ecosystem Ecosystem services are the benefits

that functioning ecosystems provide to

services and people. These services, many of which

are critical for supporting life on Earth,

freshwater
include provision of fresh water, protection
from storm surges/flooding, fertile soil
and food, clean air, climate regulation, and

initiative medicines.

The global market value for the provision of food,

timber, marine fisheries, and hunting and fishing is
estimated at more than one trillion dollars per year.
However, these ecosystem values are not adequately
reflected in markets and polices, as evidenced by
the fact that more than 60 percent of our planet’s
ecosystem services have already been degraded or
are being used unsustainably.

Freshwater systems provide essential ecosystem

services, both for human populations and as home
to the greatest concentration of biodiversity on Earth.
However, the world’s freshwater systems and their
myriad species are losing their value for people due to
depletion of water supplies, pollution of what remains,
unsustainable harvest of species, the introduction of
alien species, and changing climate.

Conservation International is addressing the threats

to ecosystem services, particularly in fresh water, for
the benefit of humans and biodiversity alike through
its Ecosystem Services and Freshwater Initiative.
Launched in 2007, this initiative includes science,
practice, and leveraging policy and behavior changes.
The results CI is generating are critical for making a
business case for biodiversity and ecosystem services
conservation as a means of generating human welfare
benefits within larger contexts of human development,
poverty alleviation, and land-use decisionmaking.
These results can only be achieved through strong
partnerships with research institutions, national and
international nongovernmental organizations (including
development and humanitarian organizations),
governments, corporations, and local organizations
among others; such partnerships are a cornerstone of
CI’s overall conservation strategy.

Our approach has three parts:

• Developing the scientific base for

understanding ecosystem services, identifying
threats, and determining priority areas;

• Promoting innovative policies that support

human development and the conservation of
freshwater and ecosystem services;

• Conducting field programs to test new

approaches on the ground.
fresh water: an
essential resource
In all its forms, water shapes and
nourishes life on Earth. Life on this planet
first developed in water, and the world’s
unique biodiversity and human communities
both depend on water’s continued availability.
However, only one percent of the Earth’s fresh water flows
freely, and burgeoning human populations are making
unsustainable demands on this vital resource that are
already outstripping supply in many regions around the
world. Both biodiversity and human communities are at
risk: an estimated one out of every six people on Earth has
no access to clean drinking water; two out of six people
lack adequate sanitation; and four out of six are afflicted
by water-borne illnesses. The degradation and decline of
freshwater systems is now far too prevalent to be ignored.
With the population expected to increase to 9 billion by
2050, and with much of that growth happening in poor
developing countries, the global freshwater crisis is only
going to get worse.

Freshwater “flash points” are increasing in number

worldwide as the global population grows and
consumption outpaces conservation measures.
The global freshwater crisis will be the next climate
change in terms of magnitude and urgency.

We rely on water for far more than basic maintenance

of human health: freshwater ecosystems also provide
food and livelihoods for millions. The ecosystem services
provided by freshwater systems, including fisheries,
filtration, and flood regulation, have global economic
value estimated at trillions of dollars annually. Nearly 70
percent of all fresh water used by people is for agricultural
purposes, and we have come to rely on steady water
flows for a significant portion of the world’s energy
generation. Climate change represents another formidable
threat, resulting in too much water in some places, and
not enough in others. Finally, freshwater systems have
aesthetic and recreational value.

A remarkable array of biodiversity shares this limited

supply of clean fresh water with us. Freshwater
ecosystems support unparalleled concentrations
of species, yet they are among the most imperiled
ecosystems on Earth, with extinction rates as high as
15 times greater than in the marine realm. This makes
freshwater ecosystems and the biodiversity they support
a global conservation priority. But conservation and the
aspirations and needs of human communities often collide,
necessitating the search for solutions that benefit both
freshwater biodiversity and people.

Conservation International believes that ensuring safe

supplies of clean fresh water for human communities
and conserving freshwater biodiversity are not mutually
exclusive goals; in fact, these goals are closely linked
and can both be achieved if we are willing to meet the
challenge. Our five-year vision is to work with existing
and new partners to set global, science-based priorities
for freshwater conservation, implement management
and protection of key resources to benefit both human
communities and freshwater biodiversity, and promote
innovative policies for governments and markets.
Developing the Scientific Base
Science helps us better understand ecosystem services
and their links to biodiversity and human welfare,
identify threats, and determine priority areas. Research
by CI scientists and our partners will help us apply our
limited resources most efficiently, targeting areas where
biodiversity is most at risk and where the welfare of human
communities is most threatened by loss of ecosystem
services. Given the importance of fresh water, we are first
focusing on the freshwater biome.
CI is leading a Global Freshwater Biodiversity
Assessment, along with the International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and other partners, to
determine the global freshwater hotspots based on
the IUCN Red-Listing process. Because this will take
several years to complete, we are also undertaking
an exercise to define a subset of areas that offer
immediate opportunities to conserve freshwater
biodiversity and freshwater ecosystem function and
to promote human well-being through freshwater
services.
CI successfully used a similar methodology to identify and
update the terrestrial biodiversity hotspots and the high-
biodiversity wilderness areas, thereby creating priorities for
conservation action that would have the greatest impact
in the Earth’s most important regions for biodiversity
conservation. (Please see www.biodiversityhotspots.org.)
That research, conducted by CI’s Center for Applied
Biodiversity Science (CABS) and published in the journal
BioScience, found that hotspots and high-biodiversity
wilderness areas account for a significant proportion of
the planet’s ecosystem services. These services support
communities and economies around the globe, including
more than a billion poor people who most critically depend
on them and can least afford to pay for alternatives. CI and
partners are now assessing the economic value of services
99
Ecosystem service
value (percentile)
0
0 99
Biodiversity priority
(percentile)
that freshwater ecosystems provide for both human and
biological communities to bolster the case for conservation
for the benefit of both biodiversity and human well-being.
With our partners, CI has also developed two tools that
aid science-based decisionmaking in conservation, land-
use planning, and the value of ecosystem services. The
first, Consvalmap (www.consvalmap.org), is an interactive
database containing peer-reviewed studies for specific
ecosystem services in particular places. Consvalmap helps
researchers, policymakers, and other decisionmakers and
stakeholders find quality information about ecosystem
services and identify gaps in knowledge about service
benefits, valuation methods, and case studies.
The other tool is Artificial Intelligence for Ecosystem
Services, or ARIES. This tool, developed collaboratively
by CABS and the Gund Institute, relies on geodata with
multiple data layers, such as vegetation, water flows, land
tenure, land value, and population, and on probabilistic
decision models that are constructed based on the
user’s specific needs. ARIES provides a description of
the ecosystem services that are likely available as well
as the potential cost and benefits of conservation and
development scenarios that the user is considering for
a specific location. CI is helping to refine and field test
ARIES in Madagascar, the Australian wet tropics, and
Mexico.
To support our research, CI will collaborate with local
partners to establish three regional freshwater research
centers, focusing first on Mexico and Central America,
Indo-Burma, and China. These centers of research
excellence will be the primary mechanism for delivering
freshwater biodiversity and water services research in the
three regions.
Spatial concordance of
global biodiversity priorities
and ecosystem service value.
Published: Turner et al. 2007.
Global conservation of biodiversity
and ecosystem services. BioScience.
Volume 57(10):868-873.
©American Institute of Biological
Sciences
Promoting Innovative Policies
Decisionmakers and corporate partners will be essential
to our efforts to change policies and business practices
to ensure the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem
services. For example, burgeoning human populations and
their resulting agricultural and industrial development all
rely on abundant supplies of fresh water for their continued
progress. However, this kind of large-scale development
can deplete freshwater supplies and/or substantially alter
the flow, distribution, and quality of water. The challenge
for conservationists is to help guide development in ways
that guarantee future supplies of fresh water for both
human communities and freshwater biodiversity, while
suggesting alternatives to the kinds of projects that most
immediately threaten biodiversity.
Two of the most immediate threats to freshwater
ecosystems are hydropower dams and the use of
water for agriculture. Dam building is predicted to
increase dramatically in Asia, Africa, and Latin America
over the next decade, and many of these dams will
have severe impacts on freshwater ecosystems. CI and
partners recognize the need for energy and sufficient
water for crop irrigation, but we believe that provision
of multiple benefits is possible through sound resource
planning and management.
One way to answer these questions of costs and benefits
of energy and natural-service provision is through
Integrated Resources Planning, which (for water projects)
determines the means of maximizing water and electricity
services required for human livelihoods, while minimizing
biodiversity and habitat loss. In China and Cambodia,
for example, CI is comparing the cost-effectiveness of
proposed hydrodams based on energy demands, potential
energy yields, and costs of human population resettlement,
sedimentation and biodiversity loss, all of which help build
arguments for lower-risk, lower-cost water and energy
service options. Similar approaches have been empirically
demonstrated in states like California and nations like
Israel, both of which adopted highly innovative public
policies, market-driven utility regulations, and market
incentives for delivering the least-cost and lowest-risk
electric, natural gas, and water utility services.
Another cost-effective way to meet human demand for
fresh water is to increase efficiency. Agriculture accounts
for more than two-thirds of water demand, but wastes
up to 80 percent of water used for conventional crop
irrigation. CI is also exploring water efficiency and quality
standards through the Water Stewardship Alliance and
other partnerships.
The magnitude and complexity of our global freshwater
challenges demand innovative, cutting-edge solutions.
We are equipped and prepared to use the latest policy
and economic tools to address the threats to freshwater
ecosystems by quantifying the valuable services they
provide to human communities, and by showing how
much people benefit from intact functioning ecosystems.
For example, CI is partnering with others to help ratify
the United Nations Watercourse Convention, which
helps address transboundary water conflict and resource
management issues.
CI and partners are already helping develop and
promote policies and markets for payment for
freshwater services, such as:
• National payment-for-freshwater-services programs
being developed in Ecuador and China that quantify
the benefits of watershed protection for communities
(e.g., increased protection from floods, landslides,
and erosion, and decreased incidence of water-borne
disease) and maintenance of water flows. With the
appropriate legislation and governance of resources
in place, markets can be created for freshwater
services that concomitantly support continued
conservation of freshwater ecosystems.
• Private-sector investments in conservation projects
that generate payments for both carbon mitigation
and watershed protection services. CI, through its
Center for Environmental Leadership in Business
(CELB) secured $1.25 million in start-up funding for
the China Freshwater Fund from 3M Foundation and
Alcoa Foundation that is now being disbursed to pay
for pilot payment-for-freshwater-services projects
as well as to conserve high-biodiversity freshwater
areas. CELB has also developed a relationship with
Cargill to examine the potential impacts of palm-oil
and logging run-off on coral reefs and sedimentation
loading in the Mullins Harbor (Milne Bay) catchment.
Our Work in the Field
To ensure the development of successful, replicable
strategies to conserve the ecosystem services provided
by freshwater systems and other ecosystems, CI and
our partners are implementing pilot projects in different
regions. These projects integrate science and natural
resource management to inform policy and land-use
decisions regarding dam development, agricultural
development, watershed management, and tourism
development. Results are also translated into conservation
plans, habitat restoration actions, and sustainable
landscape designs to demonstrate and help pay for
conserving biodiversity and maintaining ecological
functions across terrestrial and aquatic biomes.

These projects are testing the extent to which standardized

approaches are possible across different contexts
and provide insights on how our ecosystem services
and freshwater approaches can be adapted to varying
sociopolitical, economic, and cultural contexts. This will
enable CI and our partners to systematically scale up
this work to achieve major impacts in priority regions,
and to engage new kinds of partners, such as relief and
development agencies.

The following are some highlights from CI’s field

projects around the world.

1. In the Philippines, we are mapping and assessing

deforestation and risk/hazard probabilities within
catchments to identify areas critical for the
maintenance of water supplies for people and
ecological functions for species. The results are being
used to create a sustainable development plan for the
Eastern Mindanao Biodiversity Conservation Corridor.

2. We are working with Wetlands International–South

Asia to develop scenarios linking lake water levels
and maintenance of critical habitat areas in India’s
Keibul Lamjao National Park that will be translated
into an optimal water allocation plan. This plan will
ensure the maintenance of habitats and fish migration
routes (upon which 200,000 fisherman depend for
survival), as well as hydropower generation and
agricultural and domestic uses of water;

3. We are working in the Abiseo-Cóndor-Kutukú

Conservation Corridor in the Andes to define ways
to conserve watersheds and manage land uses.
Activities include predicting the potential for forest-
carbon investment, identifying connectivity potential
between key biodiversity areas for larger-ranging
species (e.g., the spectacled bear), and mapping
and quantifying development trends (settlements
and population, current and proposed roads, mining
concessions, and other infrastructure projects). A
proposed land-use plan and financing strategy will
be ready for discussion and negotiation with local
 stakeholders and regional management authorities in
fiscal year 2009.

4. In Cambodia, we are identifying freshwater priority

areas or key biodiversity areas that must be protected
to prevent the extinction of globally threatened
freshwater species; developing freshwater sanctuaries
that would be supported and co-managed by
local communities to protect areas where a high
concentration of biodiversity intersects heavy human
reliance on fish protein; projecting the impacts of a
series of proposed dams on both communities and
biodiversity; and evaluating the economic value of
intact forests for dam operators (through controlling
water flows and reducing sedimentation) to assess
the potential to fund forest conservation through fees
on hydropower facilities.

Water and Wildlife of

the Yucatan
Beneath the Yucatan Peninsula is an underground system
of streams and lakes so vast it contains about 25 percent
of Mexico’s total fresh water supply. These subterranean
waters are extraordinarily rich in biodiversity. A preliminary
search of species catalogues revealed hundreds of
freshwater species specialized for life in this unusual
habitat, including blind, cave-adapted fishes. Because this
subterranean habitat is not connected to similar habitats
elsewhere, these species are nearly all endemic to Yucatan.

This groundwater supported the Mayan civilization and

continues to support the descendants of that culture.
It is also essential to an economic boom based mainly
on tourism and, to a lesser extent, on agriculture. This
development is exploiting water resources without
accounting for the needs of indigenous people in the
interior.

Unfortunately, the peninsula’s groundwater quality is

increasingly threatened from both above and below.
Rising sea levels are causing saltwater incursion, and at the
same time, agricultural runoff and urban waste disposal is
contaminating the upper layers of fresh water.

CI is working with local partners to protect this critical

groundwater system. As a first step in creating a watershed
management plan, CI and our partners are gathering data
on the endemic species in the cave system and assessing
human water use and needs.
5. In Mexico, we are identifying areas of zero extinction
in the northern Mexican desert (http://www.
zeroextinction.org/), where one or more species
that do not exist anywhere else on the planet are
found in small pools; and we are conducting an
integrated resource management project in the
Yucatan Peninsula that includes an assessment of
species in the underground cave system that supplies
water resources to coastal tourism and 25 percent of
Mexico’s citizens. We are also partnering with Amigos
de Sian Ka’an and the Coral Reef Alliance to develop
guidelines to help cruise lines and hotels reduce
water use and ensure adequate sewage treatment.

6. We are working to develop partnerships with relief

agencies and corporations in Guatemala to restore
watersheds and ensure freshwater provision and
payment for water services for community residents
in the Sierra de Las Minas region.

7. We are working in the Wet Tropics World Heritage

Area in Australia, one of 35 basins discharging
into the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area,
to understand ridge-to-reef flows. The modeling
approach being developed will be transferable to
other regions and will prompt policy initiatives such
as payment-for-water-quality programs for tour
operators who are affected by sedimentation and
nutrient deposition.

8. In Africa, we are working in the Kavango-Zambezi

Transfrontier Conservation Area, which crosses
Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Some 2 million rural people depend on ecosystem
services in this 300,000 km2 area. We are identifying
vulnerabilities and strategies for enhancing ecosystem
resilience and human adaptation to different climate
change scenarios, and providing recommendations
on the allocation of scarce conservation resources
toward ensuring adequate protection of key priority
habitats, natural resources, and ecosystem services.

9. Finally, in the Sichuan province in China, we are

estimating values of water provision, carbon, and
biodiversity and have identified a potential payment-
for-ecosystem-services plan in which water users
pay a water usage fee to cover conservation actions
within a park. The Ecological Compensation Fund
was also established to rehabilitate habitat and
preserve watershed services, including water
availability for downstream users, and give upstream
villagers a way to earn income.
Fresh Water,
Biodiversity and people
In Cambodia’s Tonle Sap lake region, local people are making
the rules to protect the fresh water that is necessary for their
survival. “Each community fishery has different rules and
regulations depending on the real situation in those places,”
says Sitha Prum, of Cambodia’s, Ministry of Agriculture,
Forestry and Fisheries. “They can create, manage, and monitor
their own fisheries domain.”

Some 1.2 million people directly depend on Tonle Sap for

food and fresh water. That number is increasing as more
families facing poverty in other regions of the country move
to the lake to fi sh for income and food, Prum says. The lake
and flooded forest, which cover more than 479,000 hectares
(about 1 million acres) in the wet season, faces tremendous
threats, including the construction of several hydroelectric
dams and rampant deforestation.

CI works with the Cambodian government and local

communities to establish community fish sanctuaries
that protect the lake’s biodiversity and benefit the
local people. This new model for freshwater protection
connects the benefits of sustainable stocks and access to
fish to the maintenance of water quality.

Fresh Water and

Climate Change
Climate change’s impacts on freshwater resources pose an
enormous challenge for sustaining life on Earth. In many places,
such as those where glaciers are melting quickly and rainfall
patterns are changing, water may no longer be available when
it is needed, worsening existing problems of water scarcity and
decreased agricultural productivity.

In other places, there will be too much water, increasing the

incidence of water-borne diseases and fl oods. This is particularly
true in the biodiversity hotspots, where many unique species
are already under threat and some 500 million people are now
exposed to an increased fl ooding risk because of the combined
effects of deforestation and climate change.

Rising water temperatures and the drying out of existing habitats

may also lead to catastrophic losses for freshwater ecosystems.
Freshwater biodiversity is particularly threatened under most
climate-change scenarios because species tend to be highly
concentrated in fairly small areas and are also limited in their
ability to relocate to more favorable habitats.

The impacts of climate change on freshwater systems will present

a set of new conditions to which humans and other species
must adapt. Conservation and development agencies must join
together to ensure that climate change does not undo gains
made in water quality and availability, sanitation, or biodiversity
conservation.
Conclusion
Functioning ecosystems are vital for conserving
biodiversity and for providing important services for
people. Many of these services are linked to fresh
water. Life on Earth, whether human, plant, or animal,
depends on access to clean, predictable sources of
fresh water, and quality of life diminishes markedly
where this vital resource is lacking or depleted.

The pressures on freshwater ecosystems and resources

are intensifying as development of water resources
escalates and watersheds are altered and degraded. If
we are to conserve the unique biodiversity found within
freshwater ecosystems, as well as our own essential
sources of clean, fresh water, we must protect the
habitats and hydrological processes that support them.

Conservation International is ready to act now to address

the global freshwater crisis—applying science, leveraging
policy and best practices, and implementing watershed-
and site-level freshwater conservation projects.

Building on our initial results, CI will develop a five-year

business plan for freshwater conservation that focuses
on mitigating threats in high-priority places. The plan will
incorporate best practices for addressing freshwater and
human needs/dependencies on freshwater resources,
allowing us to leverage global financing opportunities,
determine how to bundle services and create markets
for water and forest carbon, and build governance and
other enabling conditions required for successfully
implementing payment-for-water-services programs.

OUR mission
Built upon a strong foundation of science,
partnership and field demonstration, CI
empowers societies to responsibly and
sustainably care for nature for the well-being
of humanity.

www.conservation.org

PHOTO CREDITS Left to RighT, Top to bottom:

© CI/photo by John Martin, © CI/photo by John Martin, © Art Wolfe/www.artwolfe.com*, © Jérôme
Spaggiari, © Olivier Langrand, © Robin Moore, © Ci/photo by Haraldo Castro, © CI/photo by Russell A.
Mittermeier, © Ci/photo by Haraldo Castro, © Ci/photo by Haraldo Castro, © Giacomo Abrusci,
© Cristina Mittermeier*, © CI/photo by Sterling Zumbrunn, © Ci/photo by Haraldo Castro,
© CI/photo by Kate Barrett, © CI/photo by Russell A. Mittermeier, © Ci/photo by Haraldo Castro, © Art
Wolfe/www.artwolfe.com*, © Art Wolfe/www.artwolfe.com*, © Ci/photo by Haraldo Castro

*member of