Every person on earth lives in a watershed. Watersheds have linked nature and the services it provides with human communities since the beginning of time. They transcend man-made boundaries and cross state and national borders.

As a larger percentage of our population moves to cities (60% of humanity is expected to live in urban areas by 2030), people will demand more from the watersheds that support these cities.

But as watersheds degrade, they become less capable of delivering what we need. The UN estimates that in the year 2017, close to 70 percent of the global population will have problems accessing fresh water.

Additionally, more than 2 billion people around the world lack basic sanitation facilities. With one in six people on the planet living without ready access to clean water for basic human needs, something must be done to sustainably provide water for people without increasing pressure on an exhausted resource.

Today, it is widely recognized that an integrated approach to freshwater management offers the best means of reconciling competing demands. Watersheds or river basins offer the obvious boundaries in which to develop integrated plans – plans that must transcend political boundaries in many cases.

Far Reaching Solutions

Protecting watersheds is of the utmost importance to human well-being and a priority of The Nature Conservancy. The Conservancy provides a voice for science to help partners (e.g., development banks, aid institutions, governments, regional and local institutions, community-based organizations, and the private sector) understand how watersheds function, works with these partners to develop policies and practices supportive of watershed protection, and provides innovative mechanisms for financing conservation activities in watersheds.

The Conservancy is working to take its extensive experience from demonstration projects to define “best practices” that can be adopted globally in water and watershed management, bringing the best science and policy solutions to countries and governments around the world.  

Specifically, the Conservancy is working to:

• Develop a global Blue Water Certification Program, a voluntary standards-based program to recognize water providers and users for practices that promote responsible stewardship of water resources and protect and enhance freshwater ecosystems.
• Substantially increase funding for protecting freshwater biodiversity in existing, formally-designated protected areas, as well as creating new protected areas with a freshwater focus.
• Gain the commitment of water users to protect hydrological services that support both freshwater biodiversity and water supplies for human communities through payment for environmental services and the creation of water funds.

These efforts require the integration of watershed protection in the efforts of water and energy planning agencies. In addition, the Conservancy’s policy staff are supporting countries around the world in developing strong water management policies, laws, and regulations as well as strengthening institutions responsible for watershed management.

As a result of our freshwater capacity, expertise, and real-world field experience, the Conservancy has formed meaningful and productive partnerships with global institutions responsible for major development decisions and investments as well as some of the world’s largest and most influential water, energy, and agricultural companies and organizations.  

Blue Water Certification

Recognition programs can also provide a powerful tool for improving practices for the benefit of nature.  Building from programs created for seafood and forest products that have resulted in positive change in these industries, the Conservancy is catalyzing a water-related sustainability certification program to encourage and recognize progressive water suppliers and users that are conducting their operations in a way that is environmentally sustainable and socially responsible. Not a single sustainability certification program currently exists in the water sector.

The challenge of launching a new global certification program is daunting, to say the least. Partnership is essential to improve water management at all scales, and the Conservancy has entered into a partnership with the Water Stewardship Initiative, the Pacific Institute and the World Wildlife Fund to work together on a global voluntary standards program in the water sector. We look forward to engaging many others in this effort to sustain our freshwater ecosystems for the benefit of the diversity of life on earth.

Ultimately, the program will be an innovative step in advancing the protection of watersheds and freshwater ecosystems while providing water to cities, a key interest of governments and donors as the global community works to meet human needs for clean water and ensure water security for all.

Protected Areas: Managing for Freshwater Conservation

Most of the world’s population lives downstream of forested watersheds and of the 100 largest cities, more than 40 percent rely on runoff from protected areas. It is critical that management of protected areas include freshwater conservation practices, especially as urban populations grow and the demand for water increases, because:

• Fresh water is one of the most crucial natural resources for humanity, yet freshwater ecosystems are severely under-protected and under-represented in the global network of protected areas.  
• Many scientific studies have concluded that well-protected watersheds provide better quality water supplies. Better water quality means lower treatment costs to serve societal needs.

The Nature Conservancy is working on the conservation of protected areas that provide cities and municipalities with clean water from watersheds.

The Quito Water Fund: A Path to Sustainability

Ecuador's capital city of Quito gets 100 percent of its potable water from Andean creeks and rivers. Around 1.5 million people, local industries and irrigation fields use more than 17 billion liters (4.5 billion gallons) per month of water taken directly from the mountains. That’s enough to fill almost 15,000 Olympic-size swimming pools each month. All of this water comes from a protected area: the Condor Bioreserve.

In 2000, the Conservancy teamed up with the U.S. Agency for International Development and local Ecuadorian partners to create a Quito-based water fund. This fund, also known as FONAG by its Spanish acronym, is capitalized at over $6 million with investments going toward watershed programs and projects. 

The fund invests not just in conservation activities but also in projects that encourage local people to engage in sustainable income-earning activities in surrounding areas.

The fund's main goal is to achieve sufficient water quantity and quality to meet the needs of the people of Quito, as well as to provide long-term protection of water sources in the Condor Bioreserve. Based on the success of FONAG, the Conservancy is working with partners to develop and implement similar trust funds to protect drinking water for people in other parts of South America, including Colombia and Venezuela. For example, the Conservancy just replicated this approach in Colombia, resulting in the newly established Bogota Water Fund (2008). Similar concepts are also being applied through the Conservancy’s water producer program in Brazil.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Bridget Besaw (local guide drinks from mountain spring, Colombia); Photo © Scott Warren/Mark Godfrey (water purification plant for city of Sao Paulo).