Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
protect terrestrial ecosystems no doubt confer some
benefits to their component riverine biodiversity
through landscape management, but there are
significant opportunities to provide enhanced
protection focused on the special needs of rivers.
Designs for new protected areas can and should
include riverine considerations from the outset
in order to achieve better integration between all
elements of the protected area.
The IUCN protected area definition (Dudley,
2008) - 'A clearly defined geographical space,
recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal
or other effective means, to achieve the long-term
conservation of nature with associated ecosystem
services and cultural values' - relates to protected
areas that conserve primarily river corridors or free-
flowing rivers. A wide range of river conservation
strategies targeted at protecting water quality and
quantity, such as managing for ecological flows,
and using an understanding of ecosystem services
to develop wise use ( sensu Ramsar), normally
fall outside standard protected area activities.
Yet effective conservation of riverine protected
areas will only be achieved satisfactorily through
coordinated
and especially the effects of climate change on the
'third pole' (Qiu, 2008).
Since rivers are very active ecosystems,
and contain or host active organisms, more
understanding of the role of species as ecosystem
engineers, and rivers as landscape engineers will
help design better conservation programmes. This
includes further work on ecological flows; again
this is an excellent area for interaction between
social and natural sciences.
Finally, the role of ecohydrology as a developing
and integrating discipline should be promoted in
river environments.
Future institutional landscapes
The general message of rivers in the institutional
landscape is one of failure - especially to reach
the oft repeated but rarely attained mantra of
integration in management. From the Murray-
Darling System in Australia to the great rivers in
Africa, America and Asia, the stories are always
familiar despite the differing continental settings.
International, regional and national institutional
frameworks for, or including, river conservation
and management are simply not working.
The problem is not a lack of effort and dialogue,
but that effort has been, and remains, unfocused
and diversionary rather than focused and visionary.
There is an urgent need to move from words
to action - the global community does not have
theluxuryofspendingmore imere-cra ing
mechanisms for governance; serious management
and conservation action at local and national
level are what is needed. Just as the global
landscapes have become more fragmented and less
resilient, so the institutional landscape has become
more fragmented, replete with redundancy, and
ultimately less resilient.
The way forward is not to have another three
decades of procrastination and lip-service to river
management but to implement it. Rivers are in
trouble everywhere, yet we know most of the
problems and we know the answers. Our weakness
is in implementation. Perhaps when the nations
of the world gather in Rio de Janeiro in 2012
to discuss again the global environment and the
use
of
such
strategies
within
and
beyond the protected area boundaries.
Research for better river conservation
and management
Rivers flow through both institutional and
natural landscapes; thus a research agenda for
river conservation should take these conflated
landscapes into account. This means a need to
draw the results of research on river systems from
the social and natural sciences, and promoting
wherever possible multifocal research. Blending
indigenous or traditional knowledge about rivers
and their management is an area that deserves
greater attention in this context.
More detailed work on the provision and
maintenance of ecosystem services by rivers and
their attendant ecosystems is crucial and such
work should involve design and implementation of
monitoring programmes. Understanding the effects
of climate and other global change along the length
of the world's great rivers is also an important need,
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