UNEP report spotlights better water management
Agricultural crop yields are used to establish how to best manage water, but ecosystem services should be considered by planners and policymakers as well. This is the message from the latest United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report, prepared by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) at the University of York in the United Kingdom and presented at the recent World Water Forum in Marseille, France. Titled 'Releasing the Pressure: Water Resource Efficiencies and Gains for Ecosystem Services', the report underlines how it is only when we acknowledge the connection between the benefits of water and ecosystem services that water productivity can be increased. The upshot is more sustainable and efficient water resources, which in turn lead to improved livelihoods, agriculture and environment. Policymakers the world over consider means of boosting water productivity and efficiency. This issue increasingly weighs on their minds, particularly as rising incomes and changing diets are expected to boost the demand on water resources that are already under pressure, according to the report. It notes how this approach would take several elements into account: the value of water regulation and purification; pollination; erosion control; and other ecosystem services that could be negatively impacted when people use water for agricultural purposes. Commenting on the report, Achim Steiner, the United Nations under-secretary- general and UNEP executive director, says: 'Assessing water productivity narrowly - for example, by simply looking at crop, fodder and forest produce - will continue to undervalue the role of water for wider society and the economy. 'Recognising the wider benefits generated by water, for example nutrient flows, cooling, providing habitats, and other supporting and regulating ecosystem services, is the aim of our work. Water may soon be a critically restricted resource for a growing number of people. In just over three months, world governments will meet for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). 'This report addresses an important issue for future sustainable development: how to enhance the productive and equitable use of water for multiple needs.' African and Asian studies are included in the report as well. The report shows that various techniques, including soil and water conservation, minimum tillage and rainwater harvesting, are used to manage pressure on limited water resources. But the report goes on to say how these techniques could be developed further in order to sustainably improve the productivity of water used in rain-fed agriculture in eastern Europe, central Asia and Africa. The report also notes how closing current yield caps to within 95% of potential yields in rain-fed agriculture could result in a 58% jump in grain production. It should be noted, however, that current levels of water use would be maintained and surrounding landscape water would nourish ecosystem services. 'A narrow definition of "water productivity" considers only the value of agricultural produce, but doesn't put a price on lost drinking water, reduced fish populations, parched pastures, or shrinking groundwater reservoirs,' says Jennie Barron, a research fellow at SEI, one of the authors of the report.For more information, please visit: SEI at the University of York:http://www.sei-international.org/yorkTo download the report, click:http://www.sei-international.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Air-land-water-resources/sei-unep-releasing-the-pressure.pdf (here)
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