Vision for Water and Nature

Book excerpt: The Vision for Water and Nature is the "environment and ecosystems" component of the World Water Vision exercise of the World Water Council. It represents the first meaningful attempt to fully integrate environment issues into the development of a comprehensive strategy for water resource management at the global level. The vision was developed by IUCN through an extensive consultation effort based on three thematic workshops on freshwater ecosystem management and social, economic and environmental security, respectively. Instead of considering the environment as one of many water management sub-sectors, IUCN's consultations led it to emphasize the crucial role of ecosystems as the basis of our life support systems, without which security cannot be achieved and sustained. The vision also proposes a plan of action to help us achieve the sustainable world we envision in 2025.