Healthy freshwater ecosystems, of which wetlands and traditional water bodies are significant, are key in preventing and mitigating floods and droughts, says the IUCN. These water bodies are central to tackling the linked climate and nature crises, and ensuring sustainable economic development while also being efficient tools to store carbon and provide water filtration and storage, the international body exerted.
By Salam Rajesh
Wetlands and traditional waters are at the frontlines of the climate and nature crises, yet these important water bodies are still neglected, undervalued, and overlooked. Their rapid decline and loss undermine the hard-won development gains and the global efforts in tackling the worrisome climate and nature crises.
This hardliner statement comes from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in its push for the Freshwater Challenge (FWC), a country-led initiative that aims at supporting, integrating and accelerating the restoration of some 300,000 Kilometre of degraded rivers and 350 million hectares of degraded wetlands by the target year 2030, as well as to conserve intact freshwater ecosystems.
The Freshwater Challenge (FWC) was launched at the Water Conference last year as an initiative of the IUCN, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, Wetlands International, the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, UN Environment Programme, and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
The Freshwater Challenge is recognized as an official Water Outcome of COP28 that was held recently in the United Arab Emirates, highlighting its pivotal role in restoring freshwater ecosystems globally. To date, the Challenge has 50 State members, including countries like Liberia, Cambodia, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, France, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Australia and Morocco, along with the European Union countries.
The IUCN assessed that wetlands and the traditional waters – lakes, rivers, streams and ponds – are significantly degraded all across the seven continents, with around 87 percent of the wetlands having been lost globally during the last 300 years.
Healthy freshwater ecosystems, of which wetlands and traditional water bodies are significant, are key in preventing and mitigating floods and droughts, says the IUCN. These water bodies are central to tackling the linked climate and nature crises, and ensuring sustainable economic development while also being efficient tools to store carbon and provide water filtration and storage, the international body exerted.
Speaking on the Freshwater Challenge, the largest ever global effort to restore and protect freshwater ecosystems, the IUCN President Al Mubarak has this to say: “Water is something most of us take for granted – we see it as a commodity for cooking, bathing, industry, and even for removing waste. But water is much more than that. It is life itself. Water is nature, and it must be managed and cared for as an essential ecosystem, not merely as a resource to be traded or consumed”.
“Water is a global challenge, but also a local issue. We need to empower local communities and civil society organizations to take better care of freshwater ecosystems. By collaborating effectively with governments and businesses that rely heavily on water, we can maximize skills and resources to restore these critical ecosystems”, the IUCN chief stressed.
The Global Environment Facility’s CEO, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez has this to reflect on the FWC, “The GEF is proud to announce an investment of USD 5 million into the Freshwater Challenge as this critical country-led initiative will be key in achieving the 30×30 targets outlined in the Global Biodiversity Framework”.
“The GEF contribution will support targeted pilots and promote innovative metrics and communication efforts, including with youth, Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs), which will contribute to the Challenge’s goals of ensuring 300,000 Kilometers of rivers and 350 million hectares of wetlands are under restoration by the target year 2030”.
The FWC aims at substantiating, integrating, and accelerating targeted interventions for wetlands and traditional waters, connecting these water bodies with national plans and strategies. The Challenge will increase the overall investment into the restoration and conservation of freshwater ecosystems, and substantially increase the social and economic returns on those investments.
The IUCN further stressed that to deliver freshwater ecosystem restoration and conservation at scale by 2030, the Challenge requires the active support of all actors involved in water-related activities across all sectors – including agriculture, infrastructure, finance, energy, urban planning, conservation, and much more.
The Challenge, launched in 2023 and which seeks in restoring degraded rivers, lakes and wetlands across the world, is one big hope for bringing back to life much of the water bodies that are in various stages of degradation and decline, and those that are in the process of being reclaimed and filled in for taking up commercial activities, urbanization and settlement, or for agriculture.
It may be recalled that the significance of healthy freshwater ecosystems is recognized in key international frameworks, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the Convention on Wetlands, and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Target 3 of the Global Biodiversity Framework seeks to green 30 percent of the globe’s land surface area by the target year 2030 in addressing much of Earth’s pressing issues on the climate front. The world at large is currently facing the threat of global temperature rise to an unprecedented level that could trigger different climate crises, endangering human lives, destruction of the standing properties, and irreversible impacts on wildlife and nature.
Many pockets of the world are now experiencing the worst forms of extreme weather events, impacting colossal losses and damages to human lives and properties, with nature unleashing its fury in the form of extreme heat waves, cold waves, unprecedented cyclonic storms, extreme rainfall, floods and droughts. To make matters worse, the frequency and intensity of the extreme weather events is gaining momentum with each passing year.
The UN chief Antonio Guterres has since been urging the world leaders to take up actions on priority basis so as to avoid possible climate catastrophe in the immediate future. The UN’s thrust is often seen as being sidelined by the fossil fuel use lobby, much of whom are powerful entities who can influence States and world leaders at will. The thinking process has to change now for the future.