Water & Green Growth: Sustainable

Management of Watersheds & Great Rivers

Karin M. Krchnak

Director, International Water Policy

Director, Global Partnerships, Great Rivers

Partnership

kkrchnak@tnc.org

24 May 2012

Water and Green Growth – Strategic

Approach

Diagram courtesy of Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-water)

Targets for World Water Forum Theme on Water

& Green Growth

1. Policies, laws, institutions and markets to enable transition

to green economies

2. Investment in innovative, efficient technologies and

building natural capital for benefits including private

returns, jobs growth and poverty reduction

3. Sustainable financing of equitable water services and

water resource protection

4. How to value natural assets and account for them in

making better development decisions

5. Accounting by governments to incorporate natural assets

Draft Policy Framework:

Protection & Conservation of Water Resources

1. Adopt river basin management plans using IWRM principles

2. Value ecosystem services to ensure their conservation (e.g. PES)

3. Strengthen the capacity to adapt to climate change

4. Ensure environmental integrity of the ecosystem

Penobscot River Watershed, US. Map

courtesy of The Nature Conservancy

Penobscot River proposed dam removals, US. Visualization courtesy of

MMI Engineering

Before

After

Draft Policy Framework:

Water as an Engine for Growth

5. Promote technology transfer and invest in innovative tools

6. Revitalize and better use urban waterways and waterfront areas

7. Adopt a package of economic instruments for recycling and reuse

8. Balance green and grey infrastructure among competing uses

Four Rivers Restoration Project, Korea. Photo courtesy of Ministry of

Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs (MLTM) River transport in Paris, France. Photo by Magdeleine Bonnamour and

provided courtesy of Ports of Paris

Draft Policy Framework:

Water for an Improved Quality of Life

9. Empower people, especially women, to manage water resources

10. Promote access to clean drinking water and sanitation

11. Facilitate adoption of WGG through education and capacity building

12. Build community resilience to cope with water-related disasters

Karnataka, India. Photo courtesy of Veolia Environnement Water scarcity in Gujarat, India before new infrastructure. Photo courtesy

of Principal Secretary, Climate Change Department, Government of

Gujarat

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Defining Great Rivers

Adapted from R.L. Welcomme’s criterion

for major river-floodplains

Basic criterion is biological: the flood is

sufficiently long lasting, predictable, and

extensive that organisms have evolved life

history strategies to exploit it

Great rivers are highly productive “working

rivers” vital to cultural heritage and

economic prosperity in their regions

Low water

High water

FLOOD ZONE

Source: Welcomme, R.L. FAO Fisheries Technical Paper. No.262. Rome, 1985. 330 pp.

Mississippi

Danube

Tigris Nile

Mekong

Ganges

Parana

Amazon

Magdalena

Apure

Oueme

Senegal

Chari

Chao-Phrya

Key Fact: Great Rivers remain vital to

cultural development, human prosperity

• Billions of people live along our Great Rivers and

none can survive without water more than a few

days

• People rely on these productive rivers for food,

water, transportation, energy, and cultural values

• Unsustainable agriculture wastes nearly half the

available freshwater worldwide—pollution and water

shortages result (Clay)

• Sixty percent of flows in the world’s rivers have been

diverted—the Nile, Ganges, Colorado and Yellow

rivers no longer reach the sea (Stiassny)

• 2050: water scarce for >2 billion people (UN)

Mississippi River: Global Assets

Opportunity:

We can think about the

Mississippi River in

sophisticated ways due

to unequaled

investments in

knowledge made over

centuries by many

individuals and

organizations ... from

Lewis and Clark to the

USGS Long-Term

Resource Monitoring

Program and a variety

of universities

Stephen A. Forbes

Charles Kofoid and Miles Newberry in

high water on Illinois River, early 1900s

LTRMP staff, early 2000s

Lewis-Clark Expedition

Challenge:

The Mississippi River remains an

“orphan” (NRC) – information is siloed;

programs and projects are disconnected

Solution:

Bring stakeholders together with best

available science to expand policy

alternatives that address major issues of

our time – food, water, climate, energy,

transportation – and creates pathways

toward sustainable management of the

Mississippi River, fostering an inter-

generational commitment to

implementation

Mississippi River: Direct Action

Source: Excerpts - Keddy, Paul A. et al., “Wet and Wonderful: The World’s Largest Wetlands Are Conservation Priorities” BioScience, Jan. 2009.

Challenge:

“Each of the world’s largest [rivers]

requires a basin-wide sustainable

management strategy, built on new

institutional frameworks…that

accurately reflects the inescapable

linkages of economy and human well-

being to…ecosystem sustainability

(Keddy).”

Solution:

Create a global network of expertise

that uses the Mississippi River

“experience” to facilitate sharing of

knowledge and best practices globally

Great Rivers: Global Collaboration

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Solutions for People and Nature

The mission of the Great Rivers Partnership is to bring together diverse partners and the best

science to expand options for achieving the sustainable management and development of the

world’s Great Rivers and their basins. We seek shared solutions to common land- and water-

use dilemmas, recognizing the inescapable linkages that connect our economy, human well-

being and ecosystem sustainability.

Great Rivers Partnership I Priority Rivers: Phase I, 2005-2010

Zambezi River

Yangtze River

Paraguay-Parana Rivers

Mississippi River

Magdalena River

Tapajos (Amazon) River

Primary Focus

Technical Exchanges

Yangtze Mississippi

Knowledge Sharing - Monitoring Networks

Improving Dam - Floodplain Management

Four-dam cascade, under construction

Upper Yangtze Native Fish Reserve

Reservoir of Three Gorges

Dam

Three Gorges Dam

Flood Detention Areas

1. Improves flow into Fish Reserve 2. Generate considerably more

energy and revenue ($350-600 mil per year)

Invest in flood-risk reduction actions in FDAs to protect against all floods

Maintain higher reservoir levels throughout summer

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The Global Network

In establishing GRP II, The Nature Conservancy recognizes leaders of integrated river basin

management around the world, and also that effecting basin-wide change in large, working rivers

has proven difficult to date. With due humility, TNC seeks to contribute its assets, relationships,

and experiences to address this shared global challenge at key river basins through partnership

and collaboration, and through joint development of a supporting global network.

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Thank you! Karin Krchnak

kkrchnak@tnc.org

Protecting rivers for people and nature.