Get the solutions flowing turning talk into action for natural water infrastructure
Action plan
1) Making the business case
Challenge:
We are destroying wetland areas of direct value to business, cities, and many other beneficiaries (e.g. farmer communities). Why
does this market failure continue? How to convince for investment in maintenance/restoration?
Action points:
Action
1. Produce a manual for restoration of wetlands
as green water infrastructure (ecological aspects,
governance, trust & partnership building,
indicators, etc.) targeted at business, cities, and
other beneficiaries of wetland services. WBCSD’s
work on water valuation should be integrated into
it.
2. Facilitate interaction between progressive
WBCSD members and municipalities to form
action-oriented coalitions. This shall inspire
others to take up the challenge as well.
3. Incentivize business and government
towards green vs. grey infrastructure: clear
business rationale/case on economics and
environmental footprint analysis which can be
Role
Wetlands International
Delta Alliance
WBCSD
Adessium
TNT
Meindert Brouwer,
partner in
Communicatie
WBCSD
Comments
widely disseminated and used by business,
investors and public sector actors.
4. Learn by doing; share and exchange on the
experiences and results of pilot projects
involving both private and public sector.
Governments must create the market demand for
businesses to fill. Opportunity e.g.:
- Rhine corridor with roles and responsibilities
that develops an incentive framework for different
actors (i.e. what’s in it for me?) - get high-level
buy-in from business, government and society
Platform BEE,
companies,
governments, Rhine
Commission, WBCSD
- Capital-intensive companies operating in
and around key wetlands, in partnership with
municipalities and regulators are well-positioned
to spearhead restoration efforts.
Oil companies in the
marshes of southern
Iraq, mining companies
the lower Zambezi of
Zambia/Zimbabwe and
the business
community of Calcutta,
India
5. Incentivizing long-term maintenance and
restoration of wetlands using innovative
micro-finance
o
Raise awareness and influence
agenda of financial institutes
o
Engage financial engineers to take a look
at the business case, develop a business
model.
o
De-risk and stimulate investment by
using a combination of public and private
financing.
o
Conditioned micro-finance tied into a
broader land-use planning framework
with a focus on improving the natural
Wetlands International,
EcoShape
resource base.
o
Involvement of development banks (for
risk and patient capital), public funding
(for de-risking), private finance for SMEs,
technical support (getting investments
business ready), government planning
system to ensure coherent policy
framework and enable creation of offset
sites (e.g. wetland mitigation banks). e.g.
conversation with GroFin who delivers
“enterprise solutions to poverty.
o
Investors drive change by demanding
water transparency and disclosure,
steering towards integrated landscape
solutions and valuing different return on
investment. E.g. Hivos-Triodos fund, bio
rights approach, micro-finance, PES,
access to local markets etc.
2) Awareness, knowledge, capacity
Challenge:
Building understanding and ability are key to bringing fundamental change in behavior amongst different stakeholders and ensure
sustainable institutional change.
Action points:
Action
1.Collect & share best practices/compendium
of case studies
2. Regular, sustained, evidence-based
communication at local, national and
international scales with appropriate techniques
for a wide and diverse audience composed of the
main stakeholders.
3. Redesign existing information into
something easily digestible, topic-specific and
specifically targeted to the needs and abilities of
particular groups.
4.Use right language to be understood by
financiers, financial engineers, business
professionals etc. to communicate business
case, return of investment, added value etc.
5. Systemic capacity-building programs on
water-related wetland services across sectors at
basin and local levels to enhance business
awareness and incorporation into business
models, including support with life-cycle analysis.
6.Two capacity-building streams:
a) partner with high-level decision-makers
(government plus captains of industry)
b) bottom-up public awareness raising (creating
electoral pressure)
Role
IUCN, RSM
Comment
3) Partnerships & Ambassadors
Challenge:
Given the cross sectoral and multi actor issues at stake in water resource management, bringing wetlands into mainstream decisionmaking requires multiple perspectives and actions. What sort of partnerships are required and what are the factors of success?
Action points:
Action
1. Identification of champions/ambassadors
with convening power in multi-sectoral
platforms (government, knowledge institutes,
private sector, NGOs, communities etc.). e.g.
National mangrove working group Indonesia,
Mangrove Charter Africa, Leaders for Nature,
Mekong hydro-power dialogue, etc.
2.Development of ‘surprising’ (innovative)
networks to bring forward new sustainable
solutions, raise awareness, involve project
owners, develop examples and get it on
political agendas. e.g.: Connecting Delta Cities
Role
City of Rotterdam
Delta Alliance
EcoShape
Comment
Get the solutions flowing turning talk into action for natural water infrastructure
Key messages
1) Wetlands for water security
Wisely using our wetlands is an essential component of delivering sustainable water management.
o
Wetlands provide natural infrastructure that delivers a wider range of services and benefits than corresponding man-made
infrastructure: they can regulate water quantity and quality, contribute to flood regulation, increase resilience to storms in
deltas and coastal areas, keep soil on the land from eroding etc.
o
Wetlands provide a basis for local food security and livelihoods that can be of national and even regional economic
significance. As the loss and degradation of wetlands of all kinds continues to accelerate worldwide, we place our water
resources at greater risk and make ourselves more vulnerable to natural hazards. It is vital and urgent to integrate these
values into decision-making at all scales and across sectors.
o
The adoption and implementation of integrated water resource management (IWRM) is the recognized global solution to
manage water sustainably. This involves managing both the supply and demand of water within a watershed while
considering the use of water by different stakeholders and the various roles that natural ecosystems play in the water cycle.
2) Wetlands for business
Local participation in the collective management of water will be key for business to ensure long-term access to the resource
in the context of competing demands.
o
Wetlands as natural water infrastructure, whether existing or restored, deliver cost-effective services that have direct value to
business and must be internalized in planning decisions.
o
Pricing water-related externalities through valuation can inform allocation decisions, bring wetlands central to planning and
build better business decisions.
o
A broader focus on water management beyond the fence-line within the watershed is needed by businesses to ensure the
sustainable use of one of the world’s finite resources and to manage water related risks. This entails widespread collaboration
with watershed water users for risk and benefit sharing.
o
Business must see opportunities beyond focusing only on managing risk. Investing in natural eco-system services is usually
more cost-effective than building infrastructure equivalents. For risk reduction and best return on investment, the best mix of
natural and built infrastructure has to be investigated.
3) Wetlands for cities
Investment in the wise use of wetlands is an essential and cost-effective component of building resilient and clean cities for
the future.
o
Wetlands in the peri-urban environment provide natural infrastructure that helps to regulate coastal and / or freshwater
flooding risk and can support adaptation to climate change. Investing in natural eco-system services is usually more costeffective than building infrastructure equivalents. For risk reduction and best return on investment, the best mix of natural and
built infrastructure has to be investigated.
o
Water quality regulation and waste disposal strategies can be cost-effectively supported by the use of wetlands as
processors, sinks and stores of pollutants and certain types of organic waste. Cities must shift from a focus on existing kinds
of infrastructure services, to understanding that they are part of a broader natural system and moving from the more ‘linear’
models which are prevalent, to creating resource flows which resemble the kind of ‘circular metabolisms’ found in nature.
o
A healthy and stimulating urban environment can be supported by the maintenance or re-establishment of natural or green
infrastructure, creating tourism, education and recreational opportunities. Understanding the value of wetlands in this way
helps to make more informed ‘trade-offs’ among competing uses, depending on the benefits received (including livelihoods
derived).
4) Behavior change for wetlands
Widespread change in organizational thinking and attitudes needs to take place to cement wetlands into mainstream
decision-making on water resource management.
o
Wetlands are essentially part of the infrastructure that we use to maintain our water needs and must be managed for the
common good.
o
Investment that directly or indirectly affects natural water infrastructure needs to balance the social and environmental
benefits of actions in their business cases.
o
Hybrid engineering approaches (soft engineered, flexible, less resource intensive) can bring benefits to multiple stakeholders
and represent a more sustainable way forward than resource intensive, single sector, high-tech solutions.
o
We need to go from cooperating within sectors to collaborating across sectors and develop innovative partnerships. The
principles of Integrated Water Resources Management call for cooperation based on mutual interest. Given the cross-sectoral
and multi-actor issues at stake, bringing wetlands into the mainstream decision-making is a complex undertaking requiring
multiple perspectives and actions.