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4.2. Advancing the protection of freshwater ecosystems
from Global status on water-related ecosystems and acceleration needs to achieve SDG6 target 6 by 2030
In a similar manner, it is recommended that indicator 6.6.1 focal points participate in the multi-stakeholder reporting process under indicator 6.5.1 so that they have the opportunity to communicate with stakeholders from across the water community (subsectors) on the importance of the management of freshwater ecosystems for achieving multiple development objectives. For more information on ecosystem management tools that countries can use, please refer to annex IV of this report.
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By globally mapping both river basins and known protected areas21 it is possible to observe the number of “protected river basins”, i.e. basins with more than 25 per cent of their area under formally designated protection. A global analysis of all 8,518 river basins shows that 1,766 are within existing protected areas. Assessing the extent of surface-water changes within these 1,766 protected basins reveals that 722 basins (40 per cent) are experiencing high surfacewater changes (Figure 34).
High surface-water extent changes are most commonly due to human intervention in natural hydrological regimes. The observation that 40 per cent of protected basins are experiencing high degrees of surface-water change suggests that freshwater ecosystem protection is currently insufficient and largely ineffective.
Tettegouche State Park, Silver Bay, United States of America by Josh Hild on Unsplash
21 The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) includes all sites designated at a national level (e.g. national parks), under regional agreements (e.g. the Natura 2000 network in the European Union) and under international conventions and agreements (e.g. natural
World Heritage and Ramsar sites). As in other global protected area assessments, the following areas were excluded from the analysis: sites with a “proposed” or “not reported” status, sites without an associated reported area, and UNESCO Man and the Biosphere reserves (as their buffer areas and transition zones may not meet the IUCN protected area definition, and because most of their core areas overlap with other protected areas).
