Humpback whale. Photo courtesy NOAA

The International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB) was declared by the United Nations “to increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues.” The event is in its 11th year with Marine Biodiversity the theme for 2012. Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and everyone interested in marine life can take this opportunity to raise awareness of the issues affecting the world’s oceans and shores.

For 10 years, from 2000 to 2010, scientists from around the world, in an unprecedented worldwide collaboration set out to try to determine how much life is in the sea. The huge effort, dubbed the ‘Census of Marine Life’ involved 2,700 scientists from over 80 countries, who participated in 540 expeditions around the world. According to information on the Census website, “The Census investigated life in the global ocean from microbes to whales, from top to bottom, from pole to pole, bringing together the world’s preeminent marine biologists, who shared ideas, data and results. During their 10 years of discovery, Census scientists discovered new species, habitats, and connections and unlocked many of the ocean’s long-held secrets. They found and formally described more than1, 200 new marine species, with another 5,000 or more in the pipeline awaiting formal description.”

The CBD website states, “Today, about 40 percent of the world’s population lives within 100 kilometres of the coast; fisheries provide over 15 percent of the dietary intake of animal protein; toxins in some species may yield anti-cancer drugs and other pharma­ceuticals potentially worth more than US$ 5 trillion; and coastal ecosystems provide services, including tourism and protection from storms, that have been valued at nearly US$ 26 billion annually.”

There is a booklet available for download that expands on the whole Ocean Biodiversity issue, with a forward by Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity where he states, “The survival of marine and coastal ecosystems and biodiversity is essential to the nutritional, spiritual, societal and religious well-being of many coastal communities. But even for the many millions of people who may not think that they have any strong reliance on the ocean, marine ecosystems and wildlife provide all kinds of benefits.”

Life began in the ocean. Let’s not let it end there.

Where do squid, jellyfish and other sea creatures begin life? The story, told from the viewpoint of a sea urchin, reveals a stunningly beautiful saga of fertilization, development and growth in the ocean depths.

Although this targets children on TED-Ed, the visuals – and the information – are interesting for adults as well.  The language is easy to understand, with a touch of humor and a few double entendres added for the grown ups.

Lesson by Tierney Thys, visualization by Christian Sardet (CNRS/Tara Oceans), Noé Sardet, and Sharif Mirshak (Plankton Chronicles Project, Parafilms).

The marine insect Halobates sericeus, also known as a “sea skater” or “oceanic water strider.” Photo credit: Anthony Smith.

A 100-fold upsurge in human-produced plastic trash in the ocean is altering habitats in the marine environment, according to a new study led by a graduate student researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego’s research vessel New Horizon, shown during the 2009 SEAPLEX voyage that investigated plastic debris in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. Photo credit: Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego

In 2009 an ambitious group of graduate students led the Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition (SEAPLEX) to the North Pacific Ocean Subtropical Gyre aboard the Scripps research vessel New Horizon. During the voyage the researchers, who concentrated their studies a thousand miles west of California, documented an alarming amount of human-generated trash, mostly broken down bits of plastic the size of a fingernail floating across thousands of miles of open ocean.

At the time the researchers didn’t have a clear idea of how such trash might be impacting the ocean environment, but a new study published in the May 9 online issue of the journal Biology Letters reveals that plastic debris in the area popularly known as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” has increased by 100 times over in the past 40 years, leading to changes in the natural habitat of animals such as the marine insect Halobates sericeus. These “sea skaters” or “water striders”-relatives of pond water skaters-inhabit water surfaces and lay their eggs on flotsam (floating objects). Naturally existing surfaces for their eggs include, for example: seashells, seabird feathers, tar lumps and pumice. In the new study researchers found that sea skaters have exploited the influx of plastic garbage as new surfaces for their eggs. This has led to a rise in the insect’s egg densities in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre.

SEAPLEX researchers collected an alarming amount of small bits of broken down plastic floating across thousands of miles of open ocean. Photo credit: Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego

Such an increase, documented for the first time in a marine invertebrate (animal without a backbone) in the open ocean, may have consequences for animals across the marine food web, such as crabs that prey on sea skaters and their eggs.

“This paper shows a dramatic increase in plastic over a relatively short time period and the effect it’s having on a common North Pacific Gyre invertebrate,” said Scripps graduate student Miriam Goldstein, lead author of the study and chief scientist of SEAPLEX, a UC Ship Funds-supported voyage. “We’re seeing changes in this marine insect that can be directly attributed to the plastic.”

Examples of a not-yet-hatched sea skater (Halobates sericeus) egg (top), about the size of a grain of rice, and a hatched egg (bottom). Photo credit: Miriam Goldstein, Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego

The new study follows a report published last year by Scripps researchers in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series showing that nine percent of the fish collected during SEAPLEX contained plastic waste in their stomachs. That study estimated that fish in the intermediate ocean depths of the North Pacific Ocean ingest plastic at a rate of roughly 12,000 to 24,000 tons per year.

The Goldstein et al. study compared changes in small plastic abundance between 1972-1987 and 1999-2010 by using historical samples from the Scripps Pelagic Invertebrate Collection and data from SEAPLEX, a NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer cruise in 2010, information from the Algalita Marine Research Foundation as well as various published papers.

In April, researchers with the Instituto Oceanográfico in Brazil published a report that eggs of Halobates micans, another species of sea skater, were found on many plastic bits in the South Atlantic off Brazil.

“Plastic only became widespread in late ’40s and early ’50s, but now everyone uses it and over a 40-year range we’ve seen a dramatic increase in ocean plastic,” said Goldstein. “Historically we have not been very good at stopping plastic from getting into the ocean so hopefully in the future we can do better.” Coauthors of the study include Marci Rosenberg, a student at UCLA, and Scripps Research Biologist Emeritus Lanna Cheng.

Funding for SEAPLEX was provided by the University of California Ship Funds, an innovative program that allows a new generation of scientists to gain valuable scientific training at sea, Project Kaisei/Ocean Voyages Institute, the Association for Women in Science-San Diego and the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship program. The NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program (2010 Always Exploring expedition) and National Marine Fisheries Service provided support for the 2010 samples. Other study support was provided by Jim and Kris McMillan, Jeffrey and Marcy Krinsk, Lyn and Norman Lear, Ellis Wyer and an anonymous donor. Other support was provided by the California Current Ecosystem (CCE) program, part of NSF’s Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program.

Source: Scripps Institution of Oceanography / University of California, San Diego

A tangled ghost net captured during one of the surveys. Photo courtesy algalita.org

Oceanic Garbage Soup – Choking the Food Chain

Floating on or just beneath the surface of the north Pacific Ocean, over 1,000 miles (1,610 km) from any landmass, lies a soup of trash; the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP). Located in the North Pacific Sub-tropical Gyre that covers approximately 10 million square miles (25,890,000 sq km), it covers an area two and a half times the size of France, the largest country in Western Europe, and is 20 percent larger than South Africa. Discovered in 1997 by Charles Moore, ironically an heir to a petroleum fortune, the GPGP is a mass of plastics, debris, and lost or discarded fishing nets.

Nearly 90 percent of all floating marine litter is plastic, a petroleum-based substance that takes decades to be broken down on land by the suns’ rays, and even longer in the cool seas where it is often further protected by barnacles and algae. Plastic pellets used in all sorts of packaging and plastic products are the most commonly found marine pollutant. Also known as nurdles or mermaids’ tears, 50 million tonnes are produced every year. 80 percent of marine rubbish comes from land via winds and rivers, with ocean currents carrying debris from the west coast of North America to the gyre in about five years, and debris from the east coast of Asia in a year or less. The remaining rubbish comes from ships with a typical 3,000-passenger cruise ship producing over eight tons of solid waste weekly, much of which ends up in the patch, alongside floats and other equipment illegally jettisoned from commercial and fishing vessels to avoid the cost of proper disposal in port.

Charles Moore swimming in the debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Photo courtesy algalita.org

Then there are the contents of the estimated ten thousand cargo containers that fall overboard every year. One container can hold 10,000 running shoes, 17,000 ice hockey gloves, or a million pieces of Lego. Given the number of consignments lost and the longevity of the products, there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of sports shoes floating in the seas. In fact, the Garbage Patch name was coined five years before Moore’s discovery, by Seattle oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer whilst studying a consignment of 29,000 plastic bathtub ducks lost from a container ship during a Pacific storm. Using oceanic current modelling software and plotting the positions where ducks were found, he became aware of a slow vortex into which debris was drawn.

Suspended Below the Surface

Unfortunately, most of the trash is not brightly coloured ducks and running shoes, but mostly small plastic particles suspended at or just below the surface, making its detection by aircraft or satellite impossible. The U.N. Environment Program estimates that 46,000 pieces of plastic litter are floating on every square mile of the oceans, whilst the GPGP when last surveyed, contained at least six times more plastic matter than plankton biomass, the bottom of the food chain.

Returning from a trans-Pacific yacht race, Moore decided to try a short-cut through the virtually windless and therefore seldom crossed North Pacific Sub-tropical Gyre (NPSG). Motoring through the area Moore was shocked by the contents of the sea. “Every time I came on deck, there was trash floating by,” he said. “How could we have fouled such a huge area? How could this go on for a week?”

Seeking the Source

As the founder of the non-profit Algalita Marine Research Foundation, he began looking into the sources of the problem and its extent. In 1999 he returned to undertake the first scientific sampling of the area he describes as two to three times the size of Texas, but that he fears could be greater than the surface area of the United States.

In June 2009, with Moore on board for his tenth mission to the area, the ORV Algalita set off on the a four-month mission to gather more data to try to gain further understanding into the wide-ranging and poorly understood potential impacts of oceanic micro-plastic pollution.

The first leg of the trip concentrated on sampling the area around Hawaii, providing both water samples from trawls and fish tissue samples for analysis back on land. It is believed that a significant amount of the plastic pollution currently cycling around the North Pacific passes around or through the Hawaiian islands, making the area a suspect for high concentration of small particle pollution as well as large ghost net pollution. The importance of these islands, with their pristine reef ecosystems, for a myriad of species means that a full understanding of how these animals and their environment are interacting with plastic pollution is needed.

Widespread Ingestion

Fish ingest small particles of plastic, mistaking them for food. Photo courtesy algalita.org

Whilst analysis of the samples is still ongoing (it is a slow process and an area for which funding is hard to find), the expeditions have discovered the widespread ingestion of plastic particles by fish that forage on plankton at night on the ocean surface. In trawls, a total of 660 fish, representing six species, were captured for future study. Of these fish, 35 percent had ingested micro-plastic particles, the record holder having 83 fragments.

Plastics absorb Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) from paint chips, coolants, pesticides, and metals, so when fish eat plastic matter and then bigger fish eat them, the chemicals could be bioaccumulating. Do the micro plastic particles contain POPs, and do these harmful pollutants migrate into the tissues and organs of the fish that ingest them and subsequently enter into the human food chain? Concentrations of the most frequent POPs (PCBs, DDT, and PAH – all renowned for their effects on the human organism) on nurdles collected from Japanese coastal waters, were found to be up to one million times higher than the levels detected in surrounding seawater. The new data from the NPSG could have far-reaching effects.

Although the actual analysis of the samples will take up until into 2012, visual observation comparing photos of the worst trawl in 1999 to the lightest in 2009 showed that the accumulation has not only a higher concentration of micro plastics but, according to Captain Moore, there was a record number of macro plastics. Things like parts of buoys, crates, bottles, caps, plastic popsicle sticks, umbrella handles, numerous oyster spacers, and builders’ hard hats were often found or observed floating on the surface.

“Plastics are the lubricant of globalization.” 

- Captain Charles Moore

On the last leg, the six crew members collected samples using a manta trawl with a rectangular opening of 0.9×0.15 m2, and a 3.5 m long, 333u net with a 30×10 cm2 collecting bag at a speed of 2.5 knots for an hour at a time, taking 52 samples. Sampling concentrated on the surface, where most of the items were found just below the surface tension, with only a small part, such as 55-gallon drums, breaking the surface. There were items full of air like buoys and capped bottles that floated on the surface but, above all, location in the water column depends on sea state. If the ocean is rough, the trash is forced down deeper. When it is calm, it rises toward the surface again, although Captain Moore, the only crewmember remaining from the 1999 sampling expedition, has found plastics over 100 metres deep, using a bongo trawl. Every sample came back with large quantities of plastic particulates. Though it’s difficult to quantify just how much more without the data from the samples, according to Captain Moore, it appears to be significantly more. He estimated that the weight of the plastic debris there has doubled in a decade and is accumulating at an ever-increasing speed.

1 mile trawl sample of plastic debris of the North Pacific Gyre in 2005. Photo courtesy algalita.org

Researcher Bonnie Monteleone from the University of North Carolina said that the most shocking thing for her was “finding everyday house hold items like bottles and plastic containers that were half eaten or had large bite marks in them. Fish are eating the plastic. It might not be the fish that we eat that are eating the fish, but I can assure you the fish we eat are eating the fish that are eating the plastic.”

She became nauseated. “After witnessing the first few samples I thought, “Yep, that’s why I’m out here. But after the 20th trawl, I began hoping the sample would come back free of plastic.” She said, “Shouldn’t there be just one that doesn’t have plastic in it? But to no avail. I have to wonder if there is anywhere on this planet we haven’t polluted”.

Navigational Hazards

One major difference from 1999 to 2009, was that the amount of large items that were navigational hazards. Ghost nets that barely break the surface so it is difficult to see them until you are upon them. They can weigh up to 500 kilograms or more. “We managed to remove one that was around 200 lbs. If we had run into it, it could have done serious damage,” said Monteleone. The crew also had a near miss with a telephone pole which came within a few feet of the starboard pontoon. There was also a large item strapped to a wooden pallet that was about three feet square that they dared not approach too closely. The props were fouled several times with derelict fishing gear and went so far as to stop the engines in the middle of the night. Crewmember Jeff Ernst had to free dive under the boat to disentangle them. Even though there are no common shipping lanes nor cruise lines and very little if any fishing occurring near or in the GPGP, there is evidence of our negative plastic influence everywhere.

Plastics hauled from the Indian Ocean gyre. Photo courtesy algalita.org

If this picture wasn’t shocking enough, recent expeditions run by The 5 Gyres Project, a collaboration among AMRF, Livable Legacy and Pangaea Explorations, to the planet’s four other major gyres in the North Atlantic, Indian Ocean, South Atlantic and South Pacific, have all come back with sampling nets containing considerable quantities of plastic. Further sampling is being carried out to gain an even more accurate picture, through The 5 Gyres Project “Travel Trawl” program, where research equipment is loaned to other sailors and “citizen scientists” to collect ocean samples.

Ingestion of plastic items kills an estimated 100,000 marine animals yearly, as plastic mistaken for food fills the stomach and impedes digestion of proper nourishment. According to Pulitzer Prize-winner Kenneth Weiss’s research, young albatross are killed in their hundreds of thousands, and corpses on Midway Island have been found with all sorts of plastic matter in their stomachs, including ballpoint pen lids, toy soldiers, dinosaurs, perfume bottles, highlighter pens, and disposable lighters.

Albatross are by no means the only victims. An estimated one million seabirds choke, or become tangled in plastic nets or other debris every year. About 100,000 seals, sea lions, whales, dolphins, other marine mammals and sea turtles suffer the same fate. Furthermore, buoyant micro plastic particles ingested by small deep-sea fish may negatively affect their ability to return below and to exist in their normal habitat. Scientists already estimate that nearly half of all seabird species, all sea turtle species, and 22 species of marine mammals are harmed or killed by plastic waste through ingestion, entanglement or strangulation, before the debris has been broken down into tiny fragments.

And the Solution?

What can be done about it? For the matter that is already in the gyres, very little. Collecting it and disposing of it would be a monumental exercise that no government would be willing to fund, unless it were to start having tangible negative effects on human health.

It would appear that the only answer is to stop more plastic from getting into our oceans. Ultimately, consumption and production have to be curtailed by educating consumers and placing the responsibility on the manufacturers that produce the myriad of plastic goods and plastic packaging that are such an intrinsic part of everyday lives. But in a society increasingly reliant on plastic substances, that may be a task as big as the Garbage Patches themselves.

In 2008, Alexandra Cousteau, daughter of Phillipe and granddaughter of world famous explorer and filmmaker Jacques-Yves, established the Blue Legacy organization to continue her family’s work in protecting the oceans as well as exploring crucial water issues across the globe. Since then, Expedition: Blue Planet, the organization’s filmmaking venture, has traveled across five continents documenting critical water stories in India, Botswana, Cambodia, Australia, the Middle East, and the Mississippi River.

In the short film – Cousteau and Expedition Blue Planet explore the Colorado River, the “carotid artery” of western America’s water supply, bringing life’s most basic resource to over 20 million people. Today, the Colorado is a river on the edge of crisis – with alarming consequences in the balance.

Managed Water Use

Value Ecosystems – Not Just Crops – When Managing Water Use, says UN Report

Recognizing the valuable services provided by ecosystems such as wetlands and forests – and not only focusing on water productivity in agriculture – can improve livelihoods and help meet the rising demands on the world’s water resources in a sustainable way, according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

read more

Watershed: More Than an Event

Increased populations, technologies and higher per-capita demands place pressure on water resources. Intensified demand, coupled with continued land-use changes, means fighting over water may be the headlines of tomorrow. Watershed management can help avoid this crisis.

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Rising Sea Levels Threaten Low-Lying Coastlines of the World – Part I

Low-lying islands and coastlines around the world face a “perfect storm” of warming atmosphere and rising seas. If, as scientists predict, the oceans rise 1m or more before 2100, waters will inundate significant areas of low-lying islands and coastlines, causing widespread damage to public and private property, roads, communications, power installations, sewage facilities and airports.

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India’s Barefoot Water Scientists

In southern India, the climate is becoming unpredictable and drought more common. Indiscriminate pumping from shallow aquifers shared by many farmers has caused abnormal drops in water levels. When a well goes dry, a farmer loses his crop.

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Rising Sea Levels Related to Highest Atmospheric CO2 Levels in 3 Million Years – Part II

Our planet is entering an environmental twilight zone, where the ultimate effects of global warming are entirely unpredictable and almost certainly irreversible over human lifetimes, given “business as usual” scenarios.

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Marvel – Underwater Photography by Cory Strassburger

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World Water Monitoring Day is Now the World Water Monitoring Challenge

In recognition of the extended timeframe and to promote year-round involvement, World Water Monitoring Day will now be known as the World Water Monitoring Challenge. Along with the name change, organizers have updated their website with interactive reporting features and support materials for educators and civic groups.

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The Living Water Sculpture of Jason de Caires Taylor

In celebrating life-giving water, English artist Jason de Caires Taylor returns us to our beginnings in his astonishing sculptures that are placed at varying depths beneath the surface of the seas. Taylor is interested in our relationship to our environment and his works provide unique and thoughtful expressions of our shifting life experience.

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The Water Family

A game for the whole family to learn about water use. Although it is designed for children, there are many things adults can do to become Water Wise, too.

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Deep Ocean Mysteries and Wonders

In this TED – Ed video, Marine biologist David Gallo explores the wonder and diversity of marine life – from the deepest, darkest trenches to the remains of the Titanic.

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More Water Features:

• World Wetlands Day
• UN Millennium Development Goal Drinking Water Target is Met
• Europe Needs to Use Water More Efficiently
• Rain Water – Photography by Neal Morell
• Someplace with a Mountain
• Bottle Shock
• Reduce, REUSE- World Water Day
• Water Works!
• Water For Food
• The Real Effects of Sea Level Rise
• High and Low Waters – Video
• Laundry Day

The world has met the Millennium Development Goal target of halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water, well in advance of the MDG 2015 deadline, according to a report issued today by UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO). Between 1990 and 2010, over two billion people gained access to improved drinking water sources, such as piped supplies and protected wells.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, “Today we recognize a great achievement for the people of the world. This is one of the first MDG targets to be met. The successful efforts to provide greater access to drinking water are a testament to all who see the MDGs not as a dream, but as a vital tool for improving the lives of millions of the poorest people.

The report, Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation 2012, by the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation, says at the end of 2010, 89 percent of the world’s population, or 6.1 billion people, used improved drinking water sources. This is one percent more than the 88 percent MDG target. The report estimates that by 2015 92 percent of the global population will have access to improved drinking water.

“For children this is especially good news,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. “Every day more than 3,000 children die from diarrhoeal diseases. Achieving this goal will go a long way to saving children’s lives.”

Lake warned that victory could not yet be declared as at least 11 percent of the world’s population – 783 million people – are still without access to safe drinking water, and billions without sanitation facilities.

“The numbers are still staggering,” he said, “But the progress announced today is proof that MDG targets can be met with the will, the effort and the funds.”

“We have reached an important target, but we cannot stop here. Our next step must be to target the most difficult to reach, the poorest and the most disadvantaged people across the world. The United Nations General Assembly has recognized drinking water and sanitation as human rights. That means we must ensure that every person has access. — United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon”

The report highlights, however, that the world is still far from meeting the MDG target for sanitation, and is unlikely to do so by 2015. Only 63 percent of the world now has improved sanitation access, a figure projected to increase only to 67 per cent by 2015, well below the 75 percent aim in the MDGs. Currently 2.5 billion people still lack improved sanitation.

Water, Sanitation, Hygiene Are Key

UNICEF and WHO also cautioned that since the measurement of water quality is not possible globally, progress towards the MDG target of safe drinking water is measured through gathering data on the use of improved drinking water sources. Significant work must be done to ensure that improved sources of water are and remain safe.

“Better water, sanitation and hygiene are key to improving human health and development,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan. “Today, even with this exciting new progress, almost 10 percent of all diseases are still linked to poor water, sanitation and hygiene.”

The report highlights the immense challenges that remain. Global figures mask massive disparities between regions and countries, and within countries.

Sub-Saharan Africa Still Lags

Only 61 percent of the people in Sub-Saharan Africa have access to improved water supply sources compared with 90 percent or more in Latin America and the Caribbean, Northern Africa, and large parts of Asia. Over 40 percent of all people globally who lack access to drinking water live in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The report confirms that in cases where water supplies are not readily accessible, the burden of carrying water falls disproportionately on women and girls. In many countries, the wealthiest people have seen the greatest improvement in water and sanitation access, while the poorest still lag far behind.

The report provides the latest information on rural areas across the globe, highlighting the need for greater attention both to water and sanitation. In rural areas in Least Developed Countries, 97 out of every 100 people do not have piped water and 14 percent of the population drinks surface water – for example, from rivers, ponds, or lakes.

Of 1.1 billion people who still practice open defecation, the vast majority (949 million) live in rural areas. This affects even regions with high levels of improved water access. For instance, 17 percent of rural dwellers in Latin America and the Caribbean and 9 percent in Northern Africa still resort to open defecation. Even the so-called BRIC countries, with rapidly growing economies, have large numbers of people who practice open defecation: 626 million in India, 14 million in China, and 7.2 million in Brazil.

“We have reached an important target, but we cannot stop here,” the Secretary-General said. “Our next step must be to target the most difficult to reach, the poorest and the most disadvantaged people across the world. The United Nations General Assembly has recognized drinking water and sanitation as human rights. That means we must ensure that every person has access.”

Recognizing the valuable services provided by ecosystems such as wetlands and forests – and not only focusing on water productivity in agriculture – can improve livelihoods and help meet the rising demands on the world’s water resources in a sustainable way, according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Increasing water productivity and efficiency is a key concern for policymakers in many parts of the world, especially as rising incomes and changing diets are set to increase the demand on water resources that are already under pressure.

The UNEP report, entitled Releasing the Pressure: Water Resource Efficiencies and Gains for Ecosystem Services, which was produced by researchers at the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), urges policymakers and resource managers to shift from the traditional focus on water productivity per unit of agricultural yield (“more per crop drop”), to a broader view of the concept, which would include ecosystems services.

Such an approach would take into account water regulation and purification, pollination, erosion control and other ecosystems services performed by wetlands and forests. These water-dependent services, and the communities that rely on them, can be adversely affected when water is siphoned off from rivers or streams, or drained from marshes, for agricultural use.

“Improving water management to reflect multiple needs and multiple uses is crucial to sustaining water’s many benefits to human well-being, societies and economies. – Patrick Keys, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)”

Balancing the goals of agricultural land (agro-ecosystems) with these kinds of ecosystem services – using some of the techniques outlined in the UNEP report – can serve to improve human well-being, increase crop yields in a sustainable way and support the transition to a low-carbon, resource-.zefficient and equitable Green Economy.

“Assessing water productivity narrowly – for example, by simply looking at crop, fodder and forest produce – will continue to under-value the role of water for wider society and the economy,” said UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

“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,” added Mr Steiner.

Using Existing Techniques to Improve Water Productivity

The report uses case studies from Africa and Asia to demonstrate how some of the pressure on limited water resources can be managed with existing techniques – in a way that benefits both agro-ecosystems and ‘downstream’ ecosystem services.

Improving the productivity of water used in rainfed agriculture in Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia – which provides 60 per cent of the world’s cereal crops – is an untapped opportunity to meet food, fodder and fibre demands, says the study.

Soil and water conservation, minimum tillage and rainwater harvesting are techniques that can close the gap between actual and potential yields of crops in a sustainable way. Closing current yield gaps to within 95 per cent of potential yields in rainfed agriculture could increase grain production by 58 percent, while maintaining current levels of water use. Importantly, this allows water flows in the surrounding landscape to continue to sustain ecosystems services.

A case study from the report of an ecosystems evaluation in the Barotse floodplain, Zambia, shows that more than three-quarters of household income there comes from subsistence activities supported by ecosystem services, such as fishing and livestock grazing.

The report also shows how agricultural water management interventions have made both positive and negative impacts on water outflows, sediment transport and soil loss in the Kothapally watershed, in southern India.

“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,” said Jennie Barron, a research fellow at SEI’s centre at the University of York, U.K., who wrote the report with SEI-U.S. researcher Patrick Keys, based in Seattle, Washington.

“Improving water management to reflect multiple needs and multiple uses is crucial to sustaining water’s many benefits to human well-being, societies and economies,” said Keys.

“Many ecosystem services that underlie people’s livelihoods draw on the same water resources used for agriculture: wetlands that provide reeds, fish and rice; forests that supply timber, firewood and game. In addition, water is needed to support and regulate important functions such as nutrient transport, vapour flow and sediment flow,” he added.

The report aims to encourage water and land resource managers around the world to explore the ecosystem service gains and tradeoffs in their own local contexts, such as watersheds, landscapes, countries, or basins.

Other key recommendations in the report include:

• In livestock management, adopt techniques that can improve both ecosystem services and livelihoods from farming. Such strategies include: rotating livestock herds, using manure fertilizer, managing crop residues for livestock feed and choosing climate-appropriate breeds and size of herds
• Include regulating and supporting ecosystem services (eg. water purification, disease regulation) in local and regional water management agendas
• Use water management methods that mimic natural water storage, so agricultural water remains linked with the surrounding landscapes
• Integrate forestry into water management efforts to ensure the value of forest ecosystems are accounted for in landscape water use
• Expand Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) practices to manage water productivity for ecosystem services in various landscape uses, especially from fishing and livestock grazing

Launch of UNEP Ecosystem Management Tools

UNEP is also launching a set of three manuals to enable policymakers and water practitioners to incorporate ecosystems approaches in the management of water resources. The publications aim to address a lack of awareness and the limited data available on this issue, and to enable decision-makers to use a policy approach to effectively stop and reverse the degradation of ecosystems.

1) Ecosystem Management: Concept for local-scale implementation

Based on collaboration with more than 20 experts from 14 institutions worldwide, this manual aims to improve the understanding of ecosystems structure, function and services among water catchment managers and other practitioners. The 18 modules consist of short presentations and practical exercises that allow participants to apply the concepts to their everyday work in managing water resources.

2) Integrated Water Resources Management for Small Island Developing States (SIDS)

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is a process of sustainable developing, allocating and monitoring the use of water towards social, economic and environmental objectives. This resource book, which contains a wide range of case studies and best practices, examines how IWRM can be applied to small island developing economies and puts forward a Planning Cycle and Methodology to assist organizations or individuals dealing with watersheds, catchments or coastal zone management.

3) Comprehensive Option Assessment

This training manual targets government officials and others working on large infrastructure projects. It supports ongoing efforts to consider environmental and social factors on an equal footing with more traditional technical and financial concerns when undertaking such projects. The manual highlights key issues and principles that support the sustainable development of infrastructure – especially in Africa and other developing regions.

Further Resources

• Download Report: Releasing the Pressure – Water Resource Efficiencies & Gains for Ecosystem Service
• Policy Brief on Main Findings of Report
• UNEP Training Manual: Comprehensive Option Assesment
• UNEP Training Manual: Integrated Water Resources Management for Small Island Developing States
• UNEP Radio Spots (in Spanish) on Water Resources in Latin America and the Caribbean
• Stockholm Environment Institute
• UNEP Green Economy Report: Water Chapter

Source: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

In southern India, the climate is becoming unpredictable and drought more common. Indiscriminate pumping from shallow aquifers shared by many farmers has caused abnormal drops in water levels. When a well goes dry, a farmer loses his crop.

Six thousand farmers have been trained in groundwater management by a project run by Indian NGOs and guided by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. They have learned to monitor how much water is available underground at the start of the growing season. Then they only plant crops that need that much water.