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Integrating Biodiversity Conservation and Water Development: in Search of Long-Term Solutions L

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Integrating Biodiversity Conservation and Water Development: in Search of Long-Term Solutions L Opinion Integrating biodiversity conservation and water development: in search of long-term solutions L. J. Gorenflo1* and Dennis B. Warner2 Fresh water, a resource necessary for most life on Earth, currently experiences impacts that reduce both water quality and quantity. These impacts compromise human wellbeing and threaten the existence of many nonhuman species, the lat- ter including freshwater biodiversity as well as other species requiring water to survive. In response, development and conservation professionals strive to ensure that adequate fresh water is available for people and other organisms. Here we examine the need to coordinate efforts in these two areas of interven- tion to ensure long-term success for both. We begin by discussing how places needing water development and biodiversity conservation tend to be located in the same parts of the world, suggesting that projects in each subject area may well co-occur. We then summarize briefly the current challenges facing water development and freshwater-related biodiversity conservation, as well as the main approaches to address those challenges. The study examines potential stra- tegies to provide improved access to water for both people and nature through integrated water resources management and less formal approaches to avoiding unintended impacts of one activity on the other. Example projects reveal several benefits of linking development and biodiversity conservation efforts to maintain water resources. The study closes by arguing for the need to coordinate water development and biodiversity conservation activities in a manner that seeks practical synchronized solutions for particular project settings. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. How to cite this article: WIREs Water 2016, 3:301–311. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1142 INTRODUCTION there remain today 663 million who rely on unim- proved sources for the water they drink.1 Some 1.2 resh water is necessary for human survival and billion people live in areas where water is physically Fincreasingly a resource under stress. Although scarce, and nearly 2.0 billion face water shortages.2 roughly 2.6 billion people have gained access to An estimated 1.8 billion use water that is fecally con- improved sources of drinking water since 1990 and taminated, a major reason for continuing high levels 91% of the global population now uses such sources, of child mortality due to diarrheal diseases.3,4 As global population grows from the current total of 7.3 5 *Correspondence to: [email protected] billion to 9.7 billion by 2050, demand for water is 1Department of Landscape Architecture, The Pennsylvania State anticipated to increase by 55% to support domestic, University, University Park, PA, USA agricultural, and industrial uses.2 Meeting growing 2Millennium Water Alliance, Washington, DC, USA fresh water needs, and providing access to safe drink- Conflict of interest: The authors have declared no conflicts of inter- ing water amid rising human impacts, will be massive est for this article. challenges in the next few decades. Volume3,May/June2016 ©2016WileyPeriodicals,Inc. 301 Opinion wires.wiley.com/water Less well known, but no less dire, is the decline became a major focus of attention with the establish- of biological diversity in freshwater ecosystems, such ment of the International Drinking Water Supply and as rivers, streams, and wetlands.6 Comprising only Sanitation Decade (1981–1990), which had the about 0.8% of the earth’s surface, freshwater ecosys- ambitious goal of supplying water and sanitation to tems contain much of the earth’s biodiversity.7,8 all people through replicable, self-reliant, and self- Unfortunately, the freshwater biome also is the most sustaining programs.15 The need for water develop- threatened, with as much as 71% of the world’s wet- ment usually reflects a broader need to address lands destroyed since 1900 and nearly 90% lost since poverty and economic inequality,1,2,16,17 as measured 1700.9 As a consequence, freshwater species experi- by income, such as gross domestic product, as well as enced the greatest decline of any biome between by composite measures, such as the United Nations’ 1970 and 2010, with an average reduction of 76% human development index.18 However, it is possible in the size of monitored populations10—a global pat- to focus more specifically on indicators of need for – tern borne out for specific regions.11 13 The impacts water development, such as access to improved on freshwater biodiversity extend well beyond the sources of drinking water (the agreed-upon proxy for conservation of aquatic species, to the many terres- access to safe drinking water)—piped water on the trial and marine plants and animals that also rely on premises, public taps or standpipes, tube wells or fresh water and the biodiversity it supports for their boreholes, protected dug wells, protected springs, own survival, and, ultimately, to humans, who and rainwater collection.1 Although much of the depend on functioning aquatic ecosystems for food, world now has access to improved water sources, as safe water, protection from floods, and other key noted more than 660 million continue to lack such ecosystem services.14 access, most living in rural portions of particular In the pages below, we argue that opportunities countries (Figure 1).1 often exist to coordinate water development and bio- Conservationists have devised a variety of tem- diversity conservation actions that can benefit both. plates to identify priority regions for maintaining bio- This study emerges from personal experience, trying diversity, including Biodiversity Hotspots, Centers of to provide rural communities in less developed coun- Plant Diversity, Crisis Ecoregions, Endemic Bird tries with safe drinking water and working on efforts Areas, Frontier Forests, Global 200 Ecoregions, High to conserve freshwater biodiversity in similar settings. Biodiversity Wilderness Areas, Last of the Wild, and Although both fronts have enjoyed considerable suc- Megadiversity Countries.19 Most attempts to identify cess over the years, they also have witnessed failures, conservation priorities have focused on broadly and individually we have experienced the frustration defined taxa, and although freshwater species have of involvement in projects that were not fully success- been included in many prioritization efforts they have ful, at least in the long term. In response to what not received specific attention until relatively recently. water development and conservation professionals The Global Amphibian Assessment represented a sys- began to recognize as shared challenges, an informal tematic attempt to identify the geographic ranges of meeting convened in Washington, DC, in 2005 solic- amphibian species as well as conservation status,20 ited insights from organizations engaged in both while the definition of freshwater ecoregions included types of activity. Discussions at that and subsequent a geographic assessment of fish diversity.21 A recent gatherings began to explore integrated solutions that synthesis of data for nearly 7100 freshwater species could help achieve development and biodiversity con- of amphibians, crabs, crayfish, fishes, mammals, and servation goals, serving to guide certain projects over reptiles revealed geographic patterns of species rich- the ensuing decade. This paper discusses general ness and conservation status in the freshwater approaches to water development and freshwater biome.11 The geographic distributions for freshwater biodiversity conservation that complement one conservation data are broadly consistent with the another as a path to long-term solutions. arrangement of terrestrial species and of most of the priority regions for biodiversity conservation men- tioned (Figure 2).22,a A BROAD PATTERN Although selection of project sites for water OF OVERLAPPING REAL ESTATE development or biodiversity conservation ultimately considers local circumstances and practicalities, such Water development, through the planning and imple- as the availability of capable partners, access to mentation of water projects, has been a focus of funds, local and national government support, secu- modern international development since its onset in rity for project personnel, and policies of donor agen- the mid-20th century. This area of development cies, broad patterns reveal general cooccurrence 302 ©2016WileyPeriodicals,Inc. Volume3,May/June2016 WIREs Water Integrating biodiversity conservation and water development (a) Percent of population with access to improved water source, 2015 Percent of population with improved water source Projection: Eckert IV No data 51 - 65 81 - 90 0 - 50 66 - 80 91 - 100 (b) UN human development index, 2013 Human development index Projection: Eckert IV No data 0.51 - 0.65 0.81 - 0.90 < 0.50 0.66 - 0.80 0.91 - 0.94 FIGURE 1 | Percent of population with access to improved drinking water, by country, 2015 (a) and United Nations Development Index, by country, 2013 (b). Geographic information system datasets developed by lead author. consistent with those identified in other studies.23 In certain needs that that enable these very different localities where conditions invite both water develop- types of endeavors to benefit through allied, comple- ment and biodiversity conservation actions, coordi- mentary actions. At a minimum, we feel that these nated efforts emerge as an opportunity to join forces two activities can consider one another’s efforts, to achieve greater success in both.24 In cases where allowing each to limit or entirely
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