World Conservation Union (IUCN) Himalayan Region Water and Nature Initiative. Workshop Report

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1 World Conservation Union (IUCN) Himalayan Region Water and Nature Initiative Workshop Report April 2007

2 Acronyms ARO Asia Regional Office CG II Country Group II ELG 1 Environment and Livelihoods Group 1 Himal WaNI Himalayan Region Water and Nature Initiative ICIMOD International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development IUCN World Conservation Union IWA International Water Association NWCF Nepal Water Conservation Foundation RWWP Regional Water and Wetlands Programme TERI The Energy and Resource Institute. 2

3 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION... 4 BACKGROUND... 4 THE WORKSHOP... 5 NETWORKING ISSUES... 6 ISSUES FOR WANI II...6 CONCLUSIONS... 7 ANNEX I WORKSHOP AGENDA

4 Introduction This is the report of the mid-term workshop for Himal WaNI organized by IUCN and hosted by Winrock India. The objectives of the workshop were: 1. To allow all partners to present their on-going work for Himal WaNI; 2. To enable partners to discuss with their colleagues from other countries how they are addressing specific technical issues such as e.g. the FLOW roadmap, the best practices work on integrated watershed management, and trans-boundary watercourse management; 3. To support existing and emerging collaboration and negotiation mechanisms to promote an ecosystem approach to water management. The workshop was held on 10 April 2007 at the premises of Winrock India in New Delhi. Background The Water and Nature Initiative (WANI) (see was established by IUCN and partners in 2001 as an action-oriented follow up to the Vision for Water and Nature presented at the 2nd World Water Forum. That vision was for a world in which environmental, social and economic security are guaranteed by fundamental changes in human attitudes and behaviour towards freshwater and related ecosystems. There are now WANI efforts around the world in places such as the Pangani River Basin, Okavango Delta, and Mekong Region. The emphasis is on local action, and transboundary learning, sharing and demonstration within and between basins/regions. WANI is underpinned by a belief in the necessity of societies to find ways to implement Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). WANI aims to mainstream an ecosystem and livelihoods approach into water and waterrelated policies, planning and management. All the WANIs are striving to be: participative: to empower all stakeholders to participate in water management; strategic: to have the maximum possible effect; transparent: to have transparency in decision-making and management; and catalytic: to influence, facilitate and initiate action. WANI has been active in the Mekong region for some time now and has a number of achievements to its credit including water dialogues, e- flows and promotion of WANI toolkits among the countries including in China, Vietnam and Lao PDR. The WANI programme in the Himalayan region started late, around end of The goal of the Himalayan Region WANI is sustainable water management in and around the Himalayan Region. The two main objectives are: 1. Innovative management practices promoted to support the mainstreaming of an ecosystem approach to water management; 2. Existing and emerging collaboration and negotiation mechanisms supported to promote an ecosystem approach to water management. The partners involved in this phase of Himal WANI are: IUCN Headquarters IUCN Regional Water and Wetlands Programme (RWWP); IUCN Environment and Livelihoods Groups I & II; IUCN Country Group II; which includes IUCN Pakistan and Nepal IUCN Bangladesh; IUCN India; IUCN China; The Energy and Resources Institute (India); The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD-Nepal); Winrock (India); 4

5 There are four core outputs that are addressed during this phase of Himal WaNI. These are: 1. Environmental flows promoted as a key element of water management innovation; 2. Integrated Watershed Management and Payment for Watershed Services (PAY) promoted as water management innovation; 3. Existing water networks are made aware of water management innovations related to ecosystem management; 4. Dialogue and negotiation mechanisms are supported to enable an uptake of ecosystem approach to water management. The Workshop The workshop was attended by: Name Rajendra Shilpakar Nikhat Sattar Raquibul Amin DD Verma Kate Lazarus Bhawani Prasad Kharel Dr. Abdul Majeed Ele Jan Saaf Prof. Subhash Chander Dr. J.S. Rawat Soumitri Das Kinsuk Mitra Chetan Agarwal Organisation ICIMOD IUCN Asia IUCN Bangladesh IUCN India IUCN Lao IUCN Nepal IUCN Pakistan IUCN Pakistan Private consultant TERI India TERI India Winrock India Winrock India The workshop was designed to maximize discussion on progress of the current work under Himal WANI and future issues that the group would want to pursue. 1 The workshop started with a series of brief presentations by the coordinators of the programme on progress and issues. This was followed by a discussion that centered around two main questions: 1. What are the opportunities and constraints to the operational use of e-flows in the Himal countries; 2. What are the opportunities and constraints to the adoption of IWRM and PAY concepts in the Himal countries? The afternoon session was dedicated to discussing and developing themes and issues for WANI II and the building of the network. Progress of Himal WaNI From the presentations of Kate Lazarus and Ele Jan Saaf it became clear that progress on Himal WaNI is mixed. Some of the tasks are well on track and will be finalized within the time allotted. In other cases, work was behind schedule. The FLOW syntheses and road maps have 1 Agenda of the workshop attached as annex I. 5

6 almost all been submitted in some format. The case studies on integrated watershed management and on payment for watershed services are by-and-large still pending. Some of the networking activities and support to the NARBO has been completed. Notes and reports on this work are being prepared. Overall it can be concluded that much work still needs to be done, but that there is a decent chance that the work will be concluded in time, albeit through extra efforts of all the partners. The following items were discussed in detail and agreed: Organisation ICIMOD Winrock India IUCN Nepal IUCN India TERI IUCN Bangladesh/RWWP IUCN Pakistan IUCN China Items pending and dates agreed will be finalized 30 May will be submitted 10 June will be submitted 15 June and will be submitted first week of May will be submitted by 30 April and will by submitted by 30 April will be submitted by 30 April will be submitted by 1 June and will be submitted by 15 May submitted will be submitted 30 April submitted Other deliverables on cooperation with RWWP to be reported on submitted and will be submitted by 30 April will be submitted 30 April Finished but not yet submitted Networking Issues One of the core elements of the Himal WaNI programme is the development of a network of organizations, individuals and possibly in the future even companies that have a vested interest in bringing some of the innovative management tools for water management into practice. In most of the countries involved in the Himal WaNI programme, the concept of e- flows has started to make inroads into the administrative arena. In India the concept has been included in national legislation. In Pakistan the Ministry of Water and Power is reviewing the conclusions of recent studies that detail the amount of water needed for e-flows and the discharge scenarios. Contrary to the apparent success of the e-flows concept, Payment for Environmental Services (PES) or Payment for Watershed Services is still languishing. Also in India, the government has stipulated that it will not entertain the concept at an inter-state level or beyond. Within states piloting of the concept is tolerated. In Nepal successful cases studies have been documented on PAY and the concept is more attractive, not least due to its upper-riparian position. During the workshop it was agreed that the organizations currently involved in Himal WaNI would work together to try to ensure further support and funding for activities that aim to bring these management concepts to the forefront. It was also agreed that other relevant organizations and themes would be brought into the Initiative. In that regard WWF Pakistan, India and Nepal have been approached to ensure that their work on parallel issues is brought to further fruition through the initiative. Issues for WANI II The process leading up to a Himal WaNI II is at best unclear. IUCN HQ is discussing with potential donors a brief concept but no confirmation of interest has been received. Clear-cut recommendations for a possible Himal WaNI II cannot be presented to regional or global counterparts until June Nonetheless the contours of a number of issues for a Himal WaNI II can already be identified and other donors can be approached. 6

7 The first issue, which all partners agree on, is the operationalisation, capacity building and institutionalisation of the e-flows concept. Whereas the concept is being accepted in most countries in the region, most of the governments, whether at regional or national level, are at a loss on how to implement e-flows in practice. Institutional, technical and operational issues have to be addressed to allow discharges for e-flows in many of the river basins. The workshop members proposed to pilot e-flows for a period of 3 years in some of the countries in the region, and to monitor impacts on riverine ecosystems and aquifers. Through such a pilot, facilitated by the next stage of WaNI, approaches, guidelines and insights can be gained. It is important to note that this kind of pilot should be owned by government and be implemented in close consultation with civil society/himal WaNI network. One of the key elements in the operationalisation of e-flows is a state of Negotiated Ecological Condition. This means that the formulated ecological status of the riverine ecosystem that is the objective of environmental flows within any river system should be a negotiated status. The negotiation should take place between various stakeholders. One approach to reach such a negotiated status is the DRIFT approach, which has four modules: biophysical, sociological, scenario development and economic. The participants at the workshop agreed that there was a clear role for IUCN and its partners to further develop this process of negotiation. In this context the role of Multi-Stakeholder Platforms is also valuable, mainly to accompany implementation pilots. The workshop members also identified a science-gap. Little seems to be known about the link between climate change and e-flows. As changes in climate could dictate either flood events or droughts, the importance and priority of e-flows over other allocations has to be looked into. With reference to Integrated Watershed Management and PAY, the discussion focused on the rights-based approach as compared to the market-based approach. The issues of scarcity, equity and ownership of scarce resources were tabled to deepen the PAY and PES debates. The workshop members agreed that there was more room for the development of case studies and scenarios for these issues in a future WaNI. An idea was launched for the implementation of integrated watershed management on a pilot basin in minor tributaries. Whereas the concept looks good on paper, many practitioners are still struggling with the integrated aspect. One of the main questions is whether land-use planning, natural resource management and other aspects should be brought into the equation. The danger is that everything becomes relevant, thereby rendering the concept irrelevant. Finally, the participants agreed that Water Demand Management as a counterweight to supply based management systems deserves more attention in future programmes. It was proposed that IUCN link up with other organizations working in agriculture such as WWF and the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme to ensure that these nuggets were also included in an integrated vision for the Himalayan region. Conclusions The first conclusion was that the outstanding work for Himal WaNI is more or less on track. Many items were submitted shortly before the workshop and will be reviewed during the coming weeks. There will be a lot of work on the synthesis of the outputs towards the tail end of the programme. The second main conclusion of the workshop was the common understanding between all participants that there is a need to work together to lift the initiative up to a more strategic level. Current pilots, studies and road maps need to be used to catalyse changes in policy and implementation on a larger scale within the countries that are part of Himal WaNI. 7

8 Annex I Workshop Agenda Time Activity 09:00 09:15 Opening of the workshop by Kate Lazarus, a.i. project manager for RWWP, including a brief introduction of everyone by everyone. 09:15 09:30 Brief address by Nikhat Sattar, Head of CG 2. 09:30 09:45 Presentation by Kate Lazarus on progress of RWWP components 09:45 10:00 Presentation by Ele Jan Saaf on progress of CG 2 components 10:00 11:00 Discussion on progress/hurdles/approaches/deadlines, etc. by deliverable (moderated by Nikhat Sattar). 11:00 11:30 Tea break 11:30 13:00 Continued discussion 13:00 14:00 Lunch 14:00 16:00 Discussions on Himal WaNI II 16:00-16:20 Tea break 16:20 17:30 Wrap-up 20:00 Dinner for all participants hosted by IUCN India 8

Associated Event : SDG 6 on Water and Sanitation

Associated Event : SDG 6 on Water and Sanitation Ir. (Dr.) Keizrul bin Abdullah Chairperson, Network of Asian River Basin Organizations (NARBO) The Role of River Basin Organizations (RBOs) in Fostering