Session FT 2.33

Advancing local actions in basins, sub-basins and aquifers (BSA) through comprehensive IWRM learning and global networks

Conveners

• UNESCO International Hydrological Programme
• Instituto Nacional de Ecología, Mexico
• European Commission

This session aims:

- To present and discuss the concept of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), within the concept of water policy making, research, planning and management, and the gaps noted by practitioners and analysts with particular emphasis on sustainability dimensions, and social and political processes, including the process of resource allocation.

- To analyze the institutional and organizational arrangements and environmental conditions prevailing in integrated river basin management practices.

- To extract lessons for IWRM research and implementation at river basin level that can work in practice, based on experiences from different hemispheres.

- To promote progress towards more inclusive approach to and practice of IWRM by constructively engaging the full spectrum of stakeholders.

- To demonstrate the value of global catchment networks and twinning of basins in advancing implementation of IWRM approaches at the local level, increasing awareness, interest, and ample stakeholder implementation participation in these kind of initiatives.

- To develop recommendations informing on future research, planning and practice of IWRM in this sense.

Lessons learned

1. The documentation of lessons learned is crucial in attempting to integrate hydrology with environment, quality of life, and policy issues, in particular by identifying social benefits as a consequence of IWRM at basin level. In this respect the experience of HELP Pilot Basins would prove of great relevance.
2.  Experiences should be regularly assessed to support structured learning and IWRM implementation processes. Thus monitoring mechanisms need to be implemented with appropriate indicators and bench marking in tune with political realities.

Key messages

1. Promotion of and participation in regional or global basin networks is an important integration and learning pathway.
   
2. Local Actions, research, planning and implementation should be sensitive to and incorporate local traditional knowledge to ensure high social acceptance of such processes and their outcomes.
   
3. They should incorporate a strong communication element to shorten impact times; and should have a constructive interaction with education systems to support capacity building in IWRM concepts and practice on a broader front.
   
4. It is necessary to identify institutional, social, economic and environmental aspects that facilitate coordination between individuals and communities to working at basin level, as a result of a political process searching equitable allocation of resources among often conflicting or competing water uses.
   
5. One of the common detected gaps in IWRM approaches at basin level is the omission or segregation of the groundwater management aspects. Thus this needs to be explicitly addressed, including the appropriate legal framework (BSA – Basin, Sub-basins and aquifers).
   
6. The explicit inclusion of vulnerability reduction (and, conversely, building-up of resiliency) of the ecosystems and of society has been highlighted. This stands as particularly relevant in the case of extreme events, whether they are floods and droughts.

Orientations for action

1. Institutional arrangements  ideally responding to a common vision of stakeholders, and guaranteeing  the continuity of the relates efforts need to be developed to enable this to happen on a broader front across administrative, national, linguistic and other borders. Current or potential conflicts should be explicitly addressed whether they are across political boundaries or competitive uses, in the planning and management strategies.
   
2. Increased awareness of local actors and their understanding of and participation in global basin networks should be of mutual benefit and increase inclusiveness
   
3. Demonstration of good practice, supported by quantitative impact evaluation and training initiatives, including on-line resources, and targeted training

Local Actions presented

Challenges to Implementing Transboundary Water Planning: A Political Ecology Perspective on Recent Policy Changes, Management Regimes, and Institutional Practices in U.S. and Mexico

Anne Browning-Aiken, University of Arizona, USA

Since 1998 coordinated binational water resource planning within the Upper San Pedro Basin in Sonora, Mexico, and Sierra Vista, Arizona has been advocated by the Mexican and United States, federal, state and municipal governments, as evidenced in a 1999 binational Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the United States and Mexico. Since that time environmental and natural resource institutions have evolved to permit a more regional, if not local, approach to water resource management, increased hydrologic research to insure more effective management practices, and conducted regional assessments of natural resource and climate issues in both countries. However, asymmetrical differences in economy and political structure have long made binational natural resource management difficult, and social and political challenges to implementing water and environmental policy along the border may be further restricting opportunities for building the capacity of watershed councils for coordinated transboundary basin management.

Manejo integral de cuencas en México:  Análisis de casos exitosos

Helena Cotler, Instituto Nacional de Ecología, México

El propósito de este trabajo es analizar cuáles son las principales características de los casos de manejo de cuencas que parecen funcionar mejor a partir de la integralidad de sus proyectos. Una vez alcanzado esto, se propone resaltar los arreglos institucionales y las condiciones socioeconómicas y ambientales que favorecen el surgimiento y continuidad de este tipo de casos.
La tarea de identificar y conocer más de cerca estos casos ha resultado de gran utilidad para comprender los procesos institucionales que han contribuido al abandono y sobre-explotación de los recursos naturales en México.
Las acciones locales sujetas a las necesidades e intereses de las comunidades, resultan una combinación imprescindible en el diseño de políticas dirigidas a la protección y conservación de los recursos naturales. Con este trabajo se pretende demostrar lo imprescindible que resulta enlazar las acciones de planeación desde el nivel gubernamental a la realidad de los actores locales. La generación de compromisos y de procesos de aprendizaje desde el nivel local pueden favorecer el encadenamiento de acciones que deriven en un mejor aprovechamiento de los recursos naturales.

Catchment2Coast

Pedro Monteiro, CSIR, South Africa

The sustainability of socio-economically important services provided by river dependent tropical coastal ecosystems depends critically on:
1. the integration of the weakly understood linkage between the how catchment water management alters the flow characteristics and the scales of coastal productivity.
2. the integration of politically fragmented water systems
3. addressing the uneven development strategies that arise from this fragmentation and threaten the sustainability of the water ecosystem.
4. the operationalization of the IWRM concept
The proposed local activity is the management of magnitude and timing of water flow of the Incomati and Maputo Rivers in order to sustain the coastal fisheries in Maputo Bay.
The difficulty in implementing the action was that the nature of the linkage was not known but the new understanding should ensure the sustainability of both fisheries and upper catchment water needs.
The local action involves decisions in South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique.

Desarrollo de un sistema de gestión ambiental en la cuenca hidrográfica del Chaguana

Pilar Cornejo, Escuela Politécnica del Litoral, Ecuador

Este proyecto se enfocó inicialmente en el desarrollo de sistemas de gestión ambiental en la agricultura y la acuicultura en la Cuenca del Río Chaguana, debido a su interacción entre el sector bananero y el camaronero (principales actores de la economía del país).
La primera actividad se enfocó en evaluar los principales impactos producidos por el uso de pesticidas del sector bananero hacia el sector camaronero, a través de la modelación de la calidad ambiental del sistema hídrico del Chaguana, donde se detectó la importancia de la Cuenca Hidrográfica en el problema ambiental analizado. Por tal motivo, se reenfocó el objetivo del proyecto hacia el Estudio del Manejo Integrado de las Cuencas Hidrográfica
Los principales problemas encontrados en la evaluación se concentraron básicamente en la información disponible para hacer la evaluación. Datos inexistentes, desactualizados o erróneos fueron los principales obstáculos en la evaluación. Por tal motivo, el proyecto se concentró en generar información base para las siguientes etapas de la investigación: reprocesamiento de datos climáticos, generación de datos de suelo, modelo digital del terreno, entre otros.