13/09/2005 - As Heads of
State meet in New York for the World Summit,
a new report from WWF shows a strong link
between environmental improvement and economic
development that can no longer be ignored.
The report – Freshwater and poverty reduction:
Serving people, saving nature – analyses projects
in Brazil, Colombia, China, and South Africa,
demonstrating dramatic improvements in the
livelihoods of poor local communities where
WWF-supported conservation projects are in
place. The projects show that employment,
income, health, and education levels improved
as a direct result of better management of
scarce freshwater resources.
The Varzea project, located in Brazil’s Amazonian
floodplain, saw a 60 per cent increase in
commercially valuable fish production over
the last decade, achieved through better management
of the region’s lakes. In China, previously
cut-off lakes like Lake Dongting have been
reconnected to the Yangtze River, resulting
in diverse agriculture and doubling farmers’
incomes.
“We need more projects like these that not
only conserve freshwater systems but also
improve people’s standard of living,” said
Jamie Pittock, Director of WWF’s Global Freshwater
Programme. “Freshwater conservation is an
essential part of poverty reduction, not a
conflicting activity.”
Sustainable management of freshwater habitats
provides essential services to the poor, such
as clean drinking water and more effective
agriculture and fisheries. Freshwater conservation
projects must be a priority for any government
pursuing the Millennium Development Goals,
which aim to reduce poverty and ensure environmental
sustainability.
In South Africa, more than 1,400 previously
unemployed people, more than half of them
women, now have higher incomes as a result
of WWF's Working for Wetlands project. The
project has benefited both people and nature
so that the workers can afford better diets
and improved housing. At the same time, 40
wetland areas have been conserved in a country
where half of the original wetlands have already
been destroyed.
Elsewhere, Colombia’s Lake La Cocha project
saw the livelihoods of local people improved
as a direct result of better management of
water resources, with crop production increasing.
Household incomes here are now 2.8 times the
national average.
“We don’t have to go to the doctor as often
as before and our families can feel the difference,”
said Concepcion Matabanchoy, from the Lake
La Cocha region. “Malnutrition is down and
we are healthier.”
Conserving freshwater ecosystems is not some
lofty goal preached by the environmental movement
but a practical and vital building block for
eradicating poverty. WWF’s work demonstrates
that conservation and poverty reduction go
hand in hand.
The Heads of State meeting in New York for
the World Summit must agree to address sustainable
development and conservation.
