Session FT 4.38

 Environmental flows, ecosystems and livelihoods: a challenge for IWRM

Conveners

• The World Conservation Union (IUCN)
• The Nature Conservancy (TNC)
• Global Water Partnership (GWP)
• International Water Management Institute (IWMI)

IWRM initiatives, aimed at securing environmental goods and services for people and nature, face the challenge of including technically accurate and politically appropriate Environmental Flows Regimes (EFR) in main river basins, especially in biodiversity-rich developing countries. Based on the local actions presented, the national and regional challenges EFR face today will be outlined during the session and guidelines to reinforce EFR issues in developing countries water resources management, will be produced. There is a need to include environmental flows as a key social, economic and environmental issue within the IWRM. Environmental flows is not a biological issue but affects both people and nature.

Lessons learned

1. Water allocation challenges and issues exist throughout the world. We propose to present how water right transactions between willing buyers and willing sellers are facilitating the reallocation of water to meet instream flow needs in the Columbia Basin on the United States. This approach can likely be replicated any where in the world facing water reallocation issues. We hope to provide inspiration and ideas for doing this work elsewhere.
2. The early efforts with Environmental Flows in the Huong River Basin can be scaled up within the basin, and also to other river basins in other parts of Vietnam, and the wider Mekong Region.
3. The early localised efforts, with the first real results posted in 2005, have already inspired provincial and national authorities, and civil society actors to get serious about using Environmental Flows as a contribution to Vietnamese water governance.
4. The method used, can be adapted and used in other contexts, but local knowledge remains of utmost importance.
5. On the technical side, there is a need for increased research and development of indicators and tools for decision makers, that can be adapted as the environmental flows process is implemented. 
6. By comparing and balancing the total impacts (positive and negative) of the OMVS Programme on the right bank of the lower Senegal River, it is difficult to determine if local communities really benefited from the venture or were net losers. In any case, it seems evident that the benefits of the free flowing river were neglected.
7. From any flow regime scenario implemented at the basin level they will be losers and gainers. These imbalances and risks of inequity can be attenuated by managing the waters at the local sub-basin level (eg. Diawling Floodplain).
8. In scenarios where there are “winners” and “losers” in the distribution of water resources, compensation schemes can be developed as an alternative to providing direct subsidies. 
9. Development of payment for environmental service (PSA) schemes also emerge as a viable instrument for financing watershed maintenance and management. 
10. Exchanges and direct interaction between upstream and downstream water users, as in the case of the Yuna Watershed in the Dominican Republic clearly demonstrates to all stakeholders the importance of an integrated, ecosystemic approach to water management. 
11. Lack of hydrological data should not be therefore an excuse for not developing and implementing “environmental flows”.
12. In this context it is a real challenge to combat poverty through ecosystem management: poor people often require short-term solutions to their survival needs. IUCN addressed this challenge by promoting income-generating activities (horticulture, employment in project activities like construction works of project offices and of embankments, etc) while working on the restoration of the Diawling ecosystem
13. On the basis of this, there exists opportunities for building a coalition between environmental advocates and local communities.
14. This means that in the allocation of available water priority should be given to uses that generate per each drop allocated more benefits and values at the lowest economic, social and environmental costs. Under this paradigm shift ecosystems may compete favourably with other sectors such as agriculture, hydropower production, etc.
15. In this context there is need to better explore the opportunities of contributing to MDG (poverty reduction, access to safe water, etc.) through ecosystem restoration and enhancement.
16. Implementation of an environmental flows approach in a transboundary context presents a series of challenges in terms of satisfying both local and national interests, requiring adequate resources for consultation, negotiation and development of consensus. 

Key messages

1. A legal framework should be in place to allow for the transfer of water from one use to another use, with specific policies and procedures to provide the appropriate guidance.
2. The environmental flows concept must be incorporated in the revision and formulation of national water laws.  The new water law for Costa Rica, currently under discussion, is given as an example.
3. There are numerous and difficult cultural, economic and social implications associated with transferring water from one use to another use.
4. Appropriate river basin management can be supported by the development of the adequate river basin organizations. 
5. As an emerging issue, it is necessary to explore how aquifer protection can be considered in environmental flow studies - a more integrated approach that takes into account the whole hydrological cycle.  
6. Water transactions are complicated and difficult.  Be prepared to balance the ideal objective against the practical realities of implementing transactions.
7. Climate variability has been identified as an important consideration in the development of future environmental flows studies. 
8. The Huong River Basin rapid environmental flows assessment, completed in 2005, was the first ever undertaken in Vietnam.
9. Getting started with Environmental Flows in Vietnam has required a large effort in bringing together different types of people to pool their knowledge and try to better understand the whole river ecosystem, before committing to new major investments intended to reduce the risks to province of a repeat of major flooding.
10. A participatory multi-disciplinary approach to field work has been shown to be possible and able to provide a much better basis for decision-making.
11. The long term target is to have all major developments or interventions to the natural flow regime be considered within a broad Environmental Flows framework which pays explicit attention to social, economic, cultural, hydrological and ecological values.
12. The benefits (functions and services) attached to a free flowing river need to be taken into account and internalised in the design of new water infrastructure projects but also in optimising the benefits from investments already made.
13. Increased efforts (research, on-the-ground experiences) are needed in order to improve the understanding of ecosystems’ water requirements. Even where the will exist from decision makers and water managers, this gap needs to be filled before actual implementation of environmental flow can take place.
14. Because poor people highly depend on natural ecosystems for their livelihood, efforts to respond to the water requirements of these ecosystems should be seen as investments on environmental conservation but also as investments to alleviate poverty.

Orientations for action

Environmental flows regimes (EFR) face the challenge of being effectively included in local and national water agendas. To strengthen local action implementation, sustainable fund raising for EFR is crucial both for scientific research and to gain political momentum.  The following issues can be prioritized:

1. EFR as an opportunity for conflict resolution: Upstream water and land uses can be harmonized with downstream coastal people’s and ecosystems needs, opening the path towards water conflict resolution based on scientific verifiable data, social consensus and political willingness. Local action requires establishing multi-stakeholder participatory river basin planning boards to launch negotiation.
2. EFR as a tool to promote equitable water use: A maximum flow available for concessions must be determined and established by water managing institutions at key river basins, as a basic water use regulation tool and, as a first step in developing more comprehensive IWRM approaches that value ecosystems and increase the livelihood options of communities. Local action requires raising awareness on flows available for concession at key river basins, planning water use respecting those flows and strengthening the political willingness for regulation enforcement meanwhile water legislation that considers all aspects of EFR is being developed.
3. EFR as an opportunity for local vulnerability reduction in a climate change world: Using the most appropriate negotiation schemes among competing water users to meet EFR goals, social and environmental vulnerability can be reduced in drought/flood prone regions, particularly in a climate change scenario. A higher resilience to cope with climate variability and change would only be achieved locally if water governance issues are participatory, democratically and inclusively addressed at the river basin and national scales.

Local Actions presented

Environment Flow: Research and Actions in the Yellow River

Liu Xiaoyan, Yellow River Conservancy Commission (YRCC). China

Management of water resources of the Yellow River presents a series of challenges.  Historically, the river basin has been characterized by frequent, heavy floods and by muddy water generally unsuitable for irrigation.  However, the approach traditionally used consisted of persistent flood control and large-scale water extraction and use, which has led to degradation of the river´s natural functions, ill effects on human health and compromising sustainable economic development.  In this context, the concept of environment flow is determined as a threshold for the increasing human water consumption, so that the river’s natural function could be protected properly at an acceptable level.  After determination of environmental flow a compromise solution was proposed, whereby water flows for the environment and human consumption were to be reduced.  The determination of environmental flow is made difficult by the increase in population.  This experience highlights the fact that the goal of environmental protection is dependent not only on scientific information but on societal choices.  The project´s main results include the recovery of some fish populations, reduction of the effects of droughts and recovery of wetland areas, in spite of the fact that the desired environmental flow has not been achieved.  In the future, increased monitoring of species and improved stakeholder involvement is required.       

Restoring instream flows in the Columbia Basin

Andrew Purkey. Fish and Wildlife Foundation. USA

The four U.S. states in the Columbia Basin (Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington) have allocated water rights to agricultural producers through a system of legal water rights first established in the nineteenth-century, back when it seemed there was no end to land or water supply.  Now, though, in many places, more rights have been assigned than the water available to meet them. During a typical growing season, stretches of many streams and rivers in the Columbia Basin run low and sometimes dry. This is a major limiting factor for the health and success of anadromous (e.g., salmon and steelhead) and resident (e.g., bull and cutthroat trout) fish in the basin. The Columbia Basin Water Transactions Program (CBWTP) was formed in 2002 to fund and support innovative, voluntary grassroots strategies that improve flow in Columbia Basin streams and rivers.  The CBWTP is administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation under a cooperative agreement with the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). The Water Transactions Program philosophy is to improve streamflows for the benefit of fish and wildlife habitat in a manner that respects the value of irrigated agriculture and the water rights held by agricultural producers.  Since 2002, the CBWTP has supported 9 entities (6 NGOs and 3 state water agencies) and funded over 100 water right transactions that have restored ecologically-significant flow to critical streams in the basin. The partners, including the Deschutes River Conservancy and Oregon Water Trust, link with irrigation districts, landowners and producers in local communities to help put water in streams. Even with the success to date, there are many challenges to implementing voluntary water transactions that restore streamflows. These include economic and market uncertainties, legal and policy constraints, and ecological complexities. The CBWTP offers a forum for the practitioners to share experiences and knowledge that allow us to collectively overcome the existing challenges and obstacles. The forum includes quarterly meetings, capacity building workshops and information and resources.

Freshwater inflows to estuaries. Integrated Management

Francisco Núñez. TNC. Dominican Republic

The action has focused on helping local communities and governments in assessing and managing changes in the volumes, pulsing and quality of inflows of freshwater to the estuary. The partners are working to integrate the planning and science of watershed management with the planning and science of Integrated Coastal Management. This has included agreeing on methodology development, locally collecting data, conducting field investigations, holding workshops, generating future scenarios, discussing management scenarios among stakeholders, and developing a methods guide on the allocation of freshwater inflows to estuaries.

Using Environmental Flows approach in Vietnam

Ly Minh Dang. IUCN. Vietnam

The early experiences with Environmental Flows in the Huong River Basin have deepened the understanding of water issues and perspectives between many different actors in Vietnam. The work on environmental flows in the Huong River Basin is well underway, but it is far from finished.  An adaptable and scalable rapid environmental flows assessment methodology was implemented  Further work in Vietnam will need to link ‘water resources management and/or river basin management and/or environmental flows’ issues to poverty/livelihoods and to national development priorities. The national government, via the Ministry of Natural Resources, has begun to get serious about using the Environmental Flows approach more widely throughout Vietnam.  In 2005 there was a substantial effort made to broaden the understanding of public officials on the possibilities presented by adopting this multi-disciplinary, participatory process, bringing together many different types of knowledge – local ecologists, local leaders, engineers, hydrologists, and socio-economists.  Extensive training was undertaken to begin the professional development of a core group of people able to lead Environmental Flows processes in Vietnam.

Establishing public participation for IWRM in the Senegal River Basin

Madiodio Niasse. GWP. Senegal

After two decades of discussion (often heated debates), OMVS (The Senegal River Basin Development Organisation) and riparian countries have come to the realisation of the ecological, economic and social importance of the floodplain and of the natural annual flooding system, which is reflected in the 2002 Water Charter in which provisions are made for the release of water from the dams to help create, whenever possible, to generate an annual flood. Although major geo-political, technical and economic challenges are still ahead, OMVS has played and continue to play a trailblazing role on the thinking on ecosystem water needs, and on ways of responding to such needs while pursuing development objectives and evaluating opportunity costs.  At a small scale, IUCN has also experimented controlled flow releases to revitalise the Diawling Floodplain located on the right bank of the Senegal River Basin. This experience in documented in Hamerlynck et al. 2003.
This Local Action describes the experience of OMVS and its member countries and also the experience of IUCN in the lower Senegal River (using the results of Hamerlynck et al. op.cit) dealing with the issue of water allocation for the floodplain ecosystems. It analyses the challenges encountered and draws the lessons learned in the context of current debates and discussions on environmental flows.