World Water Week 2011

World Water Week 2011 will be held in Stockholm, Sweden from 21-27 August 2011. This annual meeting organized by the Swedish International Water institute (SIWI) brings together over 2,500 individuals representing 200+ organizations from country governments, scientific, business, policy and civil society communities who are advancing work on the state of water sources, environmental health, livelihoods and poverty reduction agendas. It focuses on linking best practices, scientific understanding and policy and decision-making from a global perspective, but the context adjusts to differences/ similarities between regions of the world, phases of development, political systems and climatic conditions.

CI's team will be focused on profiling our portfolio of work in ecosystem management, service provision, links between health ecosystems and human well-being, Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) and climate change adaptation. Our Freshwater conservation program will enhance freshwater security by increasing knowledge of improved water — and land-management practices, incorporating development decisions, strengthening markets for freshwater services and promoting good governance and water resource management policies for the conservation of natural freshwater systems from headwater to estuary. This targets the protection and restoration of sources, flows, and services related to freshwater ecosystems that support more than 500 million people and 126,000 freshwater-dependent species.

We will also concentrate on forming collaborations with partners and continuing to support the biodiversity agenda in the Environmental Flows Network (eFlowNet). Environmental flows (Eflows) describe the quantity, quality and timing of water flows required to sustain freshwater and estuarine ecosystems and the human livelihoods and well-being that depend upon them.

LEARN MORE: CI's Freshwater Publications & Documents

CI's Participation

Seminar

EcoHealth — Linking Environmental Change, Healthy Ecosystems and Human Well-being in Rural and Urban Areas
Changes to Earth's ecosystems by climate and other drivers have far reaching implications for human health and well-being in local, regional and global scales. The seminar will present and discuss these changes as part of the EcoHealth approach — the transdisciplinary study of interactions between people, ecosystem and human health, in a rural to urban context.
Convenors: ICRAF - China, SIWI, Conservation International (CI) and eFlowNet
Sunday August 21, 09:00-12:30; room K16/17

Seminar

Meeting Adaptation Demands for Water: Information, Finance and Integration
Policymakers and water managers are beginning to acknowledge linkages between climate change and energy, food, and water, but the nexus among these issues and the environment is often lost. This session will showcase examples and build consensus on how institutions can navigate these interacting issues in the process of adaptation.
Convenors: IUCN, Conservation International (CI) and WWF
Sunday August 21, 09:00-12:30; room T6

Seminar

Water and Climate in Focus: Enabling Effective Action: Adaptation across Political, Social, and Institutional Boundaries
Climate and hydrological regimes determine water availability, but institutions determine how water resources are managed. Climate change reduces our certainty about water availability, raising the challenges for balancing energy, food, and ecological security. This session will provide an interactive forum for overcoming obstacles to respond sustainably to emerging conditions.
Convenors: The Alliance for Global Water Adaptation(AGWA), The World Bank and Conservation International (CI)
Monday August 22, 15:30-18:45; room T2

Side Event

Making Sure That Dams Don't Create More Problems Than They Solve
Dams for hydro-electricity as well as for water management are likely to increase as countries look for alternatives to carbon-based energy sources and for solutions to growing uncertainties in water flows. This session will present cutting edge approaches for balancing the benefits and impacts of dams, such as: energy and utility decoupling, the IHA Sustainability Assessment Protocol, integrated hydropower planning and dam re-operation.
Convenors: Conservation International (CI), WWF, TNC, Doga Dernegi and NHI
Tuesday August 23, 17:45-18:45; room T3

Seminar

Focus Latin America: Americas' Regional Panel on Water and Climate Change
Increased variability in traditional climate patterns, in time and space, is exacerbating existing pressures on water resources in the Americas. The broad effects of these changes include extreme hydro-meteorological events, but also the impacts on people's everyday lives and livelihoods. It should thus be highlighted that water is not a sector, but a cross-cutting resource, to be considered as a core element of adaptation policies. Developing these policies to fully consider the diverse impacts of climate change on water resources will help to reduce their intensity, but there is a need to define what constitutes "good water-based adaptation", based on the analysis of the experiences from the region. The seminar will provide a platform for relevant experiences and the lessons learned in implementing them to be shared, taken from the Water and Adaptation: Actions in the Americas (WaterAAA) inventory. The seminar, part of the on-going Regional Policy Dialog (RPD) on water-based adaptation to climate change, will build upon the conclusions of the Dialogues for Water and Climate Change in COP 16 and the High-Level Expert Panel held in the 2010 World Water Week, among others. The outcomes from this seminar will feed the Regional Policy Paper produced by the RPD
Convenors: CODIA, CONAGUA, FEMSA Foundation, GWP, IUCN, TNC, UN-HABITAT, WB and WWF; CI's Carlos Manuel Rodriguez is on the final summary panel.
Wednesday August 24, 14:00-17:30; room T3

Seminar

Science and Tools for Freshwater Conservation in an Urbanising World
By 2030 up to 60 per cent of humans may live in cities putting increasing pressure upon freshwater ecosystems and critical ecosystem service delivery. Planning and decision-support tools that can assess urbanisation impacts on freshwater ecosystems will be shared. Ways to improve their uptake and integration to optimise and water resource management and freshwater conservation will be discussed
Convenors: Conservation International (CI), King's College London (KCL), McGill University, Canada; The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI) and WETWin Consortium
Thursday August 25, 09:00-12:30; room T4

CI's World Water Week 2011 Delegation

If you wish to schedule an interview, please get in touch with Patricia Yakabe Malentaqui, International Media Manager, (703) 341-2471 / (571) 225-8345.