Strengthening Cooperation on

International Rivers:Transboundary Ecosystem Services as a Policy Tool

Olivier Petit (U. of Artois, France)Laura Lopez-Hoffman (U. of Arizona, USA)

(a theoretical perspective integrating Political Science & Ecology)

In a nutshell

Goal: Show potential of transboundary ecosystem services as a policy tool to manage international rivers

Our approach:

•Combines

•International Regime Theory (International Relations and International Political Economy)

•Transboundary Ecosystem Services (TES) (Ecology and Social Sciences)•Stresses mutual dependence on socio-ecological systems between neighboring countries

•Uses TES as a means to improve cooperation between States/Nations along river basins

Roadmap

• Challenges of governance on international rivers• Background of International Regime theory and

international river basins• Linking International Regimes with Transboundary

Ecosystem Services• Perspectives

The Challenges of Governance on International Rivers

• 263 registered international watercourses which:

Concentrate 40% of the world population

Cover almost 45% of the world surface

Contain 60% of global freshwater supply

• Many water-related treaties, but no global convention

• Reasons to cooperate: Population growth, pollution, intense use, floods & hydropower development

• Climate change will increase the vulnerability of ecosystems and people who depend on the services delivered by ecosystems.

• Climate change will affect the availability of water resources and will induce external shocks on rivers ecosystems as well as local communities.

• One of main challenges in the management of international river basins is to design shared and adaptive management systems to govern water, riparian ecosystems and human activities.

Designing Adaptive Systems: An Emerging Issue

Roadmap

• Challenges of governance on international rivers• Background of International Regime theory and

international river basins• Linking International Regimes with Transboundary

Ecosystem Services• Perspectives

Beyond Water Wars: Understanding Cooperation on International Rivers

• Scholars of international politics and economics have only recently begun to study the management of transboundary water resources (1970’s)

• Two main political science views:

Water as an issue of Security (environmental scarcity as a cause violent conflict) and thus the Water Wars Hypothesis (Homer-Dixon, 1994)

Water as an argument for Cooperation (Wolf, 1998)

Applying International Regime Theory to Transboundary Water

• What is an International Regime? “implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures around which actors’ expectations converge in a given area of international relations” (Krasner, 1983)

• Given the lack of UN Convention in force on water, it seems difficult to implement International Regime Theory at the Global Level

• Nevertheless, locally, International Regime Theory could be applied (Conca, 2006; Lindemann, 2008)

Main reasons why International Water Regimes are created

• Lindemann (2008) developed 4 series of arguments for why International Water Regimes are created: Power-related reasons (hegemonic position on the

downstream part of the river)

Interest-based reasons (collectively shared problems)

Knowledge-based reasons (role of epistemic communities)

Context-based reasons (regional integration)

Roadmap

• Challenges of governance on international rivers• Background of International Regime theory and

international river basins• Linking International Regimes with Transboundary

Ecosystem Services• Perspectives

Linking International Regimes with Ecosystem Services: Mutual Interests

• What International Regime approach can bring to Ecosystem Services? The importance of norms, rules and instruments in any

decision-making process involving ecosystem services, especially at the international level.

The notion of « epistemic communities » defined by Haas (1992) as « networks of knowledge-based experts »

• What can the Ecosystem Services approach bring to International Regime Analysis and Policy? See next slide…

Ecosystem Services Across Borders: A Framework for Transboundary Conservation

• Mutual Interest• Diversity of stakeholders

• Assessments of trade-offs• Interactions between services

Lopez-Hoffman, Varady, Flessa, Balvanera, 2010Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment

Ecosystem Services as elucidated by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

Transboundary Ecosystem Services: an instrument of International Environmental Regimes

• Ecosystem Services can be considered as an ingredient of Environmental International Regimes (initially as an instrument of the Biodiversity Regime, and more recently as an instrument of the Climate Change Regime).

• We consider that ecosystem services could become an instrument of a Water Regime, if we take into account their transboundary nature.

Transboundary Ecosystem Services as a Policy Tool

• Frame tradeoffs in allocating water for differentsectors (e.g. Production systems vs. Ripariansystems)

• Elucidate differential impacts to stakeholders (e.g. farmers and ranchers vs people concerned withwildlife)

• Aid in understanding interactions such as how allocation to crops can affect groundwater recharge and riparian systems

• Mutual interest: In Cross-border settings, aid in understanding how ecological processes affect people in both countries

Roadmap

• Challenges of governance on international rivers• Background of International Regime theory and

international river basins• Linking International Regimes with Transboundary

Ecosystem Services• Perspectives

Perspectives: Research program « Riparia »

• Starting Jan 2011 – Ending dec 2012• Funding: MESHS (Lille, France)• Project Investigator: Olivier Petit (Université d’Artois,

France)• Partners involved in the program: MESHS (Lille,

France); ArtDev (CNRS, Montpellier, France); RISC Consortium (University of Luxemburg); Disaster Studies Group (Wageningen University, The Netherlands); Mixed Research Unit, Water, Environment and Public Policies (CNRS-Univ. of Arizona); Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy (U. of Arizona); US-GS (Tucson Center, Arizona)

Methodological aspects of the research program

Theoretical work on the combination of TES and International Regimes,

Two case studies: Santa Cruz river (US-Mexico) and Escaut/Scheldt river (France-Belgium-The Netherlands),

Identification of Transboundary Ecosystem Services, Test of Lindemann's hypotheses, Meeting with key people involved in the management

of water and ecosystem management on both sides of the border,

Quantification of the services identified, GIS and remote sensing, Policy recommendations

Impacts of floods on riparian ecosystems of the Santa Cruz river (Arizona, april 2010)

Stagnation of water

accumulating pollution in the Escaut/Scheldt

river(Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France, August 2010)

Comments & questions are welcomed!

Contact information: Olivier Petit: olivier.petit@univ-artois.frLaura Lopez-Hoffman: lauralh@email.arizona.edu