30 October 2012: Two IUCN meetings convened back-to-back on the Building River Dialogue and Governance (BRIDGE) project and Hydro-Diplomacy.

The meeting on the BRIDGE project, convened on 29 October 2012, in Chang Rai, Thailand, accessed progress achieved since its launch in 2011 and programming through 2013. The meeting highlighted successes, including initiation of the process towards a binational river basin commission (RBO) and an integrated water resources management (IWRM) roadmap in the Catamayo-Chira Basin shared by Ecuador and Peru. Other initiatives noted were steps towards establishing national basin secretariats in the Sekong River and engagement in the Mekong River basin, both in Asia. Into 2013, the project will promote hydro-diplomancy and focus on scaling-up and increasing regional uptake.

The Hydro-Diplomacy meeting, which took place on 31 October 2012, convened over 100 participants and was organized by the IUCN Global Water Programme and the IUCN Asia Office. The meeting focused on the potential for hydro-diplomacy in Asia among countries sharing common water resources. The results of the conference will be presented in a monograph. [IUCN Bridge Press Release] [IUCN Hydro-Diplomacy Press Release]