FRESHWATER HEALTH INDEX WATER IS LIFE Freshwater is the lifeblood of our planet – no one can survive without it. Essential to humanity for drinking, food production, energy, and sanitation, freshwater also sustains aquatic ecosystems that contain 10 percent of the world’s animal species. Freshwater is likewise vital to forests and wetlands, which among their many services, protect us from catastrophic flooding, landslides, erosion and pollution. We do not always grasp that these benefits are connected via the flow of water—the rain that falls on our upland forests ends up in our cities downstream and is eventually discharged out to sea. However as we make decisions that affect the quantity or quality of water, we are making tradeoffs among these benefits, and their beneficiaries.
Freshwater makes up about 0.01 percent of the water on Earth. As our global population grows, so does our demand for fresh water. And as our climate changes and becomes less predictable, so does our planet’s freshwater supply and flow. It is finite and it is under pressure. The U.N. estimates a major water gap by 2030 where half of the people on Earth will likely face water shortages. Despite being one of today’s most pressing development challenges, there is a critical gap in our understanding and monitoring of freshwater ecosystems and their direct connection to human wellbeing. We all need water to thrive — and that means we must understand and monitor the lakes, rivers and wetlands that provide it for us.
FRESHWATER HEALTH INDEX PROMOTING AND SUPPORTING IMPROVED WATER MANAGEMENT Conservation International is developing the Freshwater Health Index, a set of indicators which will measure the relationships between functioning ecosystems and the benefits they provide to people. The Index will offer insights into the factors that support sustainable and equitable delivery of ecosystem services. These indicators will provide a way of measuring the overall condition of freshwater ecosystems and their ability to support healthy and economically sustainable human populations now and in the future. Most importantly, the Freshwater Health Index will identify where and how we might be failing in maintaining our ecosystems, and what can be done to reverse those declines. By quantifying and mapping the benefits that freshwater naturally provides, this tool will assess the status of certain benefits that people receive from
freshwater ecosystems, simplifying and condensing a large and diverse set of information on ecological, biophysical and socioeconomic characteristics into a compact and accessible online format. It is not only intended to assess the current health of a freshwater system, but also evaluate scenarios for climate change, land use change, and industrial development, so that stakeholders, including landscape and water managers, planners, businesses and policymakers, can better understand the long term implications of their decisions, and it is hoped, help to reverse the current global trends of freshwater ecosystem degradation and loss. It will be a powerful tool for all to shed light on the condition of freshwater basins worldwide, and provide a consistent framework and set of indicators to support sustainable resource use now and into the future to benefit us all.
PARTNERS We are working with several global organizations that complement Conservation International’s strengths and geographic priorities. In our case study basins, we are also developing partnerships with local and regional institutions, including universities that can offer technical expertise, as well as sub-national
government agencies, the private sector and NGOs involved in managing water resources. Founding sponsors of the Freshwater Health Index include the Victor and William Fung Foundation, the Borrego Foundation, and Betty and Gordon Moore.
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APPROACH Conservation International and partners will apply the Freshwater Health Index across a set of representative basins worldwide. The first two basins in Asia–the Lower Mekong and the Dong Jiang–will serve as test-beds for the approach. Both demonstrate well the key links between freshwater systems and human society and face major sustainability challenges, with rapid development and population growth putting unprecedented pressure on each freshwater system. As such they will need to make important decisions on freshwater use and management soon, which will have resounding effects into the future.
The Lower Mekong The Lower Mekong Basin includes Laos, Cambodia, and the delta in Vietnam, and directly supports the livelihoods of more than 60 million people. Growing populations, deforestation, dams, and climate change all threaten this essential system.
Dong Jiang The Dong Jiang River in the Pearl River system is the water source for almost 40 million people in southern China, including 80% of Hong Kong’s freshwater. However the rapidly growing cities are putting unprecedented pressure on its flows and water quality, and industrial relocation threatens its headwaters.
The Lower Mekong (bottom) and Dong Jiang basins (upper right) in Asia.
Nature is speaking. It’s telling us it’s time to act. The actions we take now are critically important. Our success in restoring the health of our planet will determine the quality of our lives and those of our children and grandchildren. We face global problems that require global solutions—and that’s where Conservation International comes in. With more than 25 years of experience and a worldwide network of partners, we are changing the face of conservation, implementing a bold plan to protect natural resources across the planet—not just for today or tomorrow, but for generations to come. Our approach is simple: We innovate, we get results and then we replicate and scale up our efforts for maximum results and reach. Nature is speaking. Conservation International is listening. With your support we can protect it.
OUR VISION
We imagine a healthy, prosperous world in which societies are forever committed to caring for and valuing nature for the long-term benefit of people and all life on Earth.
OUR MISSION
For more information on the Freshwater Health Index contact: Derek Vollmer, Postdoctoral Researcher, e: dvollmer@conservation.org
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Building upon a strong foundation of science, partnership and field demonstration, CI empowers societies to responsibly and sustainably care for nature, our global biodiversity, for the well-being of humanity.