosystems, termed ecosystem services are

eroded with progressive degradation and loss o biodiversity. Services such as the

supply o reshwater and ood, the reduction o risk rom fooding and drought, the

cycling o nutrients and the removal o contaminants rom water, the moderation

o the climatic etremes and the importance or cultural and recreational activities

can all be compromised as biodiversity is lost. As vital services are eroded human

well-being can be damaged, or else costs must be borne to replace or restore

these lost services.

BioDiversity For water a new paraDigm

The message is clear and unambiguous, both humans and biodiversity

need water. Without appropriate stewardship and management,

unsustainable use o water resources will continue to drive biodiversity

loss and compromise human well-being. However, increasingly the

relationship between biodiversity and water is being reocused. The

world should no longer consider biodiversity as simply an end user o

water. Without ecosystems, and the comple biological relationships

and processes that they support, the quantity and quality o global water

resources would be severely compromised. The current paradigm, in

which water and biodiversity are managed separately, is obsolete. In

paraphrasing a amous quotation by ormer US President John F. Kennedy

this paradigm shit can be summarised as:

Ask not what water can do or biodiversity;

ask what biodiversity can do or water.

Well-unctioning watersheds, including orests, grasslands and soils, and

wetlands, including watercourses, lakes, swamps and foodplains, provide

water storage, clean water, manage food fows and provide society with

a vast array o benets. These are the natural water inrastructure upon

which human well-being depends. Eperience rom around the world

is showing that natural inrastructure provided by ecosystems can be

conserved and restored to manage water or a variety o objectives including

mitigating fooding and drought, reducing vulnerability to erosion and storm

damage, providing sustainable clean supplies o water, supporting ood

production and regulating global and local climatic processes. Increasingly,

hard hitting economic arguments are demonstrating that the protection,

management and restoration o natural inrastructure are providing cost-

eective and sustainable solutions to deal with uncertain uture events.

Essential to this is the relationship between water and biodiversity.


Varaporn/UNEP/AlphaPresse


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the ConCept oF natural inFrastruCture

The area o water policy remains dominated by interest

and investment in hard (physical) inrastructure and

planning and management is heavily biased towards

engineering approaches. The more we reer to the

ability o Earths ecosystems to achieve water-relatedmanagement objectives as natural inrastructure, the more

readily they will be received as a possible alternative or

complement to hard inrastructure. For eample, wetlands,

well vegetated catchments and soundly managed soils

can all deliver similar water quality outcomes as articial

physical/chemical water treatment acilities and similar

water storage outcomes (including food and drought risk

reduction) as dams, drainage, networks and impoundments.

The approach is ounded on the act that ecosystems are

not just the victims o water use, but are also responsible or

making water available in the rst place. The considerable

advantages o this include improved sustainability and

oten cost-eective solutions and in the delivery o co-

benets, in addition to sustaining water or direct human

use: or eample, the recreational and cultural benets o

an improved landscape, regulating and maintaining soil

ormation, soil transer and the health o estuaries, and

supporting sheries.


the never enDing water CyCle

Water is constantly changing states rom liquid to solid to gas and being

recycled around the Earth. This hydrological, or water, cycle is driven by

comple, interrelated dynamic natural processes. Driven by solar energy,

and infuenced by the Earths tilt and rotation, vast amounts o water are

continually lited rom the oceans into the atmosphere and transported overthe land surace where they all back to Earth as lie-giving precipitation. On

land, evaporation rom the ground suraces and, in particular, transpiration

o plants contributes to local and regional precipitation. However,

precipitation delivers reshwater to the planets surace unevenly across

both space and time. Increasingly the world is acing greater variability

between arid and humid climates and rainall patterns are becoming more

dynamic and unpredictable rom season to season and year to year. This is

driven by both climate change and variability and changing land and water

use patterns. As a result, the global distribution o reshwater resources is

irregular and increasingly more dicult to predict.

RobMcInnes


11/49

leonarDo Da vinCis water CyCle

t /c ld d vc (1452 - 1519)

c d cc dcb d dc

cc cd cz bd :

The water which sees the air through broken veins o the high

mountain summits is suddenly abandoned by the power which

brought it there, and escaping rom these orces resumes its natural

course in liberty. Likewise the water that rises rom the low roots othe vine to its loty head alls through the cut branches upon the roots

and mounts anew to the place whence it ell. Water is the driver

o nature. Water, which is the vital humour o the terrestrial machine,

moves by its own natural heat.

i Leicester Codex (bb d 1506-1510), cc

18 db , ld d

b d cc dc. h

czd :

[Water]... carries away or sets down, hollows out or builds up, tears

or establishes, lls or empties, raises itsel or burrows down, speeds

or is still; is the cause at times o lie or death, or increase or privation,

nourishes at times and at others does the contrary; at times has a

tang, at times is without savour, sometimes submerging the valleys

with great foods. In time and with water, everything changes.

ld dcbd the vehicle of nature

( d ), b b d

bd bd.


Water is our most valuable resource. It is nite

and whilst it is recyclable it is not replaceable.

Humans are complicit in increasing the variability o the global

circulation o moisture. Changes in atmospheric temperatures and

the warming o the oceans are altering the subtleties o the global

hydrological cycle. Deorestation is changing regional rainall patterns.

Whilst some countries have more water available than others as a

result o global climactic processes, human activities are indirectly

changing this pattern. However, this relatively simple perspective

becomes increasingly comple when the water availability per person

is considered. Such a consideration provides a more appropriate

indication o the total water available or social or economic purposes

and the direct impacts human society can have on water resources.

the soCio-eConomiC Context

Water is our most valuable natural asset and it is central to sustainable

development. Socio-economic demands on water resources are

infuenced by a range o local and global actors including population

growth, economic development, dietary requirements, as well as

physical interventions such as engineered inrastructure to protect

settlements rom fooding and physical inrastructure to transer

water rom one watershed to another. All o these infuences can

introduce greater uncertainty regarding the use and availability o

water resources in addition to the eisting uncertainties relating to the

Earths climatic system and hydrological cycle. These uncertainties are

ultimately maniest in socio-economic outcomes and decision-making.Water and the global economy are inetricably linked.


12/49

* http://www3.weorum.org/docs/WEF_GlobalRisks_Report_2012.pd

ExAMPLES OF WATER REQUIREMENTS 3

3 litres o water to make 1 litre o bottled water

2-13 litres or an A4 sheet o paper

140 litres to make one cup o coee

170 litres or a pint o beer

800-4,000 litres or a kilo o wheat

1,000-4,000 litres per litre o biouel

2,393 litres or a burger

2,000-8,700 litres or a kilo o cotton

2,000-16,000 litres or a kilo o bee

9,982 litres or a pair o jeans

We forget that the



We forget that the



A world water gap now eists between those that have and those that dont, with 12%

o the worlds population consuming 85% o its available water. Currently 884 million

people (12.5% o the global population) are living without sae drinking water and 2.5

billion people (40%) do not have adequate sanitation.3


The World Economic Forum Survey o Global Risks

(2012) ranked water supply crises as the second

highest in terms o impact, ater major systemic

nancial ailure, and ahead o the other top ve

ranked risks - ood shortage crises, chronic scal

imbalances and etreme volatility in energy and

agricultural prices. Water supply crises rank in the

top ve in terms o likelihood along with severe

income disparity, scal imbalances, green-house

gas emissions and cyber attacks.*

Set against these uncertainties is the daily requirement or every

human on the planet to have access to 20-50 litres o clean water,

ree rom harmul chemical and microbial contaminants, or

drinking, cooking and hygiene purposes. However, in the 50 years

rom 1950 to 2000, human population growth has reduced the

amount o available reshwater per person by 60%. Sustainable

water management is a key global concern and a matter o lie and

death or a huge number o humans.

How much water do we eat, wear and write on? In addition

to individual needs, such as water or drinking, cooking and

washing, human society uses vast water resources in its

production systems. Food, paper, cotton clothes, even the motor

car all require water or their production. Agriculture aloneaccounts or 65-70% o global water use and is oten a relatively

low-value, low eciency and highly subsidised user. In some

regions, irrigated agriculture accounts or 70-90% o water

withdrawals3. Meat production can use nearly ten times more

water than cereal production.

Aidenvironment-fickr.com/wak1


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To deliver successul water management it is important

to understand both direct and indirect water use rom the

perspectives o both consumers and producers o goods and

products. Understanding the water ootprint o an individual,

community or business, or the total volume o reshwater that

is used to produce the goods and services consumed by these

individuals, communities or industries, is essential element o

sustainable water management.

Increasingly, the water ootprints o human activities are

becoming unsustainable. Water usage has been growing at

more than twice the rate o population increase in the last

century, and, although there is no global water scarcity as such,

an increasing number o regions are chronically short o water.The situation will be eacerbated as rapidly growing urban

areas place heavy pressure on neighbouring water resources

and associated environments.

How do we ensure access to precious water resources or

a growing population whilst ensuring the uture protection

o the very ecosystems upon which we depend? This is

where recognition o the undamental ecological unctions

o ecosystems as regulators o water regimes comes into its

own. Ecosystems are the Earths natural inrastructure which

regulates the supply o reshwater. The continued loss and

degradation o a variety o ecosystems directly compromises the

water cycle and challenges human well-being.

THE THEME FOR THE 2013 INTERNATIONAL

DAY FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

The theme water anD BioDiversity was chosen to coincide

with the United Nations designation o 2013 as the International Year

o Water Cooperation. Water and Biodiversity is the theme or the

International Day or Biological Diversity (IDB) in 2013. Designation oIDB 2013 on the theme o water provides Parties to the Convention on

the Biological Diversity (CBD) and the public at large the opportunity to

raise awareness about this vital issue, and to increase positive action.

In view o the importance o water to sustainable development, and

pressing problems with water availability and quality, the emphasis o

this booklet is on how biodiversity provides us with solutions to meet

water-related challenges.

We forget that the



By 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water

scarcity, and two-thirds o the world population could be under water stress conditions 3.


SCASvenskaCellulosaAktiebolaget-fickr.com/hygienematters

AdamValvasori-

fickr.com/mrnk


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The specic infuence o ecosystems on water availability and quality at any

location is subject to three major variables:

1. Physical eatures and the underlying geology, in particular the slope

and elevation o the land, the presence o physical inrastructure such

as roads or dams, and geo-physical structure o the soils;

2. Geographic location, such as latitude and the relative location in

relation to coastlines; and

3. Ecological actors, in particular the nature o land cover, wetlands and

soil biodiversity and their relative condition.

These variables will work in consort to infuence a range o water pathways

and will vary rom ecosystem to ecosystem and across global climaticzones. Understanding the role o biodiversity in regulating the movement

o water through a variety o pathways is critical. Numerous hydrological

pathways eists including the direct evaporation o water rom wet tree

canopies, the transpiration o water rom physical plant structures, the

inltration o water into the soil, and the control o water fowing over the

ground surace.

Forests anD wooDlanDs 4

Forest and woodland areas with more than 10% tree cover currently

etend over 4 billion hectares or 31% o the land area o the globe. Some

30% o the worlds orests are considered to be production orests where

commercial orestry operations predominate. Within some tropical regions,

notably Asia, tree planting is osetting the rate o orest loss. Within

this region, newly orested areas now eceeded 120 million hectares.

Despite considerable reorestation and aorestation eorts they cannot

compensate or the net loss o 7-11 million km2 o closed orests recorded

over the last 300 years; this includes 2.4 million km2 and 3.1 million km2 lost

rom North America and Europe, respectively. All these changes contribute

directly to alterations in the hydrological cycle through changing evapo-

transpiration and inltration o water into, and retention by, soils.

The diversity and structure o orests infuence the hydrology: plantations,

or eample, have dierent hydrologic proles to natural orest, whilst

undisturbed natural systems unction dierently to disturbed systems.

Forests deliver a range o watershed or water-related ecosystem services,

such as delivering better quality water within rivers providing resources or

abstraction o clean water.

BaCkgrounD

Water and ecosystems are undamentally linked through

processes, structure and unction. Human society is responsible

or the management o these ecosystems and, de acto, themanagement o water. Ecosystems should not be viewed as

consumers o water, but rather they are essential elements o

natural inrastructure within water management.

Biodiversity, in terms o richness and diversity o species,

is highly variable across dierent ecosystems. However all

ecosystems, rom near pristine orests or peatland systems to

highly modied and managed agricultural or urban systems, play

an essential role in infuencing and maintaining the hydrological

cycle. Impacts upon these systems invariably generate

commensurate impacts on the water cycle.

Water andEcosystems



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The Mount Makiling Forest Reserve, approimately 100km

south o Manila in the Philippines is a 4,244 ha area o

orest administered and managed by the University o the

Philippines, Los Baos. It is an important resource due to

its biological, recreational, geothermal, educational and

scientic values. It is also a major source o employment

and economic benet to the surrounding communities.

More than 50% o the Reserve is orested and the

ecosystem maintains water supplies to ve water districts

and several water cooperatives that provide water or

domestic, institutional and commercial uses. 5

There is a growing evidence base o the importance o orests in delivering

a range o water-related ecosystem services beyond water supply. The

role in orests in reducing erosion rom slopes, ecluding pollutant inputs to

watercourses and the downslope utilisation o leached nutrients all result

in natural orests playing a critical role in enhancing river water quality and

reducing disaster risks associated with ecessive erosion.

A survey in North America indicated that or every 10%

increase in orest cover in a water supply catchment

(up to about 60% orest cover) water treatment cost

decreased by approimately 20%. Crucial within this

analysis was the reduction in costs attributed to both

security o supply and the eclusion o pollutants rom

water etracted or human consumption 6.

O similar importance when considering orests and their role in the water

cycle are the co-benets that come rom new schemes to promote orests

in order to retain carbon within the landscape. For instance, the United

Nations initiative aimed at Reducing Emissions rom Deorestation and Forest

Degradation (REDD+) seeks not to just enhance the carbon storage within

ecosystems as a contribution to infuencing global carbon budgets, but also

to deliver a range o co-benets through water-related ecosystem services.



16/49

wetlanDs4

Wetlands occupy the transitional zones between permanently

wet and generally drier areas; they share characteristics o both

environments yet cannot be classied unambiguously as either

ully aquatic or terrestrial. Similarly, they can be orested or

non-orested and encompass a range o dierent habitat types.

Hydrology is probably the single most important determinant or

the establishment and maintenance o specic types o wetlands.

When hydrological conditions in wetlands change the biota may

respond with large changes in species richness and ecosystem

productivity. Crucially, the presence o water at or near the ground

surace creates the soil, its micro-organisms and the plant and

animal communities, such that the wetlands unction in a dierentway rom either aquatic or dry habitats. This unique biodiversity

drives the delivery o multiple benets enjoyed by human society.

Wetlands are intrinsically linked with water and are signicant in

altering the water cycle. For eample, the water storage unctions

o some wetlands can be determined primarily by local topography,

but plants in the catchment infuence water supply to them, and

plants in wetlands can infuence water fowing through and rom

them. Wetlands can be signicant in altering the hydrological

cycle, infuencing evaporation, river fows, groundwater and lake

levels, so although they cover only 6% o the land surace they

have a disproportionate infuence on much o the world.

A key issue with wetlands is that not all wetlands behave

the same and thereore dierent wetlands provide dierent

ecosystem services. There is compelling evidence rom around

the world that wetlands on foodplains both reduce food peaks

and delay the food arrival time downstream. Modelling o the

River Cherwell in the UK demonstrated that removal o man-made

embankments, which had separated the river rom its foodplain,

would result in a reduction in downstream food magnitude o

132% due to storage o water on the foodplain and slowing o

water speed by increased riction generated by the wetland

vegetation. There is now considerable interest in the role o

wetlands as natural inrastructure in the management o fooding

and the improvement o resilience to risk in the ace o changing

global meteorological conditions.

The role o the Lower Shire wetlands in Malawi and Mozambique and the Barotse

foodplain in Zambia in reducing food risk and the resultant damage to roads and

houses, the relocation o people and loss o armland has been estimated at around US

$2 million per annum.

Wetlands oten owe their presence in the landscape to underlying

impermeable soils, which prevent the vertical movement o water. However,

other wetlands play a crucial role in recharging groundwater supplies

and maintaining regional aquiers. During high fows and inundation o the

foodplains, the Senegal River and the Hadejia-Nguru wetlands in Arica

water inltrates downwards rom the wetland surace to recharge the

underlying aquier ensuring security o water supply throughout the year.

However, changes to the catchment hydrology, or instance through over-

abstraction, can have alter these vital unctions and compromise the ability

o a wetland to deliver vital ecosystem services.


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The importance o wetland biodiversity in the water cycle does not simply

etend to physical hydrological issues. Certain wetlands, due to their unique

assemblage o plants and animals, can remove a variety o pollutants and

contaminants, including nutrients, heavy metals and pathogens, in a sustainable

and cost-eective manner. Furthermore, due to the predominance o waterlogged

conditions, wetland soils represent a huge carbon store. For instance, semi-natural

and undamaged peatlands can accumulate carbon at a rate o 30-70 tonnes o

carbon per km2 per year and it has been estimated that peat soils contain a third

o the worlds total soil carbon.

migratory water-BirDs: an example oF synergy

Between BioDiversity Conservation anD humanneeDs For water.

When natural water inrastructure is conserved, or improved,

multiple co-benets can be achieved. For eample, the major

hydrological unctions o the Dashanbao Wetland in China

include food control and water recharge to supply ground water

to downstream and hillside spring vents, as well as being a peat

moor with substantial carbon storage benets. It is also a National

Nature Reserve, and Ramsar Site, supporting the highest

concentration, representing 1/5 o the world population, o

Black-necked Crane (Grus nigricollis), a globally vulnerable

species, and is important or other migratory water birds

(http://www.ramsar.org/cda/en/ramsar-documents-list-anno-china/

main/ramsar/1-31-218%5E16477_4000_0__). The wetland is one o

many regional network sites which support these, and other,

important waterbird migratory pathways.

The Convention on the Conservation o Migratory Species o

Wild Animals(also known as CMS or Bonn Convention) aims

to conserve terrestrial, aquatic and avian migratory species

throughout their range (www.cms.int).

mountains 4

Virtually all the worlds major river systems originate in mountain systems.

Within the mountain contet natural inrastructure is eceptionally rich in

terms o biodiversity. Covering the nearly 40 million km2, or about 27% o the

Earths land surace, mountains systems also range rom the tropical, such

as parts o the Andes, and subtropical to temperate climates, such as the

Himalayas, to the polar etremes o Antarctic mountain ranges. Throughout

the world, mountains provide a vast array o ecosystem services that impact

the water cycle including modulating and maintaining climate, provisioning

o water, food control, soil and groundwater, and erosion prevention.

Due to the isolated nature and high variability at small scale, mountain

biodiversity is highly endemic and vulnerable to climatic and environmental

changes rom which they typically only slowly recover, i at all. Mountain

biodiversity, coupled with the great topographical and climatic variability

which can be present over short distances, drive a range o hydrological

processes the benets o which have and can be eperienced at considerable

distance rom source. Mountain ecosystems can contribute over 60% o the

mean annual river discharge in some watersheds. Snow and glacier melts

in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region comprises up to 50% o the annual fow

A wetland created at Glaslough in County Monaghan, Ireland, is sustainably removing

pollutants rom waste water providing approimately three times the treatment capacity at

hal the price o traditional electro-mechanical inrastructure, whilst also delivering a range

o co-benets such as carbon sequestration, recreation and biodiversity enhancement.


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urBan eCosystems 4

Urban areas are a human construct and as such human society has the power

to infuence their developmental trajectories and their relationship with both

biodiversity and water. This has been the case or millennia. The rst urban

revolution occurred thousands o years ago giving rise to the great river

civilisations o the Tigris-Euphrates, the Nile, the Indus-Ganges and the Yellow

River. The development and prosperity o these early urban centres depended

on the careul management o the relationship between biodiversity and water.

There is increasing evidence that the collapse o many o these civilisations, and

particularly the agricultural systems upon which they depended, was initiated

by hydrological changes driven by both global climactic processes and the

mismanagement o land.

To date, the urban population is growing at an unprecedented rate setting the

social, political, cultural and environmental trends o the world. As recently as

the 1950s only three out o 10 people resided in urban areas. However in the

late 2000s the majority o the human population resided in cities. By 2050 the

number o urban inhabitants is epected to eceed si billion.

It has been estimated that to support every new urban

resident requires the conversion o 500m2 o non-

urban land.

However, despite rapid epansion, cities can be a driving orce or the

good o human society. They can act as hubs o national productivity and

consumption generating wealth and opportunity. Compact, well-planned citiescan generate resource eciencies, reducing both energy consumption and

carbon emissions. Increasingly, the appropriate planning and management

o cities and their built inrastructure is seeking synergies with natural

inrastructure to improve water eciencies and to manage urban water

issues. The combination o buildings alongside green and blue inrastructure

creates local scale climatic regimes that can modiy signicantly the fues o

heat and moisture and alter atmospheric processes. For instance, vegetated

areas, such as urban parks and woodlands, as well as providing direct

shading, under the right conditions can reduce air temperatures by 2-8C in

comparison to surrounding areas through heat echanges associated with

evapotranspiration. This can not only generate direct human health benets,

but can also contribute to lower energy and carbon costs through a reduction

in the need to use traditional electro-mechanical air conditioning.

Urban water supply and sewage waste water systems are oten a comple

o interconnecting subsystems. Water is oten piped to cities rom distant

watersheds, bore holes bring groundwater into the network, water supply

and distribution pipes oten leak, stormwater is discharged via soakaways

and inltration basins, septic tanks discharge to ground and urban parks and

gardens are oten over-irrigated. These processes oten result in increased

evapotranspiration rom urban vegetation and high inltration rates to

groundwaters. For instance, in Doha it has been estimated that the underlying

urban aquier receives over 87% o its recharge rom park irrigation, leaking

mains and discharges rom sewers and septic tanks.

There is increasing attention being given to the role o biodiversity in cities.

Consideration is shiting rom regarding biodiversity as urniture, camoufage

and decoration to embracing more unctional aspects and understanding

In Philadelphia, natural (green) inrastructure has been applied to address storm water

control. The added value o working with natural systems as compared to using an

engineered sewer tunnel across 50% o the citys impervious suraces has been estimated at

some US $2.8 billion over a lietime o 40 years.

in the greater Indus River Basin. Even in developed regions in Europe, the mean

annual contribution to river discharge rom the Alps has been estimated at greater

than 50% or a river such as the Po in northern Italy. In some arid areas, mountainsare estimated to supply as much as 95% o the total annual river discharge.

In the Austrian Alps it has been estimated that runo generated

during etreme rainall events may be up to 80% lower in

mountain orests than or areas which have been deorested and

converted to pasture.

Runo generation rom mountain areas will vary by vegetation type. The

clearance and removal o orest systems in mountains generally increase

runo and sediment yields. This subsequently increases rates o erosion and

reduces resilience to disasters downstream. Thereore understanding the role

o biodiversity in moderating the hydrological cycle is crucial in the mountain

environment and beyond.


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19/49

the link between urban ecosystems and human well-being. Oten the role

o biodiversity in an urban area is not via charismatic or threatened species,

but through the less glamorous biota. For instance, the biological action

o bacteria which drive many o the nutrient cycling processes that clean

the urban waste waters is still a unction o biodiversity. Common and

widespread grass and tree species, which populated many an urban park

can still assist in moderating the hydrological cycle and providing a range o

co-benets or urban residents.

As the world becomes increasingly urban the need to understand the role o

biodiversity in moderating and controlling elements within the hydrological

cycle within cities becomes more urgent. The benets which many cities

already provided through processes o agglomeration and densication can

be supplemented greatly by the strategic integration o natural inrastructureand the understanding o the links between biodiversity and human well-

being especially in the area o the management o hydrological processes.

soils the hiDDen eCosystem 4

Soils and their biodiversity play a very signicant, and oten underestimated

and unmanaged, role in the hydrological cycle. The lie associated with soils

is usually naturally etremely diverse, even in deserts, ranging rom larger

animals, such as moles and various other burrowing mammals, birds and

reptiles, through mid-sized auna such as earthworms mites, ants and spiders,

to microscopic bacteria and ungi. The soil in just a square metre o orest

may contain more than 1000 species o invertebrates. Pick up a handul o soil

and you have more bacteria than the worlds entire human population. Soil

biota unction collectively to support soil health including regulating (together

with land cover) how water enters and remains in the soil (soil moisture)

and how nutrients are redistributed throughout the soil prole and released

rom it. The biodiversity thereby enables soils to unction properly, and so

underpinning other soil ecosystem services, such as erosion regulation,

nutrient cycling and carbon storage.

Biodiversity drives soil unctions which support

hydrological processes and underpin global

agricultural and orestry production and, thereore,

ood security. Sustaining soil unctionality is a

major aspect o water security or ood security.

In Santa Monica, Caliornia,

it has been estimated that

municipal orests comprising

common species can intercept

almost 80% o a summer storm

event greatly helping to reduce

urban food risk.



20/49

The actual amount o water stored in soils, or rather recycled slowly through soils,

is globally and locally signicant. Soil is also partly, together with other sources,

responsible or recharging groundwater. Degrading soils by, or eample, over

disturbing them, removing land cover or over applying chemicals, essentially

results in the loss o these unctions and benets. However, maintaining or

restoring this natural inrastructure o soils oers signicant opportunities

to manage water better, not just or crops, but also or other benets in the

landscape setting.

There is a high correlation between the structural quality o the soil, its organic

matter content (carbon) and plant-available water. Soil organic matter promotes

soil biological activities and processes, which improve stability and porosity.

Directly or indirectly, these organic compounds are related to the water

holding capacity. Evaporation reduction rom a bare soil surace, and improvedinltration and reduced erosion, can be attained through maintaining land cover

through either a coarse or disturbed layer (or mulch) overlying the wet subsoil

or the introduction o cover crops. Improved water and carbon management in

and on soils delivers improved nutrient cycling and retention in soils. Thereore,

understanding soil biodiversity, structure and soil processes is vital to how

we manage soils, and hence water. Maintaining soil biodiversity rom bacteria

to large scale auna is important in ensuring eective unctioning o the

hydrological cycle and or carbon storage and cycling.

Most soils contain some carbon, but peat soils composed o slowly decaying plant

matter are particularly rich in their carbon content. The transer o carbon between

soils, and especially peat soils, and the atmosphere in the orm o greenhouse

gases carbon dioide (CO2) and methane (CH

4) is vital or regulating the global

climate. Drainage, burning, ecessive tillage, overgrazing and other inappropriate

land uses can all compromise the store o carbon in soils. Whilst sound soil

management practices can mitigate these losses there is still uncertainty whether

such management actions are sucient to reverse carbon losses rom soils.

agriCulture - natural solutions For water anD FooD seCurity 4

Water security or sustaining ood and nutrition security is important at all

levels o human organisation, rom households to villages and nations to

international and global levels.

Today, irrigated agriculture covers 275 million hectares about 20% o

cultivated land and ve times more than at the beginning o the twentieth

century. Irrigated agriculture uses approimately 70% o water withdrawals,

which can rise to more than 90% in some regions and around 20% o water

used globally is rom groundwater sources (renewable or not). This share is

rising rapidly, particularly in dry areas. Meat production requires 8-10 times

more water than cereal production and the increase in demand or animal

eed adds to the current pressure on water resources. Over the net 40 yearsglobal ood output will need to increase by 60-70% to meet demand, but

through more intensive use o water, improved eciencies, elevated nutrient

productivity, and an intensication o labour, agricultural land area is only

epected to grow by 10%. The uture demands more yield per hectare and

more crop per drop.

Accounting or approimately 70% o global water usage,

agriculture remains the greatest single demand on water

and the biggest polluter o watercourses. Water demands

or agriculture and the impacts agriculture can have on

water quality are key management issues in maintaining

both ood and water security.

Irrigation has been essential or increasing agricultural yields, eeding

the increasing global population. Irrigation has also stabilised ood

production and prices by enabling greater production control and scope

or crop diversication. Thus, irrigation has been vital to ood security

and sustainable livelihoods, especially in developing countries during

the Green Revolution, through increased income and improved health

and nutrition, locally, and by bridging the gap between production and

demand, nationally. To keep pace with the growing demand or ood, it

is estimated that 14% more reshwater will need to be withdrawn or

agricultural purposes in the net 25 years, but water scarcity is growing



21/49

due to overuse, greater demand per capita, increasing competition and growing

uncertainty due to climate change. We, thereore, ace a challenge to improve

water eciency in agriculture, adopting a more sustainable use and better

management o water in the processes rom eld to ork, thus increasing the

total ood supply chain eciency.

Farming involves converting land cover to crops and is usually accompanied by

intererence with soils. This potentially alters water fow in hydrological pathways

and along with it delivers associated impacts on nutrient cycling, carbon storage,

erosion and sediment transport through eposing bare land and increasing runo.

Most soils in all agro-ecosystems today are degraded physically, chemically,

biologically and hydrologically. The main reason or this is tillage which, i not

properly managed, pulverises and eposes soils, destroys soil biodiversity, and

hence soil health, and has high negative economic impacts.

Most agricultural soils today have poor soil aggregate structure, eposed

soil suraces, and low levels o soil biodiversity and organic matter, having

lost 25 to 75% o their original carbon pool (severely degraded soils have lost

70 to 90%). Soil organic carbon is, or is produced by, biodiversity. There is a

strong relationship between crop productivity and the soil organic carbon

pool, especially in low-input agriculture. Soils with adequate levels o soil

organic carbon are able to adapt much better to the adversities o both drought

and ecess rainall. There are numerous studies pointing to the capacity o

agricultural soils as an eective carbon sink, thus or mitigating climate change.

Soil carbon presents an ecellent eample o how climate change adaptation and

mitigation responses can be mutually reinorcing. Regardless o this knowledge,

agricultural land use continues to contribute to the decline o the soil organic

pool in vast regions o intensive crop production. This is eectively the wholesale

degradation o the natural water inrastructure o land. Unmanaged, this leads

to severe land degradation and, in water scarce areas, nally to desertication.

Restoring the biodiversity-water relationship in armlands is key to achieving

sustainable agriculture and ood security.

In addition to agricultures demand or water, agricultural practices can

adversely impact upon watercourses through diuse pollution runo.

Accelerated on-arm soil erosion leads to substantial yield losses and

contributes to downstream sedimentation and the degradation o water

bodies, which is a major cause o investment ailure in water and irrigation

inrastructure.

Across Asia, 7.5 billion tons o sediments are generated

rom poorly managed agricultural land and fow to the

ocean annually 4.

Nutrient depletion and chemical degradation o soil are a primary cause

o decreasing yields, and result in low on-site water productivity and high

o-site water pollution. Some 230 million tons o nutrients are removed

annually rom agricultural soils, while ertilizer consumption is 130 million tons,

augmented by 90 million tons rom biological ation. Secondary salinization

and water logging in irrigated areas threatens productivity gains.

water Footprints oF Common Crops7

ESTIMATED GLOBAL AVERAGE WATER FOOTPRINTS (IN LITRES PER KG)

FOR A RANGE OF CROPS (FOR THE PERIOD 1996-2005)

Cc b 1993 mz 122

g c ( d) 1590 a 82

C 1422 B 79

g d bc 886 o 56

l 587 C 50

Cc 418 rb 41

o 301 p 29p 218 p 29

s b 214 Cbb 28

w 182 Cb 28

rc 167 t 21



22/49

Understanding the causes o soil and water degradation in

arming systems, and how these infuence relevant ecosystem

services, including nutrient cycling and carbon storage, helps

identiy solutions or sustainable agriculture. We need to

recognise that agriculture is not simply an eternal user o

water, but an embedded part o a broader water cycle in which

natural inrastructure needs to be managed collectively in order

to achieve overall water security or ood security and other

purposes. Eorts must be made to manage water, soils and

biodiversity in more sustainable and integrated ways to minimise

the impacts o agriculture.

SYSTEM OF RICE INTENSIFICATION (SRI) 4

The System o Rice Intensication is a

climate-smart, agro-ecological methodology

or increasing the productivity o rice, and

more recently other crops, by changing the

management o plants, soil, water and nutrients.

Based on the principles o early and rapid plant

establishment, reduced plant density, improved

soil conditions through organic matter, and

reduced and controlled water application SRI

has improved productivity over conventional

planting practices. For instance at Sopsokhe

in Bhutan, the SRI yield has been 9.6 t/ha (40%

higher) compared to 6.6 t/ha with conventional

rice production methods. Similar results have

been achieved across the rice growing countries

o the world.

Increasingly, the adoption o Conservation Agriculture (CA),

which has been employed in some orm since the 1930s North

American dust bowl disaster, is providing a solution to the soil

degradation and runo issues caused by agricultural practices.

A move rom slash and burn to slash and mulch where crops are

planted on rotation, maintaining a continuous plant cover on the land and

replenishing the nutrients, could be the saviour o agriculture or ood and

water security. CA practices limit the amount o tillage, thus maintaining or

restoring soil structure and biodiversity, which in turn benets the growth

o crops, increase soil water retention and limits surace water runo. CA

is now practiced on around 125 million hectares worldwide and this gure

is increasing and is a core o the FAOs agricultural intensication strategy

rom 2011 onwards.



23/49

Where the ecosystem services o natural inrastructure and

biodiversity have been recognised within a arming contet, there

have been benets in terms o water quality, water regulation,

cost savings or armers and carbon storage. The use o natural

buer strips, treatment wetlands, small scale check dams between

agricultural land and water courses intercept arm drainage and

act to trap sediment, remove pollutants and provide habitat or

wildlie as well as providing a range o other ecosystem services,

such as carbon storage.

gloBal aDoption oF Conservation agriCulture4

CONTINENT AREA (HA) PERCENT OF TOTAL

s ac 55,464,100 45

n ac 39,981,000 32

a & n Zd 17,162,000 14

a 4,723,000 4

r & u 5,100,000 3

e 1,351,900 1

ac 1,012,840 1

worlD total 124,794,80 100 outlining the Challenges

Although, in theory, there is enough water to meet the entire global demand,

it is currently managed ineciently and there is a global imbalance in the

distribution o water. The water ootprints o human activities are becoming

increasingly unsustainable. Water usage has been growing at more than

twice the rate o population increase in the last century, and, although there

is no global water scarcity as such, an increasing number o regions are

chronically short o water. Sustainable water management is a key global

concern and a matter o lie and death or a huge number o humans. In

developed countries non-point source pollution, primarily rom agriculture,

remains a signicant challenge. Developed countries too are seeing

increasing water insecurity through the increasing requency and severity

o foods.

Water andBiodiversityManagementChallenges

How do we ensure access to precious water

resources or a growing population whilst ensuring

the uture protection o the very ecosystems upon

which we depend?



24/49


Water aND BioDiverSity46 Water aND BioDiverSity46

investing in natural inFrastruCture 3

It was estimated in 2000 that the cost required or water

inrastructure alone to achieve the Millennium Development

Goal targets or water and sanitation by 2015 could be as

high as US $800 billion per annum at a global level. Current

estimates o the level o investment required to maintain

water supply inrastructure in developed countries range

rom US $750 billion to one trillion dollars per annum. Much

o the objectives o this investment can be achieved more

cheaply and sustainably through wiser integrated use o

natural inrastructure. The approach also delivers signicant

biodiversity co-benets. Investing in natural inrastructure

thereore is not necessarily about increasing investments,

but re-allocating eisting investments more eciently. I only

10% o this projected investment were redirected to natural

inrastructure solutions it would represent by ar the single

biggest source o biodiversity nancing; considering that

currently much natural inrastructure is already used in this

way (e.g., protected areas to protect water supplies) it is

likely already the biggest source o biodiversity nancing.

Water managers need to make sure water is available in the quantities and

quality needed to grow the economy, eed a rapidly growing population and

deliver water services or people and must do all this while ensuring social

equity and sustaining and restoring ecosystems.

There is room or hope. Because o the current ineciencies in water use,

particularly in agriculture, and the etent o degraded land and loss and

degradation o wetlands, there is considerable scope to restore the natural

inrastructure o land in order to achieve sustainable water security. Just as

water scarcity and security are not issues conned to the water sector, but

are societal issues, the role o ecosystems in ensuring the security o water

supply is also a matter o societal choice. Governments and individual

citizens can aect the adoption o uture choices and agendas.

Investment in water management inrastructure is big business and can

be a key driver o economic growth and poverty reduction. However,

ecosystems are still largely let out o water economic equations. In order

to correct the water management balance sheet ecosystems can no longer

be ignored when ormulating policies, shaping markets or rationalising

investment decisions. There is a need to place water at the heart o a

green economy and to recognise that working with ecosystems as water

management inrastructure can be a cost-eective and sustainable way o

meeting a diversity o policy, business and private objectives.

the Challenge oF a Changing Climate

The Assessment Reports produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on

Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that water and its availability and quality

will be the main pressures on, and issues or, societies and the environment

under climate change. The impacts o climate change occur mainly through

changes in the hydrological cycle, and this is the key consideration or

biodiversity, ecosystems and societies; this includes most changes observedor predicted or terrestrial ecosystems, and many in coastal areas. The roleo water (and the hydrological cycle) in how reshwater, terrestrial and, to

a large etent, coastal, ecosystems unction, the intimate relationships

between water and most aspects o human development (including ood,

drinking water, sanitation, tourism, trade, energy and poverty reduction/

livelihoods), and the central role o ecosystems in these, lead to comple

inter-connectivity between all these subjects. Adapting to the impacts o

climate change requires a holistic ecosystem approach, and the role o

water is paramount in identiying inter-linkages.



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Twenty years o indecisive actions on climate change have led to a rise in

the Earths average temperature and there is a consensus among scientists

that climate warming will intensiy, accelerate or enhance the global

hydrologic cycle.

Climate change is already contributing to the

deaths o nearly 400,000 people a year and costing

the world more than US $1.2 trillion, wiping 1.6%

annually rom global GDP 9.

The Climate Vulnerability Monitor: A Guide to the Cold Calculus o A Hot

Planet, estimates that by 2030, the cost o climate change and air pollution

combined will rise to 3.2% o global GDP, with the worlds least developed

countries orecast to bear the brunt, suering losses o up to 11% o their

GDP. Recent estimates suggest that climate change will account or 20% o

the increase in global water scarcity. Deorestation and orest degradation,

through agricultural epansion, conversion to pastureland, inrastructure

development, destructive logging, res, etc., is already accounting or

nearly 20% o global greenhouse gas emissions, more than the entire global

transportation sector10.

Climate change is likely to lead to changes in ecosystems through direct

impacts on precipitation and indirect impacts on evaporation (through

changes to temperature and other variables). Elevated temperatures and

changes in etreme weather conditions will aect the availability and

distribution o rainall, snow melt, river fows and groundwater, and are

epected to urther deteriorate water quality. Developing societies, who are

the most vulnerable, are most likely to bear the negative consequences o

these changes.

Water plays a pivotal role in mitigation and adaptation strategies with

well-managed ecosystems providing a solution or todays challenges whilst

providing insurance against uture eects o a changing climate. Mitigation o

climate change is urgent as is the recognition that adaptation is about water.

Climate change mitigation is about carbon while climate

change adaptation is about water. The global carbon and

water cycles are also interdependent.

reDD+

Reducing Emissions rom Deorestation

and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is an

eort to create a nancial value or

the large amount o terrestrial carbon

stored in orest ecosystems, oering

incentives or developing countries

to reduce emissions rom orested

lands and invest in low-carbon paths

to sustainable development. Forests

also deliver water-related ecosystem

services and sustainable water

availability (including groundwater) is

a requirement in order to continue to

store the carbon orest hold.



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THE AMAZON TIPPING POINT - LAND USE,

WATER AND CLIMATE CHANGES 11

The hot and humid Amazon orest evaporates vast

amounts o water, which rises into the air and

draws in the wet northeast trade winds, which

have picked up moisture rom the Atlantic. This

process assists in controlling the temperature

o the ocean; as the trade winds take up the

moisture, the cooler water that is let also gets

saltier and sinks. Deorestation disrupts this cycle

by decreasing the rates o evapotranspiration,

which drives the whole climatic circulation

process. One result is that warmer Atlantic water

remains on the surace and uels the generation o

hurricanes. Another negative eedback is that less

moisture arrives on the trade winds, intensiying

drought within the orest. Estimates suggest that

approimately 20% o the Amazonian rainorest

has been cut down and another 22% has been

damaged by logging, allowing the sun to penetrate

and dry out the orest foor. The total o thesetwo gures is growing perilously close to 50%,

a threshold that current models predict as the

tipping pointthat marks the death o the Amazon

and potentially unprecedented changes to both

local and wider climatic systems.

Working with ecosystems oers a valuable yet under-utilized approach or

climate change adaptation. It does not represent an either or approach,

but rather an opportunity to complement traditional engineered

inrastructure development with natural inrastructure. This approach,

known as Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA), works with biodiversity

and the ecosystem services it provides as part o an adaptation strategy

to help people and communities adapt to the negative impacts o climate

change at local, national, regional and global levels.


Con Indigenous leader smells the petroleum-contaminated river near his home

in the Amazon rainorest.CarolineBennett/RainorestActionNetwork)


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examples oF opportunities For

natural inFrastruCture solutions 4:

Certain foodplain wetlands can naturally store and slow

down foodwater helping to protect downstream areas

rom destructive fooding whilst urban wetlands can reduce

food risk in our towns and cities. Flood eposure can also

be reduced by restoring upland orests and soils, especially

when this is combined with eective land-use planning. This

also restores and secures the ecosystem services rom land.

Some wetlands, including some peatlands, mangrovesand saltmarshes, can sequester and store carbon and

consequently mitigate climate change. Protecting wetlands

rom damage or destruction can prevent the release o large

amounts o carbon into the atmosphere and provide natural

inrastructure to strengthen adaptation to changing climatic

and weather conditions.

Well managed wetlands in semi-arid areas can recharge

groundwater and help people and wildlie to survive periods

o drought.

Protection rom sea level rise, and coastal storms, can

be achieved at least to some etent by managing coastal

wetlands, such as mangroves and saltmarshes providing

climate change mitigation through carbon storage and climate

change adaptation and securing ecosystem services.

Restoration o soils (and land cover) in agricultural ecosystems

is a primary means o increasing water security or ood

production, increasing carbon sequestration and reducing

water-related risks downstream.

There are also signicant carbon stores in other ecosystems,

such as grasslands and orests, where much o the carbon

held within these ecosystems is within the soil.

In addition to protection rom climate change impacts, ecosystem-

based adaptation also provides many collateral benets to society, such

as maintaining and enhancing the provision o clean water and ood.

Furthermore, appropriately designed and managed ecosystem solutions

can also contribute to climate change mitigation by reducing emissions

rom ecosystem loss and degradation, and enhancing carbon storage

and sequestration.

The central message is that ecosystems oer a natural inrastructure

to respond to a changing climate. Natural solutions will oten be more

sustainable and cost-eective or ecosystems, biodiversity and people than

engineered inrastructure.

Mitigation and adaptation responses require holistic planning to integratestrategies which incorporate ecosystem management and sustainable

water and carbon management in order to increase resilience. The goal

has to be no less than water, ood and energy security or 8 billion people

in a climate-resilient world where biodiversity is saeguarded. This sounds

like an impossible task; however, there is some assurance in that many o

the tools and technologies needed are available. The constraints are mainly

not technical, but more to do with capacity, coordination and sustained,

redirected investment.



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Disaster risk reDuCtion

Worldwide, more than 7,000 major disasters have been recorded since 1970,

causing at least US $2 trillion in damage and killing at least 2.5 million people.

Natural inrastructure can play a vital role in increasing resilience to disasters,

and its degradation is oten a primary cause o disasters in the rst place 12.

THE MISSISSIPPI AND HURRICANE KATRINA 14

Millions o hectares o wetlands have been lost over the years

along the Gul o Meico coast in the southern United States.

The loss has resulted rom several actors including dams

upstream, which interrupt sediment fow essential to sustain

coastal land ormation and stability, the construction o food

deence levees, canal dredging or the oil and gas industry,

draining to provide land or built development, and man-made

and natural subsidence. It is estimated that currently a ootball

eld area o wetlands is lost along the Louisiana coastline

every 30-38 minutes. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans

in 2005, the impacts were elt more acutely because o the

loss o coastal swamps had eectively removed the protection

rom storm surges. The nal death toll was 1,836. Hurricane

Katrina caused physical damages in the region o US $75

billion, but it is estimated that the total economic impact in

Louisiana and the Mississippi basin may eceed US $110 billion.

Inappropriate consideration o the relationship between

ecosystems and water management lead to Hurricane Katrina

earning the title o costliest hurricane ever in US histo

idb 2013 booklet en

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