Transboundary Freshwater Basins,
Aquifers and Marine Ecosystems
GEF Action on Water
Major Threats to International Waters-Transboundary Systems
• Degradation of Water Quality• Habitat Destruction-excessive withdrawals, wetland
conversion, dam releases• Overexploitation of Fish/Living Resources• Land Degradation/Sedimentation• Introduced Species– ship ballast water, fish, cholera,
red tide organisms• Groundwater Quality, Quantity, Recharge Areas• Balancing Basin Uses/Conflicts
IW Conventions and Programs of Action• Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (1971) • International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships,
1973, as modified by the Protocol of 1978 (MARPOL 73/78)• The Nairobi, Abidjan, Barcelona, Bucharest, Cartagena, Jeddah,
Kuwait, Lima, Noumea, Guatemala Conventions (UNEP Regional Seas Programme - 1974-2002)
• Convention on Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (1979)
• UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS - 1982)• Bellagio Draft Agreement Concerning the Use of Transboundary
Groundwaters (1987)• UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC - 1991)
IW Conventions andPrograms of Action
• UN Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD - 1992)• Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD - 1994)• Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of
Small Island States (1994) • UN Agreement on Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory
Fish Stocks (1995)• Global Programme of Action (GPA) for the Protection of the
Marine Environment from Land-Based Activities (1995)• Jakarta Mandate on Marine and Coastal Biodiversity (1995)• UN Convention on Non-Navigational Uses of International
Watercourses (1997)• Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs -
2001)
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20
25
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GPA CBD Reg.Conv. S.Stocks CIW Ramsar MARPOL CCD FCCC POPs SIDS Bellagio
GEF support to internationalagreements (#of projects)
GEF Comprehensive,Ecosystem- Based Approach to IW
• The goal: Maintaining the integrity of ecosystems and of the services they provide. The GEF Strategy:
• Promotes Actions To Address the Multiple Concerns Facing Transboundary Systems that Focus on Changing the Way Human Activities are Conducted in Different Economic Sectors: (a) policy, legal, and institutional reforms nationally and regionally & (b) investments.
• Helps Governments to Balance Competing Uses, and encourages moving from sectoral (supply, sanitation, irrigation; freshwater basins Vs coastal zones, etc.) to cross-sectoral integrated approaches to water management.
• Promotes coordination among donors and the leveraging of Partner Programs.
GEF Operational Strategy For IW
• Foundational Work: Support for Initial Strategic Capacity Building For Multicountry Basin-specific or Marine Ecosystem-specific Collaboration – creation of inter-ministerial committees; transboundary diagnostic (TDA), agreement on a Strategic Action Program (SAP)
• Stress Reduction Measures: based on an agreed SAP, GEF may support a “SAP Implementation Project”, including national reforms, demonstration investments for transboundary priorities, regional institution-building
Key Elements of Foundational Work in Multi-country Water-bodies
• Establishment of National and Multi-country Interministerial Committees as main decision making bodies
• Achievemnet of informed consensus among riparian/littoral countries through a science based Analysis of Transboundary Water Concerns (TDA): identify problems and their causes, (discriminating domestic versus transboundary); identify possible solutions.
• Agreement on Actions: inter-ministerial committees agree on what reforms and investments, needed to solve transboundary concerns nationally and regionally, they are willing to undertake and governments formally adopt a Strategic Action Program.
Stress Reduction Measures: the GEF Role
• GEF will facilitate changes in behaviors through reforms (policies, laws, institutions) at the local, national and regional levels.
• GEF will help leverage investments for on the ground interventions through strategic partnerships.
• GEF will support projects that will demonstrate on the ground the beneficial impacts of new approaches and technologies.
• GEF will strengthen regional institutions and processes.
Foundational Work:Capacity building
Establishment of processesIdentification
of Causes and SolutionsAgreement on Action Programs
Stress Reduction MeasuresImplementation of
Strategic Action Programs:Legal, policy and
Institutional reformsInvestments
Demonstrations
Process Indicators
Stress Reduction Indicators
Environmental Status Indicators
Agreement onTargets
Long Term Monitoring
GEF International WatersStrategy and Indicators
GEF International Waters Projects - May 2003
IW projects in Africa
IW projects in Eastern Europe and Central Asia
IW projects in East Asia
IW projects in Central America and the Caribbean
IW projects in South America
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