River Conservation - Conserving nature from source to sea
Tagliamento River, Italy.
© Nicoletta Toniutti
© Nicoletta Toniutti
Managing integrated water resources
More informaton...
- Protecting the future of our rivers, 25 Aug 2006
- Free-flowing rivers disappearing fast, 13 Mar 2006
- New dams are threatening the world's largest rivers, 22 June 2004
WWF is pioneering integrated river basin management (IRBM), which means taking the whole river basin into account - from source to sea - and involving stakeholders from many countries who share a river basin; 263 river basins cross borders. Protected areas, water-use reforms, and alternatives to damaging infrastructure are important tools of IRBM.
WWF has showcased 14 rivers - including the Yangtze, Kinabatangan and Lake Cocha - as examples of good 'source to sea' management.
Governments and the water sector industry are increasingly aiming at better practices in water management, the so-called Integrated Water Resource Management.
Resources
Tribal girl collecting water from the Srepok River, Vietnam.
© WWF-Canon / Elizabeth KEMF
© WWF-Canon / Elizabeth KEMF
Downloads
- Free-flowing rivers. Economic luxury or ecological necessity? Full report [pdf, 1.37 MB]
- Rivers at Risk: Dams and the Future of Freshwater Ecosystems. Full Report [pdf, 4.08 MB]
- Rivers at Risk: Summary [pdf, 387 KB]
A collection of resources, indicator checklist, and useful findings on water, poverty, and healthy rivers
- Applying the principles of integrated water resource and river basin management – an introduction.
Download [pdf, 298 KB]
- A WWF checklist of IWRM success indicators for river basin management.
Download [doc, 64 KB]
- Are governments delivering water and sanitation priorities and commitments - a scorecard assessment. Scorecard assessment on developed-country aid to water. (April 2004)
Download [pdf, 298 KB]
- Making the Case for Water. A Review of Poverty Reduction Strategies (‘PRSPs’) in Ten Countries - in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Overseas Development Institute (March 2004)
Download [doc, 953 KB]
This figure presents an overview of
the rate at which large free-flowing rivers have been
dammed for the first time, based on a subset of 164
rivers.
By 1950 20 per cent of the world’s large rivers were dammed, more than half of these in North America. The rate of damming increased rapidly in the 1950s in which decade 18 more free-flowing rivers were dammed for the first time, dominated by dam construction in Europe and Asia.
The sixties and seventies saw equally large losses of free-flowing rivers, many of which were in Asia but increasingly free-flowing rivers were also lost in South America.
The eighties were the last decade with high losses of free-flowing rivers. Twelve large rivers were dammed for the first time, four of which are in Africa.
By 1990 only 68 large rivers were left free-flowing.
© WWF
By 1950 20 per cent of the world’s large rivers were dammed, more than half of these in North America. The rate of damming increased rapidly in the 1950s in which decade 18 more free-flowing rivers were dammed for the first time, dominated by dam construction in Europe and Asia.
The sixties and seventies saw equally large losses of free-flowing rivers, many of which were in Asia but increasingly free-flowing rivers were also lost in South America.
The eighties were the last decade with high losses of free-flowing rivers. Twelve large rivers were dammed for the first time, four of which are in Africa.
By 1990 only 68 large rivers were left free-flowing.
© WWF
