1. WANI – Results & Resilience
Dr Mark Smith
Head
IUCN Water Programme
Gland, Switzerland

2. Dimensions of Crisis
• 1 bn people lack safe drinking water
• 1.2 bn people live where water use not sustainable
• 3.5 bn in water-stressed regions by 2025
• 70% of water use for agriculture
• water consumption 6x higher in USA than China:
• Demand is rising globally
• Lakes shrinking, aquifers mined, rivers not
reaching the sea
INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE

3. How do we make sure there is enough water for nature –
and why?
INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE

4. Why?
Income
Nutrition
Health
Livelihoods
Water supply
Disaster risk mgt
Jobs
Economic growth
INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE

5. Finding solutions
• All people, all species, all branches of the
economy use water every day
– water is a systems problem
– impacts are networked
• Water for nature means solving people’s
problems
– IWRM
– eg. environmental flows
INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE

6. Vision for Water & Nature (2000)
Call to Action
• Environmental Security is guaranteed… based on
integrated management of all land and water use through
an ecosystem approach
• Social Security is strengthened by providing everyone with
equitable access and responsibility for safe… water
resources to meet their needs
• Economic Security… is achieved without compromising …
the integrity of freshwater and related ecosystems
INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE

7. What is WANI?
“mainstreaming of an ecosystem approach into water management”
What’s an ecosystem approach?
• maintain ecosystem functions and services
• enhance equitable sharing of benefits
• promote adaptive strategies
• implement management actions through decentralisation
• foster intersectoral / inter-disciplinary cooperation
INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE

8. IUCN Water & Nature Initiative
Networked regional collaboration:
● HQ, SUR, ORMA, PACO, ESARO, ROWA, ARO, ORO
Phase 1: 2001-2008
● 12 river basins
● 30 projects in 25+ countries
● 200+ members and partners
● Leverage initiative, total budget: $40m+
Phase 2: 2009-2012
INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE

9. Components & Portfolio
• Learning by doing
• WANI demonstration logic: action, capacity
development, policy justification
• Components
– river basin demonstrations
– governance
– economics
– equity and empowerment
– knowledge and information
– communication and learning
INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE

10. What are the Results? (2001 – 2008)
New national water Multi-stakeholder Basin-level water Partnerships for New transboundary
policies platforms empowered forums sustainable water agreements
New income generation New assets for Reduced vulnerability to Toolkits drive Major basin financing
for poor people sustainable livelihoods climate risks innovation mobilised

11. Komadugu Yobe/Lake Chad
• drought – 1979s & 1980s
• population 23m, growing at 2.5%
• flow declined 35% since 1960s
• failed dam & irrigation projects
• devastation of agriculture, fisheries
• siltation and infestation
• rising conflict
• institutional paralysis
• deeper poverty, increasing vulnerability

12. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsK4CZeWw2s

13. Action
• Information: water audit
• Consensus building: catchment
management plan
• Governance: water charter
• Results : pilot restoration
– flows and fish habitat
– conflicts resolved
– livelihood prospects
• Finance: $125m Trust Fund
• Scaling: Nigeria IWRM Commission

14. KYB – A Way Forward
• dire situation forced action
• (breaking) the cycle of degradation and
poverty required:
– sharing knowledge
– governance reform to build trust,
cooperation and empowerment
– visible impacts
– political engagement
– mobilising finance
– local, regional and national reach

15. What has WANI taught us?
Implementing IWRM in the Real World
● new access to information
● social learning
● short-term tangible benefits
● new coalitions
● decentralisation of decision making
● governance coordination across scales
IUCN Water & Nature Initiative
● leadership

16. Making sense of the Ecosystem Approach
1. What is the problem?
2. What ecosystem services are needed to solve the problem?
3. What actions are needed?
4. What governance is needed to enable action?
5. Who needs to be empowered to act?
6. What incentives and financing are needed?
7. What knowledge and capacities are needed?
INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE

17. Why an Ecosystems Approach for Water?
• Benefits for people and nature
– integrates environment in decision making
– strengthens investment in ecosystems
– strengthens social inclusion
– catalyses good governance
• Catalysing systems change
– Learning by doing - not waiting for the
perfect plan
– Making the complex management in
practice
• Building resilience
INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE

18. Water, ecosystems & resilience
• What is resilience?
– capacity to withstand shocks and rebuild when necessary
• Highly adaptive systems of people, economy and nature
•INTERNATIONAL UNION FORtaught us about resilience in practice?
What has WANI CONSERVATION OF NATURE

19. Resilience shift: Tacanà, Guatemala
• deforested watersheds
• degraded farming systems
• social upheaval
• downstream disaster
• weak coordination
• landscape restoration & diversification
• social entrepreneurship
• local coordination of priorities
• municipal – provincial liaison
• disaster planning
INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE

20. Resilience in practice
• economy
• Tacana
1. Diversity • livelihoods
• Attapeu
• nature & services
2. Sustainable • engineering responses
• natural infrastructure • Pangani
Infrastructure & • KYB / L Chad
Technologies • sustainable & adaptable mgt
• participatory governance
• Volta
3. Self-Organisation • empowerment
• Mekong
• adaptive institutions
• knowledge & skills • Okavango
4. Learning • climate information • BASIM
• new adaptive strategies
INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE

21. Water Futures: Climate Change
• Water at the centre of climate change
• Parallels IWRM
• systems change problem
• unknowns & uncertainties
• technocratic, planning focus
• Make the complex manageable
• implement ‘resilience in practice’
• learn by doing
INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE

22. Key Messages
• Water & nature: solving nature’s water problems means sorting out
people’s
• IWRM
– implement through learning by doing
– an ecosystem approach has benefits for people and nature
– makes the complex manageable in practice
• Resilience in practice
– climate change adaptation
INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE

23. More information
www.iucn.org/water
INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE

24. WANI-2: Scaling Up
GOAL
Mainstreaming of ecosystem services into water management, planning
& policies, to support sustainable use of water resources for poverty
reduction, economic growth & protection of the environment
1. Ecosystem services & water security
2. Good governance & stakeholder participation
3. Economic development & sustainable financing
4. Leadership & learning
INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE

25. WANI-2 Portfolio Development
INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE