Keeping the Promise on Water: GEF's Contributions to Sustaining Our Planet's Ecosystems (2003)

GEF’s Contributions toSustaining Our Planet’s Water Ecosystems

March 2003

Keeping the Promise on Water

A sampling of GEF’s impact:

◆ GEF facilitated an unprecedented 10-nationpartnership to better integrate land and watermanagement in the Nile River basin; the ripariancountries are developing a transboundary manage-ment framework to improve the environment andstrengthen sustainable development in the region.

◆ GEF contributed to the successful negotiation ofimportant multi-country water treaties such as theLake Tanganyika and Caspian Sea Conventions,which are now being finalized.

◆ GEF helped reverse the environmental decline ofLake Victoria, thus enabling the export industry toresume and earn a $600 million return on invest-ment over two years.

◆ GEF funding for restoring degraded wetlands inRomania has resulted in the removal of anestimated 55 tons of phosphorus, 1200 tons ofnitrogen, and 40,000 tons of sediment from theDanube River before it enters the Black Sea.

At the Second World Water Forum in 2000, theGlobal Environment Facility (GEF) pledged to provideone half billion dollars—double its previous commit-ment—to protect and restore freshwater and marineecosystems over the next five years. By December2002, less than two years later, GEF had kept thatpromise by providing $396 million in direct grantsfor 94 country-driven projects related to land andwater resources. Over the next four years, GEFexpects to contribute another $400 million tosupport innovative approaches to the managementof transboundary waters.

Safeguarding international waters and water ecosys-tems has been a GEF priority from the beginning.GEF works with 139 countries to strengthen the inte-grated management of land and water resources thatare critical to ecosystem health, poverty reduction,and sustainable development. A total of $974 millioncommitted by GEF over the past twelve yearshas leveraged $2.1 billion in cofinancing fromother sources.

Keeping the Promise on Water

ecosystems and declining fish stocks exacer-bate world hunger.

If the causes of the water crisis are notaddressed, all of us will suffer eventually. Newpredictions of increased droughts and floodsunderscore the need for water resources man-agement to rise to the top of the sustainabledevelopment agenda. At the World Summit onSustainable Development (WSSD) in August2002, the global community set targets andadopted action programs that recognize theimportant role of freshwater and marine ecosys-tems in underpinning poverty reduction and sus-tainable development.

GEF plays a key role in efforts to meet thesecritical targets. The GEF has been catalyzing

GEF’s Contributions toSustaining Our Planet’sEcosystems

Water covers more than three-quarters of earth.It nourishes our ecosystems, powers our indus-try, grows our food, and makes life itself possi-ble. Yet the image of our “Blue Planet” isdeceptive. We are rapidly losing our waterecosystems—our planet’s life support systems—as several linked crises of global proportionsworsen. This trend poses new threats to domes-tic and international security.

People are already feeling the consequences ofwater resource mismanagement. For example, incommunities that lack access to waterresources, girls are deprived of their educationbecause they spend so much time fetchingwater from far-away sources. Degraded water

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Degradation of our land and waterpresents an enormously complexchallenge. Partnerships— like the coop-erative efforts now underway to cleanup the Black Sea ecosystem andsustainably manage the Nile RiverBasin—are the most effective ways toremedy unsustainable use of suchprecious ecosystems.

Mohamed T. El-Ashry

CEO and Chairman, Global Environment Facility

on-the-ground solutions to the world’s land andwater resource problems for more than adecade. Since its inception, GEF has invested atotal of $974 million in 177 water-related proj-ects requested by 139 developing countries andthose in economic transition.

At the Second World Water Forum, held in 2000in The Hague, the GEF played a prominent rolewith its call for land, water, and ecosystems tobe managed in an integrated fashion in order toavert the water crisis and reduce poverty. In anannouncement at the Forum, GEF indicated thatit was doubling its financial contribution to one-half billion dollars over the next five years tosupport country-driven projects related to landand water resources.

The GEF has not only kept its promise but is ontrack to exceed its target. Between March 2000and December 2002, $396 million in GEF grantshave been approved for 94 country-drivenprojects, with total project costs amounting to$1.6 billion.

The Third World Water Forum is a critical oppor-tunity to focus on actions that countries andinstitutions must take to attain the global tar-gets set at WSSD. In support of these efforts,GEF is prepared to contribute another $400 mil-lion over the next four years to address criticalglobal water issues and facilitate greater publicand private sector participation in activities that

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Water Goals Proposed by GEF

◆ Enact legal reforms in national water laws andthose related to land use in 50 percent of all coun-tries by 2005, 90 percent of all countries by 2015.

◆ Cut in half by the number of people who cannotreach or afford safe drinking water, and who donot have access to hygienic sanitation by 2015.

◆ Reduce by 20 percent the number of urbandwellers who do not have access to treatedsewage by 2015.

◆ Implement integrated management of river basinsin 90 percent of all countries by 2015.

◆ Achieve a 30 percent gain in the efficient use ofirrigation water by 2015, with no net increase inwater diversions over the amount used in 2000to meet needs for food security.

◆ Develop country-driven partnerships with nationaland international support for one-third of theworld’s 64 large marine ecosystems and 276major transboundary basins by 2010 with imple-mentation by 2015.

The Challenge of Sustainability: An Action Agendafor the Global Environment

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GEF is the largest financial supporter of theInternational Consortium for Cooperation on theNile, launched in July 2001 following six years ofpreparation by ten Nile Basin countries. The consor-tium, created to support sustainable developmentin the region, received pledges from the donorcommunity for an initial $140 million for the SharedVision Program of the Nile Basin Initiative, with anadditional $3 billion anticipated in investments forsustainable development. GEF played a significantrole by providing preparation funds for the formula-tion of a GEF international waters project that wouldunderpin the initiative.

The consortium produced a transboundary environ-mental analysis to build confidence and setpriorities. The analysis was produced through aparticipatory process and included in-country consul-tations, national reports, and in-country interministe-rial coordination. In March 2001, the analysis wasapproved by the Nile Council of Ministers, markingthe first time such a substantive document hasreceived approval of all Nile riparian countries. Thiscatalytic process proved to be a starting point forexpanding the dialogue among the water ministriesto include other ministries in each of the 10 coun-tries, as well as NGOs. The transboundary analysisprocess was so successful that it became a modelfor other parts of the program, piloted through theGEF. In 2001, the GEF Council approved a $17.2million grant for the Nile Basin Initiative, with co-financiers contributing an additional $90 million.

This basin-specific partnership is an excellentexample of the action that is urgently needed tohelp countries make the transition to sustainabledevelopment strategies.

A Sampling of GEF Transboundary Basin Projects

Some 65 million people in Cambodia, Laos,Thailand, and Vietnam rely on the Mekong Riverand its wetlands for all most of their needs: food,water, and transport. However, the downstream riverflow is being reduced by upstream dams. GEF’s $29million Mekong Basin international waters project ishelping the basin countries to determine how muchwater the region’s wetlands need. The project, beingimplemented by the World Bank, will help the fourcountries, all members of the Mekong RiverCommission, implement key elements of the 1995Agreement on Cooperation for SustainableDevelopment of Mekong Basin. The project buildsthe capacity of the Commission, which is developingwater use rules for adoption by all four nations. Acomputer model is being developed to simulatewater flow in the region. Ultimately, the project aimsto sustain the Mekong River ecosystem—the waterflow and the quality of the water itself—for multipleuses by local residents.

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simultaneously yield national, regional, andglobal benefits.

SafeguardingTransboundary Waters

Nature does not neatly segment environmentalor water problems by geography or political unit.Most of the large rivers of the world crossnational borders, often resulting in water useconflicts and tensions, as well as missed oppor-tunities for sustainable development, peace, andsecurity. About one-half of our planet’s land areaand population, and more than 60 percent ofglobal freshwater flow, is located in transbound-ary basins. These systems, including their landarea, must be managed in a sustainable way if

we are to achieve the Millennium DevelopmentGoals—specific targets established by worldleaders to reduce poverty.

Since 1991, 127 countries have received GEFassistance to protect their shared transboundarybasins and downstream marine ecosystems. GEFhas provided $563 million in grants with totalproject costs adding up to $1.5 billion. TheseGEF projects include large transboundary river

About one-half of our planet’s landarea and population, and more than60 percent of global freshwater flow,is located in transboundary basins.

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Reclaiming the Danube Delta

The Danube delta in Romania is one of the largestmarshlands in Europe. With small fishing communi-ties and gardeners living amid the great reed beds,the wetland was left to itself, doing its age-old job offiltering the river waters on the way to the sea.

That is, until the 1980s when the Romanian govern-ment tried to replace the wetland with farms. Themain result of the dams and dikes built to drain themarshes was not more farming—the soil is poor—but less wetland, almost 400,000 hectares less.This damaged the filtering action of the lower delta,which had been critical in absorbing toxins fromupstream, where waste treatment was generallynon-existent and some farmers saturated their landswith fertilizers. The diking damaged the naturalaquatic vegetation. As a consequence, nitrogen andphosphates, heavy metals, and human sewagepoured into the Black Sea.

Over-fishing of the sea had destroyed the speciesthat kept plankton under control. The excess ofnutrients from the Danube and other tributaries

fed free-floating plants, which ran riot and blockedsunlight and oxygen from the lower depths. Thispattern is called eutrophication, meaning too muchfood for the wrong kinds of species. In the 1970sand 1980s, eutrophication in the Black Seadestroyed an underwater meadow as big asBelgium and the Netherlands. Plants starved andfish stocks plummeted.

To begin understanding what could be done, GEFsupported a pilot project to pull out the dikes aroundtwo islands in the delta that are exposed to 58 per-cent of the sediment transport of the Danube. Theislands, Babina and Cernovca, had dried out and losttheir normal plants and animals. Once the dikeswere removed, the results were astonishing. Withina few years, 60 percent of the islands were againcovered by reeds and aquatic vegetation. Waterlilies, butterflies, locusts, beetles, dragonflies, fish,white pelicans, and 66 species of spider rapidlyre-conquered their neighborhood. This small pilotshowed that it is possible to restore the filteringfunction of the Danube delta. In the new century,Romania’s neighbors are following suit. Dikes areout. Wildlife and reeds are in.

and lake basins such as the Nile, Senegal, Niger,Okavango, Danube, Mekong, Paraguay, and SanJuan, as well as Lakes Victoria, Malawi/Nyasa,Tanganika, Ohrid, and Titicaca. Large groundwa-ter systems such as the Guarani in SouthAmerica and the four-country Northwest SaharaAquifer System in Africa have also been a priorityfor GEF funding.

Some GEF projects focus on large marine ecosys-tems–units of ocean space that parallel the conti-nents and contain 95 percent of ocean fisheries.These downstream marine systems are oftendegraded by water withdrawals for irrigation,water diversions to cities, pollution discharges,and disruptions in water flow caused by dams. InBrazil, for example, a $21 million GEF project,

GEF project has provided a much-needed linkbetween biodiversity conservation, land use, andwater management in two unique ecosystems,the Dana and Azraq wetlands. The region’sextensive system of spring-fed marshes andpools was threatened by upstream groundwaterpumping for urban and agricultural use. The GEFproject supported reforms in the sectors threat-ening the wetlands, as well as community-based,alternative income-generating activities to helpprotect the wetlands.

On the Ganges floodplain in Bangladesh, a $55million GEF biodiversity project being imple-mented by the World Bank is demonstrating sus-tainable practices in fisheries used for local foodneeds and commercial harvest. Up to 50 pilotcommunity-managed sanctuaries are beingestablished in small rivers and channels to help

managed by the U.N. Environment Programme inpartnership with the Organization of AmericanStates, is helping the government implement anew water law in the Sao Francisco basin, whichdrains into the Atlantic Ocean. The five states inthe basin region are receiving assistance toaddress the environmental needs of the down-stream coastal and marine ecosystems.

Protecting AquaticBiodiversity

Aquatic species in rivers, lakes, and coastalareas are among the most threatened biodiver-sity in the world. Declining fish stocks are amajor threat to efforts to eliminate hunger inmany developing countries, especially in light ofthe U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization esti-mate that approximately one billion peoplearound the world rely on fish as their mainsource of animal protein. If water ecosystemsare properly functioning, then the living condi-tions of people in developing countries can beimproved. Polluted, muddied, drained, and drywater ecosystems can no longer provide liveli-hoods, protein from fish, or building suppliesfrom wetlands. In addition, loss of wetlandsoften leads to downstream flooding problemsand associated economic damage.

GEF is creating partnerships with governmentsto reverse these trends. In Jordan, an $8 million

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Declining fish stocks are a majorthreat to efforts to eliminate hungerin many developing countries,especially in light of the U.N. Foodand Agriculture Organizationestimate that approximately onebillion people around the worldrely on fish as their main source ofanimal protein.

19 integrated ecosystem management projectsthat have cross-cutting benefits for water andland resources.

In Africa, the five countries of the Lake Chadbasin—Cameroon, Central African Republic,Chad, Niger, and Nigeria—are working togetheron a GEF project focused on the sustainable useof land and water resources. Leaders in thesecountries have realized that the security of poorcommunities often depends on access to func-tioning water ecosystems for multiple purposesand not just access to water for drinking.Livelihoods in fishing and agriculture will dependon restoration of the downstream water flow ofthe dams and the conservation of globally signifi-cant wetlands. The project aims to better pre-pare the community for fluctuating weatherconditions, especially drought, through low-costdrip irrigation, water harvesting demonstrations,land tenure security, and an improved joint man-agement commission. The U.N. DevelopmentProgramme, the World Bank, and the UN-DESA(Department of the UN Secretariat for Economicand Social Affairs) manage the project.

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protect nurseries for fish. This is just a smallsample of the types of interventions supportedby the GEF, with $103 million approved for 30biodiversity projects between March 2000 andDecember 2002.

Strengthening theIntegrated Management ofLand and Water Resources

To truly understand water issues, one mustunderstand how the water is impacted by every-thing and everyone around it. Soil runoff from arecently cleared forest, for example, mightdamage aquatic habitat. In turn, people on landmight not be able to catch enough fish, whichthey depend upon for protein. GEF’s “integratedecosystem management” projects take intoaccount these sorts of linkages and interactionsamong natural systems and people. By focusingon a larger scale—beyond the boundaries of asingle habitat type, conservation area, or anation—it is possible to generate greater globalenvironmental benefits.

Integrated ecosystem management projects alsoinvolve and empower a wide range of local resi-dents in natural resource management. Thisapproach often creates benefits in multiple areassuch as land degradation, biodiversity, andwaters. GEF has recently invested $81 million in

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But during the past twenty years, an imbalancebetween people and nature has gradually laid wasteto the region’s abundance. The topsoil floated awayinto the lake. The lake silted up and got saltier, andits shoreline receded.

While the birdwatchers wondered where the birdshad gone, the local tribes found themselves close tostarvation. The Njemp fishermen caught fewer andfewer fish. The Tugen and Pokot farmers saw theirsoil washing away into the lake. “The farms ceasedproducing. The fish and livestock declined precipi-tously. The people were reduced to eating hipposand USAID food rations,” said William Kimoip, thegovernment’s local warden and member of thecounty council.

Support from the GEF helped launch an integratedconservation and development project wherein avariety of local partners addressed the poverty andscarcity of food along with the root causes—biodi-versity loss, land degradation, and lack of watermanagement.

The project started with one farmer, a respectedTugen who was open to new ideas. The project’sextension expert, Philip Kisoyan, taught him to buildlong, low earthen mounds to keep the soil fromwashing away. For the first time in seven years therewas a crop. And who came to help with the harvestbut the other farmers? They saw the miracle andcopied it, setting in motion a cycle of renewal. Theold abundance of wildlife, food, and productive landand water is beginning to show signs of returning.

By the Shores of Lake Baringo

Freshwater Lake Baringo, lying in the mythic RiftValley and fittingly close to a peak called World’sEnd, has a melodious ring for bird lovers. More than470 species have been recorded here, their namesequally musical and mythic: Gabar goshawk,Paradise flycatcher, African fish eagles, maraboustorks, and white-faced Scops owl.

Perspiring in the early morning glare, a farmernamed Katiar, a Pokot tribesman from Lonuge vil-lage, surveys his sprouting corn. He looks throughthe thorn scrub, raises his eyes to the blindingyellow hills, and then rests them on the chocolate-colored lake.

“At dawn, my friends and I used to sail the lake inour small canoes and dip our nets and long lines intothe water. We would take catfish and tilapia homeand everyone would have a delicious meal. Then wewould tend to our herds.”

made more than 3,000 small grants, up to$50,000 each, directly to NGOs and communityorganizations.

GEF’s mandate is to forge international coopera-tion and finance actions that address criticalthreats to the global environment: biodiversityloss, climate change, degradation of interna-tional waters, ozone depletion, desertification,and persistent organic pollutants. An independ-ent assessment of GEF’s performance found thatit has “produced significant results” by “effec-tively using its resources for global environmen-tal protection and sustainable development.”One hundred and seventy four countries areGEF members.

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About the Global Environment Facility

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) channelsmultilateral funds into projects initiated bypeople in developing countries to create globalenvironmental benefits. GEF has grown from apilot program to the largest single source offunding for the global environment. In 2002,donor nations cast an extraordinary vote of con-fidence by replenishing GEF’s trust fund by $3billion—the largest amount ever.

GEF’s third replenishment caps a decade of suc-cessful efforts to link global environmental bene-fits and sustainable development. Since itscreation in 1991, the GEF has allocated morethan $4 billion in grants and leveraged an addi-tional $13 billion in co-financing from othersources to support more than 1,200 projects inover 140 developing nations and countries witheconomies in transition. In addition, GEF has

GEF’s mandate is to forge internationalcooperation and finance actions thataddress critical threats to the globalenvironment: biodiversity loss, climatechange, degradation of internationalwaters, ozone depletion, desertification,and persistent organic pollutants.

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Photo Credits

Front and Back Cover: Alfred Duda

Inside Cover, page 1: Panos Pictures/Giacomo Pirozzi

Page 2: Alfred Duda

Page 5: Still Pictures/Ron Giling

Page 6: GEF International Waters map, Alan Kettler

Page 8-9: GEF International Waters map, Alan Kettler

Page 16: Graham Maughan

Inside Back Cover: Alfred Duda

www.gefweb.org

For more information contact:

Hutton ArcherSenior External Affairs CoordinatorGlobal Environment Facility1818 H Street NWWashington, DC 20433 USATel: 1 (202) 473-0508Fax: 1 (202) 522-3240

The Global Environment Facility1818 H Street, NWWashington DC 20433 USA

Tel: 1 (202) 473-0508Fax: 1 (202) 522-3240www.gefweb.org