26 August 2018: WWF has published a report that highlights the capacity of healthy rivers to help mitigate natural disasters, among other less valued benefits. The publication provides a framework for improving how societies measure, value, and promote rivers’ diverse benefits. It also offers solutions to support better decisions and management.

Titled, ‘Valuing Rivers: How the Diverse Benefits of Healthy Rivers Underpin Economies,’ the publication notes that the traditional view of rivers as primarily sources of water and power puts other critical benefits at risk, such as freshwater fisheries, natural flood protection for cities, and sediment flows that keep the world’s deltas above the rising sea levels. The publication underlines that these benefits tend to be overlooked and remain a low priority for decision makers until they either disappear, or crises arise.

The report shows that 19% of global gross domestic product (GDP) comes from watersheds with high or very high water risk. It cautions that most of the world’s large deltas, including the Ganges, Indus, Mekong, Nile, and Yangtze, are “sinking and shrinking.” The data presented also reveal that only 40% of the European surface waters are currently considered healthy.

The recommended framework includes a set of governance structures needed to make proposed reforms and innovations widespread and durable.

The publication concludes that fulfilling rivers’ full potential will require a new way of valuing rivers’ diverse benefits, supported by policies and practices designed to maintain or restore them. The authors caution that, while methods to quantify rivers’ benefits, including ecosystem service valuations, have made considerable progress, the results of improved valuation have had limited impact on policies and practice.

Making the case for moving beyond valuation, the report proposes a framework that encompasses approaches to communicate rivers’ value to diverse audiences and build coalitions to support improved management. The recommended framework includes a set of governance structures needed to make proposed reforms and innovations widespread and durable, while delineating roles for governments, financial institutions, and the private sector.

The report’s approach reflects the “overarching concept underpinning the SDGs” that policies and management should pursue economic, social and environmental values in a coordinated fashion. The study provides examples of interlinkages among water-related SDGs, recognizing at the same time that some interlinkages have been overlooked. It highlights that water management is coupled with SDG 2 (zero hunger) and SDG target 2.4 on ensuring sustainable food production systems to help maintain ecosystems that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding, and other disasters. SDG target 14.4 measures the sustainable management of fisheries, the report notes, but focuses on “oceans, seas and marine resources” and not freshwater systems, overlooking the value provided by river fisheries.

The report was released during World Water Week 2018 in Stockholm, Sweden. [Publication: Valuing Rivers: How the Diverse Benefits of Healthy Rivers Underpin Economies] [WWF Press Release]