Project Partners

Project Funding Partner• UnitedStatesAgencyForInternationalDevelopment(USAID)

Project Implementing Partners• InternationalUnionforConservationofNature(IUCN)• KalahariConservationSociety(KCS)inBotswana• SerumulaDevelopmentAssociation(SDA)inLesotho• DesertResearchFoundationofNamibia(DRFN)• EndangeredWildlifeTrust(EWT)inSouthAfrica

Collaborating Projects• Kalahari-NamibProject:EnhancingDecision-MakingThroughInteractive EnvironmentalLearningandActionintheMolopo-NossobRiverbasininBotswana, NamibiaandSouthAfricaimplementedbyUNEPandfundedbytheGlobal EnvironmentFacility(GEF)• SecuringRightsandRestoringLandsforImprovedLivelihoodsfundedbythe EuropeanCommission

TechnicalandstrategicguidanceisprovidedbytheSADCWaterDivisionandtheOrange-SenquRiverBasinCommission.

Contact Us

IUCN Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO)IUCN South Africa OfficeTel: +27 12 342 8304Email: iucnsa@iucn.org

USAID Southern AfricaTel: +27 12 452 2000Email: pretoriainfo@usaid.gov

AWATERSECUREFUTUREFORSOUTHERNAFRICAAPPLYINGTHEECOSYSTEMAPPROACHINTHEORANGE-SENQUBASIN

Cooperation in transboundary water resource management is often confined to a single topic, such as electricity generation, fisheries, water quality or quantity with insufficient attention to tradeoffs and impacts for other resource users. There is a need to apply a more holistic approach to addressing broader environmental challenges, including pollution, soil erosion, deforestation, and ecosystem degradation, to ensure sustainable, healthy water catchments.

The USAID/IUCN Project on applying the Ecosystem Approach in the Orange-Senqu Basin is aimed at helping to ensure that the quality and quantity of water throughout the Orange-Senqu river system satisfies the needs of the ecosystem, communities and economies relying upon the river and its associated resources.

The project goal is “To build governance capacity by mainstreaming the Ecosystem Approach (EA) into Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) in the Orange-Senqu River Basin”.

In order to achieve its aim and specific goal, the project is based on an innovative methodology structured around three key objectives which include increasing knowledge, demonstrating how the knowledge can be used in practice and then using the information from practice to inform policy through dialogue and consensus building. Project Objectives • Increase knowledge and awareness resulting in the inclusion of ecosystem issues in IWRM thereby improving biodiversity conservation• Demonstrate enhanced social and ecological resilience in hotspots in the Basin by integrating the Ecosystem Approach in transboundary water management • Enhance capacity of key actors to engage effectively in multi-stakeholder processes and negotiate and dialogue towards improved water resources management

Integrated Water Resources Management

A process that promotes the coordinated

development and management of water, land and

related resources in order to maximize resultant

economic and social welfare in an equitable

manner without compromising the sustainability

of vital eco-systems (GWP-TAC,2000).

DEFINITIONSEcosystem Approach

A strategy for the integrated management of

land, water and living resources that promotes

conservation and sustainable use in an equitable

way. ‘Ecosystem’ means a dynamic complex of

plant, animal and micro-organism communities

and their non-living environment interacting as

a functional unit (UNConventiononBiologicalDiversity).

The importance of ecosystems in maintaining healthy water quality and quantity is not always widely recognised by basin and water resources managers. This can be addressed by highlighting best practices and key examples of where ecosystems have been protected and left to play this role, as well as where the development and implementation of appropriate water policies, laws and institutions have placed such ecosystems at the centre of management and planning. The project demonstrates the effectiveness of the Ecosystem Approach in IWRM through implementation of pilot projects in each of the basin states.

“The Ecosystem Approach provides sustainable, nature-based and environmentally sound and responsible solutions for achieving greater social and ecological resilience and thus delivering a water-secure future in the Orange-Senqu basin”

Effective stakeholder engagement, participation and partnership processes and structures are a key part of the application of the Ecosystem Approach. The use of such processes and structures will result in more effective water resources management so that it better meets the needs of all users, whilst also maintaining environmental integrity. Effective stakeholder engagement means that all sectors, from communities, through the private sector to national and regional government and governance bodies, should be engaged. As a key part of these processes, information from different levels will be exchanged through the project to ensure that policies and plans are better informed. EA based actions on the ground delivered by the project will also help to inform this process, and vice versa.

ENHANCED SOCIAL AND ECOLOGICAL RESILIENCE

ENHANCED SOCIAL AND ECOLOGICAL RESILIENCE

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ENHANCED DIALOGUE, NEGOTIATION AND CONSENSUS BUILDING

“Adoption and use of multi-stakeholder partnerships provides opportunities for negotiation, dialogue and consensus building over water management techniques that meet the needs of communities, the economy and the environment”.

ENHANCED DIALOGUE, NEGOTIATION AND CONSENSUS BUILDING