Download Global Water Trends Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005)

Welcome
Global Water Trends
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005)
•Water withdrawals from rivers and lakes doubled since
1960; most water use (70% worldwide) is for agriculture.
•Since 1960, flows of biologically available nitrogen in
terrestrial ecosystems have doubled, and flows of
phosphorus have tripled.
•Over the past few hundred years, humans have increased
the species extinction rate by as much as 1,000 times over
background rates typical over the planet’s history.
Freshwater ecosystems have the highest proportion of
species threatened with extinction.
“Outstanding Problems”
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005)
“The intense
vulnerability of the 2
billion people living
in
dryland agricultural
regions to the loss
of ecosystem
services, including
water supply; and
the growing threat
to ecosystems from
climate change and
nutrient pollution.”
Nitrogen Flows
Global Temperature
past/projected
Water in Canada and on
the Prairies
•Canada is averagely endowed with freshwater resources (7% of world
total and a landmass of about 7% of the Earth’s surface). However
water resources are concentrated in the less-accessible north.
• Agriculture is Canada’s largest net consumer of water (70% of all
withdrawls from rivers, streams, reservoirs and wells). The Prairies account
for 75% of all agricultural water consumption in Canada. Thus over half of
all water consumption in Canada is in Prairie Agriculture.
•Prairies constantly afflicted by high hydrological variability (projected to
worsen with climate change):
– Instrumental record Droughts: 1906; 1936-68 (quarter million people
displaced); 1961; 1976-77; 1980; 1984-85; 1988; 2001-2003 (“the worst
ever?” $3.6 B Ag /$5.8 B GDP/ 41 000 jobs lost
– 2005 Manitoba Floods: $700 M Ag loss/ > $ 1M GDP loss projected.
– Lake Winnipeg Eutrophication; $50 M freshwater fishery / $100 M
tourism industry threatened.
•We have all the global issues in spades - how do we build resilient
ecosystems and rural economies?
Adapting Mosaic – “In
this scenario, regional
watershed-scale
Millennium
Assessment
and the
ecosystems are the focus of political and economic activity.
Ecosystem
framework
Local institutions are strengthened
and Services
local ecosystem
management strategies are common; societies develop a strongly
proactive approach to the management of ecosystems”
The Good News: the Provinces
are (conceptually) on board
•(A Consensus) All Prairie Provinces have embraced the goal of
Watershed-based Integrated Water Resources Management
and Governance.
• Manitoba Water Stewardship: The Manitoba Water Strategy heavy emphasis on Watershed Planning through Conservation
Districts
•Saskatchewan Watershed Authority /Water Management
Framework: dedicated staff support and a systematic process for
watershed planning.
•Alberta’s Water for Life strategy: a comprehensive watershed
management framework inviting any Albertan to participate
The Implementation Challenge:
Expensive and Decentralized
•only a limited number of watershed plans have actually been
completed within the prairie water basin; even fewer
implemented
•We have no formal learning mechanisms to learn from each
other.
•No consensus and no clear direction on:
–
–
–
how we’ll meet capacity requirements for local watershed planning;
The role/type of decision support tools and degree of process
transparency
the role of Economic Instruments and Ecological Goods and Services
concepts (including markets for carbon credits).
•The challenge is how to harness the self-organizing capacity
locally, build resilience for the future - AND respect our history.
–
The Advent of PFRA which built ecological resilience (Federal Role?)
–
The history of Rural Electrification and Telecom on the Prairies:
expensive and massively decentralized challenges that took decades
to meet using a vast array of government/community comanagement and co-financing options.
The Freshwater Management
Problematique
97.9%
1.16%
0.89%
0.05% (has quadrupled
since 1960)
0.02%