Table of contents
Executive Summary
Attachment
Glossary
Glossary
ECOSYSTEM SERVICES – The benefits people obtain from ecosystems:
- Provisioning services – The ecosystem services that describe the material outputs from ecosystems. They include food, water and other resources [TEEB, 2010].
- Food: Ecosystems provide the conditions for growing food – in wild habitats and in managed agro-ecosystems.
- Raw materials: Ecosystems provide a great diversity of materials for construction and fuel.
- Fresh water: Ecosystems provide surface and groundwater.
- Medicinal resources: Many plants are used as traditional medicines and as input for the pharmaceutical industry.
- Regulating services – The services that ecosystems provide by acting as regulators, e.g. regulating the quality of air and soil or by providing flood and disease control [TEEB, 2010].
- Local climate and air quality regulation: Trees provide shade and remove pollutants from the atmosphere. Forests influence rainfall.
- Carbon sequestration and storage: As trees and plants grow, they remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and effectively lock it away in their tissues.
- Moderation of extreme events: Ecosystems and living organisms create buffers against natural hazards such as floods, storms, and landslides.
- Waste-water treatment: Micro-organisms in soil and in wetlands decompose human and animal waste, as well as many pollutants.
- Erosion prevention and maintenance of soil fertility: Soil erosion is a key factor in the process of land degradation and desertification.
- Pollination: Some 87 out of the 115 leading global food crops depend upon animal pollination including important cash crops such as cocoa and coffee.
- Biological control: Ecosystems are important for regulating pests and vector borne diseases.
- Supporting service, or habitat service – Services that underpin almost all other ecosystem services and without which these services’ could not occur. Ecosystems provide living spaces for plants or animals; they also maintain a diversity of different breeds of plants and animals [TEEB, 2010].
- Habitats for species: Habitats provide everything that an individual plant or animal needs to survive. Migratory species need habitats along their migrating routes.
- Maintenance of genetic diversity: Genetic diversity distinguishes different breeds or races, providing the basis for locally well-adapted cultivars and a gene pool for further developing commercial crops and livestock.
- Cultural services – The non-material benefits people obtain from contact with ecosystems; they include aesthetic, spiritual and psychological benefits [TEEB, 2010].
- Recreation and mental and physical health: The role of natural landscapes and urban green space for maintaining mental and physical health is increasingly being recognized.
- Tourism: Nature tourism provides considerable economic benefits and is a vital source of income for many countries.
- Aesthetic appreciation and inspiration for culture, art and design: Language, knowledge and appreciation of the natural environment have been intimately related throughout human history.
- Spiritual experience and sense of place: Nature is a common element of all major religions; natural landscapes also form local identity and sense of belonging.
ENVIRONMENTAL FLOW (E-FLOW) – An amount of water that is kept flowing down a river in order to maintain the river in a desired environmental condition [O’Keefe & LeQuesne, 2009].
FRESHWATER – Water with less than 0.5 parts per thousand of dissolved salts (as compared to seawater or Brine which has more than 50 parts per thousand). The ultimate source of freshwater is rain and snow; it provides water for drinking, sanitation, agriculture, transport, electricity generation and recreation. It also creates habitats for a diverse range of animals and plants. The earth is comprised of 2.5% freshwater, and 0.3% of that is readily available for human use.
FRESHWATER SYSTEMS – The rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, groundwater, cave water, springs, floodplains, and wetlands (bogs, marshes, and swamps).
INTEGRATED RIVER BASIN MANAGEMENT (IRBM) – The process of coordinating conservation, management, and development of water, land, and related resources across sectors within a given river basin in order to maximize the economic and social benefits derived from water resources in an equitable manner while preserving and, where necessary, restoring freshwater ecosystems [Williams, 2003].
INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (IWRM) – A process that promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land, and related resources in order to maximize the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems [GWP, 2000].
PRIORITIZATION – The process of setting priorities; also referred to as “feasibility categories” or “potential of protection”. For good and credible decision-making, areas and river stretches of interest need to be evaluated according to their functions and values. Such evaluation-based prioritization processes feed into integrated river basin planning and management to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of freshwater resources.
STAKEHOLDER – Any group or individual who is interested in, affected by, or can affect an activity or process. Based on the definitions of UNEP, “Any group or individual who can affect, or is affected by, an organization or its activities. Also, any individual or group that can help define value propositions for the organization”
TRANSBOUNDARY – There are 263 transboundary lake and river basins worldwide that cover nearly half of the Earth’s land surface, 145 nations, and account for an estimated 60% of global freshwater flow. The majority (about 70%) of transboundary basins are located between developing and emerging economies, often with extremely variable intra- and inter-year hydrology, which is compounded by constraints on water-related institutional capacity and infrastructure resources (particularly given the requirements of other social and developmental priorities) at a national level. Many of the most stressed of these transboundary water resources are associated with a large portion of the global population, food production, industrial / goods manufacture, and energy generation, which contributes to significant utilization of the water resources [Pegasys, 2010].
TRANSBOUNDARY AGREEMENTS – Any bi-lateral or multi-lateral agreement related to transboundary water resources, including those related to joint water management aspects and/or those related to the specific institutions to be established [Pegasys, 2010].
TRANSBOUNDARY INSTITUTIONS – All institutions established by two or more countries to jointly advise, plan or manage a transboundary water resource, and may range from a permanent technical committee, through to a water infrastructure authority, or formal basin commissions with a permanent secretariat [Pegasys, 2010].
WATER ALLOCATION – A process whereby an available water resource is distributed to legitimate claimants and the resulting water rights are granted, transferred, reviewed, and adapted [Le Quesne et al., 2007].
WATER RESOURCE USERS ASSOCATION – An association of water users, riparian land owners, and other stakeholders who have formally and voluntarily come together and are registered by law for the purposes of cooperatively sharing, managing, and conserving a common water resource.
WATER STRESS – Areas with between 500 and 1000 m3 of water per year per capita. By 2025, two-thirds of the world population could experience water stress conditions (FAO).
WATER SCARCITY – Areas with <500 m3 of water per year per capita. By 2025, 1800 million people are expected to be living in countries or regions with “absolute” water scarcity (FAO).
WATER FOOTPRINT – Total volume of water used to produce goods and services that we consume and accounts for the volume of rainwater (green WF) and ground and surface water (blue WF) consumed in the production of agricultural goods from crops and livestock – the major uses of water – as well as the volume of water polluted (grey WF) by agriculture and from household and industrial water use. “A geographically explicit indicator, showing not only volumes of water consumption and pollution, but also the locations” [Hoekstra et al., 2011].
