Abstract
Since the beginning of civilization, water has supported the very essence of life, as well as agriculture, energy, industry, local livelihoods, ecosystems, and cultural and religious traditions. Nevertheless, growing populations, domestic development priorities and competing uses between States have placed increasing pressure on the sustainable management of waters, including transboundary waters. As countries struggle to engage in sustainable development and lift their people out of poverty, climate change presents an additional number of unknowns.
Today we have better understood that water is at the centre of many climate change impacts. Additionally, it is becoming clearer that climate change will likely exacerbate many existing water governance challenges —both locally and internationally—; therefore cooperative solutions should be part of a comprehensive basin-wide adaptation strategy. In this context there is also a pressing need to better understand how institutions and cooperative mechanisms can be more responsive to climate change. Furthermore, there is a need to better understand the role that ecosystems-based approaches can play in enhancing natural infrastructure to strengthen resilience to climate change.
This was part of the pre-conceptual background of the IUCN´s Good Water Governance to Climate Change Project. This project was a joint venture between IUCN´s Environmental Law Centre and the Regional Office for Mesoamerica which provided the much needed experience to better understand the complex relationships between water governance, ecosystem management and climate change adaptation.
Precisely, one of its main goals was to diagnose to better understand the best legal and institutional frameworks for ecosystem-based adaptation. The lessons compiled in this publication respond greatly to insights experienced throughout the project and are only a first step towards understanding what could be described as adaptive water governance capacity. Nonetheless, governance remains only a mean to an end, which in this case is to reduce the high vulnerability levels of different shared river basins, mainly through ecosystem restoration and sustainable development.
After a number of years of gaining experience, there are lessons that are ready to be shared. At the local level ecosystem based adaptation continues to develop as a very cost effective and promising approach to climate change. At the national level, we continue to underpin the need for governance reform highlighting the need to understand environment holistically and not to regulate through piece meal laws and regulations which can have an adverse overall effect. At the basin level, we see the benefits of developing joint collaborative adaptation strategies, considering the basin as the most adequate administrative unit and outplaying the risk of harming due to non-coordinated adaptation
efforts. Finally, at the global level, under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC),
adaptation is gaining in prominence as international efforts become more focused on assisting the
most vulnerable countries develop adaptation plans. Furthermore, as the UN has dedicated 2013 as
the “International Year of Water Cooperation”, the international community is now recognising the importance of developing cooperative and collaborative responses to climate change.
“Transboundary Water Governance – Adaptation to Climate Change” aims to provide an overview of best practices in transboundary adaptive water governance thus far. It is our hope that this book can serve as a basis for contributing towards developing a better understanding of the linkages between
water and climate change, and what can be done to help institutions and societies to adapt.
Today we have better understood that water is at the centre of many climate change impacts. Additionally, it is becoming clearer that climate change will likely exacerbate many existing water governance challenges —both locally and internationally—; therefore cooperative solutions should be part of a comprehensive basin-wide adaptation strategy. In this context there is also a pressing need to better understand how institutions and cooperative mechanisms can be more responsive to climate change. Furthermore, there is a need to better understand the role that ecosystems-based approaches can play in enhancing natural infrastructure to strengthen resilience to climate change.
This was part of the pre-conceptual background of the IUCN´s Good Water Governance to Climate Change Project. This project was a joint venture between IUCN´s Environmental Law Centre and the Regional Office for Mesoamerica which provided the much needed experience to better understand the complex relationships between water governance, ecosystem management and climate change adaptation.
Precisely, one of its main goals was to diagnose to better understand the best legal and institutional frameworks for ecosystem-based adaptation. The lessons compiled in this publication respond greatly to insights experienced throughout the project and are only a first step towards understanding what could be described as adaptive water governance capacity. Nonetheless, governance remains only a mean to an end, which in this case is to reduce the high vulnerability levels of different shared river basins, mainly through ecosystem restoration and sustainable development.
After a number of years of gaining experience, there are lessons that are ready to be shared. At the local level ecosystem based adaptation continues to develop as a very cost effective and promising approach to climate change. At the national level, we continue to underpin the need for governance reform highlighting the need to understand environment holistically and not to regulate through piece meal laws and regulations which can have an adverse overall effect. At the basin level, we see the benefits of developing joint collaborative adaptation strategies, considering the basin as the most adequate administrative unit and outplaying the risk of harming due to non-coordinated adaptation
efforts. Finally, at the global level, under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC),
adaptation is gaining in prominence as international efforts become more focused on assisting the
most vulnerable countries develop adaptation plans. Furthermore, as the UN has dedicated 2013 as
the “International Year of Water Cooperation”, the international community is now recognising the importance of developing cooperative and collaborative responses to climate change.
“Transboundary Water Governance – Adaptation to Climate Change” aims to provide an overview of best practices in transboundary adaptive water governance thus far. It is our hope that this book can serve as a basis for contributing towards developing a better understanding of the linkages between
water and climate change, and what can be done to help institutions and societies to adapt.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Transboundary water governance |
| Subtitle of host publication | Adaptation to climate change |
| Editors | Juan Carlos Sanchez, Joshua Roberts |
| Place of Publication | Bonn, Switzerland |
| Publisher | IUCN - International Union for the Conservation of Nature |
| Chapter | 5 |
| Pages | 113-158 |
| Number of pages | 45 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-2-8317-1660-2 |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 |
| Externally published | Yes |
