NEWS RELEASE: New database offers comprehensive information on world’s river basins
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OSAKA, JAPAN, March 18, 2003 -- Scientists today launched a comprehensive database of the world’s river basins, in the form of a compact disc and a website, during the on-going Third World Water Forum in Japan. The Watersheds of the World-CD addresses twenty global issues through key maps, data, and indicators for 154 of the world’s largest basins. It also provides an analysis of the state of the world’s river basins, including the environmental goods and services they provide. "The Watersheds of the World-CD offers the best information available today on the river basins of the world,” said project leader Carmen Revenga of World Resources Institute (WRI). “It is a vital reference for anyone who is concerned with or involved in water management issues. This includes policymakers and the general public, who should be aware of the crises that many freshwater systems and populations face around the world.” Reliable data and information at the basin level are essential for integrated water resources management. The Watersheds of the World-CD, compiled from a wide variety of data sources, fulfills the demand from policy makers, managers, non-governmental organizations, and the public for information on the world’s freshwater resources to support integrated water management and planning. “Water relates not only to the water we get from the tap. It relates to the food we eat, the fish we catch, the birds we watch, our recreation, and our industry,” said Elroy Bos of IUCN-The World Conservation Union, a project collaborator. “To avert the dramatic future scenario of widespread water shortages, human suffering, and environmental destruction, water management needs the involvement of civil society. This information will help people find out what is going on.” The Watersheds of the World-CD reveals that 42 watersheds have lost more than 75 percent of their original forest cover. Fifteen of these have lost more than 95 percent of their original forests. Most of these basins, with the exception of the Tigris and Euphrates, are found in Africa, Central America, and Europe. Nine basins have lost more than 500,000 square kilometers of forest, including the Mekong, Ganges, Amazon, Paraná, Ob, Volga, and the Mississippi River basins. The Yangtze and the Congo have lost more than 1 million km2 of forest each. More than half, or 82, of the watersheds analyzed have less than five per cent of their land area under national protection. Most of the high value, species-rich watersheds are the least protected, such as the Paraná in Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay, much of the Amazon, and the Congo. Almost all the basins in India, China, Southeast Asia, and Papua New Guinea have less than five percent of their area protected. The database highlights the fragmentation of rivers due to dams and other infrastructure that disrupts natural ecosystems and can have significant impacts on downstream fisheries. The Watersheds of the World-CD shows that 37 percent of the basins studied are strongly affected by fragmentation and altered flows, 23 percent are moderately affected, and 40 percent are unaffected. The water scarcity analysis presented in the CD reveals that by 2025, assuming current consumption patterns continue, at least 3.5 billion people -- or 48 percent of the world’s projected population -- will live in water-stressed river basins. Of these, 2.4 billion will live under high water stress conditions. The database also reveals that 1.4 billion people already live in basins where water is overused to the extent that the basins are undergoing serious environmental damage. The Watershed of the World-CD is produced by the Water Resources eAtlas, a joint project of WRI, IUCN–The World Conservation Union, the International Water Management Institute, and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. The project aims to make freshwater information available so that managers, policy makers, and non-governmental organizations can participate in deciding about water resource management and allocation. Other contributing partners are BirdLife International, the IUCN Water and Nature Initiative, Wetlands International, the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science of Conservation International, the IUCN Species Survival Commission, the CGIAR Challenge Program in Water and Food, and the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture. -30- |
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