Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Reserves. In 1971 the first of the global conventions
dealing with environmental issues was born in
Ramsar, Iran, as governments, non-government
organizations and UNESCO sought to establish a
global focus on maintaining wetlands to ensure
the survival of migratory waterfowl. This was
to be achieved through the establishment of
the Convention on Wetlands of International
Importance especially for Waterfowl, better known
by
species focus; Bahaman and Varis (2005) noted
that 'water faded from international agendas
(in the 1980s), so much so that the Brundtland
Commission Report (WCED, 1987), which laid
the cornerstones to the concept of sustainable
development in international policy, hardly
addressed the issue of water'. That situation
changed in the 1990s, and water was given
prominence through a number of conferences and
international organizations. For example, 1990
saw the first international conference on river
conservation and management, organized by the
Nature Conservancy Council in Great Britain. The
results of that conference were published in Boon
et al. (1992).
Efforts such as the International Conference
on Water and Environment (ICWE, 1992)
produced The Dublin Statement on Water and
Sustainable Development, which contained inter
alia 'In the coming decades, management of
international watersheds will greatly increase in
importance. A high priority should therefore be
given to the preparation and implementation of
integrated management plans, endorsed by all
affected governments and backed by international
agreements.'
The Dublin Statement also fed into the World
Conference on Environment and Development
(WCED) held in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, in
1992 on the 20th anniversary of the Stockholm
conference. The WCED was notable for producing
a local action framework, Agenda 21 ,andthe
establishment of three key UN conventions -
the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD),
the Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC), and the Convention on Combating
Desertification (UNCCD).
1992 also saw the entry into force of the
regional Convention on the Protection and Use
of Transboundary Watercourses and International
Lakes (Water Convention), under the auspices
of the UN Economic Commission for Europe.
This Convention sought to strengthen national
measures for the protection and ecologically sound
management of transboundary surface waters and
groundwaters. Also in 1992 the European Union
adopted the Habitats Directive (Council of the
its
shorter
title
of
the
Ramsar
Convention
(Matthews, 1993).
In 1972 a major UN Conference on the
Human Environment was held in Stockholm.
This conference established the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) and made strides
in developing legal protocols for environmental
protection. Synchronously within UNESCO the
results of the Biosphere Conference (UNESCO,
1970) had begun to be applied with the earliest
Biosphere Reserves being declared, and the
Convention concerning the Protection of the World
Cultural and Natural Heritage began to inscribe
natural sites on the World Heritage List.
By the mid-1970s there were in place,
therefore, opportunities to recognize riverine
places of special global significance, and provide
them with appropriate national management
and conservation (often wrongly ascribed as
'protection'), according to the rules and procedures
of each international programme or convention.
Examples
of
rivers
(or
more
frequently
parts
thereof),
listed
under
the
conventions
and
programmes are given in Table 24.1.
1977 saw the United Nations Conference on
Water held in the Mar del Plata, Argentina (Cano,
1981). This brought global attention at high level
to the 'water issue'. One clear outcome from this
meeting was the recommendation that Integrated
Water Resources Management (IWRM) should be
the approach for managing the multiple competing
uses of water resources, especially rivers and their
catchments. IWRM focused on structural measures
and non-structural measures to control natural
and artificial water resources systems for beneficial
uses.
In
the
1980s,
discussions
on
international
environmental
governance
tended
to
have
a
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