Murray-Darling basin

1. Murray-Darling basin

2. Murray-Darling challenges • Covers 14 percent of Australia’s area; contains > 40% of farms, produces $10 billion worth of crops and livestock annually. • Nearly 2 million people live in basin; another 1.25 million depend on basin for public supply. • 1985 – Murray-Darling Basin Agreement (NSW, Victoria, S. Australia) provides integrated management of water, related land resources. Goals: • Reduce salinity levels caused by irrigation. • Employ comprehensive watershed restoration approach to manage drought, control runoff, regulate in-stream flow, avert flooding. • Regulate uses, cap diversions, allocate water to control/dilute pollution.

3. Collaboration and adaptation • Most significant innovation is MDBA’s sustainable management program: • Environmental resource assessment process evaluates institutional factors adversely affecting water problems. • Employs frequently updated environmental monitoring. • Community advisory effort mandates local, state, federal officials to work with stakeholders in developing “integrated” plans. • Successes: • In-stream flow has improved. • Endangered fish species recovering. • Elevated public attention to impacts of diversion and salinity. • Floodplain management remains contentious because some of the choicest agricultural lands in the basin are subject to floods.

4. Practical adaptation – thinking globally, acting locally • International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives (1990): Comprised of 1070 local governments worldwide. • Water program focuses on promoting local practices for managing water resources in a sustainable manner. Goals? • Develop bottom-up practical policies: demonstrate strategies locally. • Disseminate experiences to other cities and sub-national regions. • Provide means of co-producing climate knowledge by bringing scientists, policymakers, NGOs together. • ICLEI’s East Asian sustainability training center established in Kaohsiung – 4/2012.

5. USA – RISAs Brazil – Ceara state Africa – Nile basin Knowledge co-production

6. USA – Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments • NOAA supports university-based teams across U.S. to analyze how climate change impacts key sectors within a region. • Teams comprised of federal, state, local government agencies within a region – as well as NGOs. • Research questions are posed by users who ask: how can climate information help with resource management and planning? • Topics of investigation include: agriculture, wild-land fire, drought planning, fisheries, public health, energy use, coastal restoration. • Do they co-produce knowledge? • RISAs do promote interaction between scientists and policy-makers/NGOs. • Have succeeded in packaging & communicating information in useable form. • Have been less effective in integrating social science knowledge of climate impacts and responses. • Evaluations suggest need for sustained funding, leadership, more frequent discussion to promote research priorities.

7. Brazil – water reform in Ceara state • 1990s – Interdisciplinary group within state water agency was established to institute legal reforms in response to drought, competing water claims – and foster collaboration between scientists, local farmers. • Developed participatory management councils in river basins (Lower Jaguaribe- Banabmuiú River), negotiated water allocation agreements among users.

8. Does it co-produce knowledge? • In departure from traditional top-down decision-making, técnicos (staff scientists) work with farmers to: • Combine local knowledge of drought/flooding with expert weather predictions. • Help farmers, local governments better manage reservoirs, flood, drought. • Results? • More participatory approach to river basin management. • Farmers are more willing to share risks of drought, avoid depleting local supplies. • State agency permits locals to monitor and manage water; local users more trusting of state-level information.

9. Nile River basin – sharing science for policy • Lake Nasser/Aswan high dam – looking downstream

10. Impediments to knowledge co-production • Since 1998 – 10 countries (Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Uganda, Congo) negotiating Nile Basin Initiative. • Unable to establish a compact to equitably re-allocate basin to benefit upstream countries (with fastest-growing populations). Why? • Up- and downstream states have competing interests, limited capacity for basin wide adaptive responses. • Egypt and Sudan (countries with largest populations) refuse to relinquish power to upstream countries over withdrawals. • Ethiopia is fiercely opposed to continuing this practice and is building hydroelectric projects without Egypt’s permission, creating additional friction. • MEANWHILE: Lake Victoria, a major source of the Nile, is falling 2.5 meters every three years – likely due to climate change.

11. Is knowledge co-production occurring? • Support is growing for management of problems particular to sub-basins. • Strong support for improvements to irrigation, groundwater management, rural electrification. • Local communities, NGOs, Initiative scientists working together to design solutions, identify funding sources, share information.

12. Conclusions • Climate change will force adapting to alternations in freshwater – basins, cities well-suited for adaptation with international efforts to share experiences (e.g., ICLEI & selected cities). • Adaptation requires better communication between scientists and end-users – thus, reform of water institutions to facilitate dialogue among them (e.g., Brazil, Nigeria, Australia). • Impediments to adaptation include approaches which predicate that scientists generate data without consulting users or incorporating local knowledge (e.g., Nigeria, US-RISAs). • Adaptive management –emphasizing social learning, incremental and reversible remedies (if they fail) – may overcome these obstacles (e.g., Australia, Bangladesh, Nile Basin). • Sound knowledge/effective collaboration go together – experts must reach-out to local water users and embrace cultural, social, ethical concerns: we can all learn from one another’s experiences.