Wetlands and Poverty Reduction

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The Wetlandsand Poverty Reduction Project

Linking wetland conservation and poverty alleviation


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Wetlands and Poverty Reduction Project2

The Wetlands andLivelihoods Working Group

The Wetlands and Livelihoods WorkingGroup oversees and supports the techni-cal implementation of the WPRP. As aninternational think-tank comprising repre-sentatives of different fields of expertise,the Working Group acts as an 'advisorycommittee' for the project, providing a

strategic overview and external technicalguidance to its implementation. By invol-ving representatives of major conserva-tion and development agencies, govern-ment and the private sector in theWorking Group it is hoped that the mem-bers will be able to share knowledge andexperience in development initiatives,and that lessons learned through the pro-

ject will also be shared. The WorkingGroup will develop strategic papers, des-igned to influence policy and practice atall levels, on the integration of natureconservation and socio-economic issuesin order to reduce the poverty faced bymany wetland communities. The WorkingGroup has established sub-committees tooversee and help guide the projectthrough the selection and implementationof demonstration projects, allocation of seed funding and planning of key part-nership workshops and meetings.Membership of the Working Group isopen to anyone who would like s haretheir experience and contribute to findingsolutions to eradicating poverty in wet-land areas.

Wetlands are vital to life - they provide water for our basic needs and our eco-nomic prosperity. In the developing world millions of people rely entirely on wet-lands for their livelihoods and food security. Wetlands are also important for bio-diversity and play a key role by affording habitat to many rare and endangeredspecies. However, the value of wetlands is often considered solely in terms of their economic and social benefits, and the importance of conserving wetlandsand their biodiversity may not be recognised.

Wetlands are the most threatened of all the earth's ecosystems. Yet despitetheir importance the world's wetlands are frequently mismanaged, and manyare now so degraded that the people who rely directly on them for their liveli-hoods have become more vulnerable to or have fallen deeper into poverty.

Wetlands International aims to contribute to the achievement of the MillenniumDevelopment Goals through its Wetlands and Poverty Reduction Project(WPRP). The project aims to act as a catalyst to promote the integration of sustainable wetland management into poverty reduction strategies byinfluencing local, national and international policies and practice.

The WPRP will undertake a range of integrated activities with the aim of ensuring that wetlands are managedsustainably. The activities areorganised into four thematic areas:Policy and Partnership,Demonstration Projects, CapacityBuilding, and Awareness andOutreach.

Budget

The total budget of the Wetlands andPoverty Reduction Project is € 6.2

million, excluding in-kind contribu-tions and additional funding lever-aged during the programme imple-mentation. The project started inearly 2005 and will run until 2008,with the following components:

Linking wetlands conservation and poverty alleviation

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Policy and Partnership: € 502.000 (8%)

Demonstration Projects: € 2.711.000 (44%)

Capacity Building: € 1.259.000 (20%)

Outreach and Awareness: € 590.000 ( 10%)

Project Implementation: € 1.140.000 (18%)


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The WPRP adopts a partnershipapproach: new relationships will bebuilt between national, regional andinternational environmental-manage-ment and poverty-reduction agenciesand organisations.

An international workshop will beheld in January 2006 at which stake-

holders will decide focal areas for thepartnerships. Workshop participantswill identify ways in which cross-sec-toral integration can be improved sothat, from the outset, project benefici-aries have a greater understanding of the issues that they will confront.

An example of wetlandmanagement

Inner Niger River Delta

The Inner Niger River Delta in theWestern Sahel zone supports more thana million people who make their living asfishermen, cattle breeders or farmers,using the annual rise and fall of thewaters in the river and its floodplains.This wetland is vitally important not just

for people: the Niger Delta is also hometo nearly 4 million waterbirds. Two damshave been constructed upstream on theNiger River. Although these dams haveimproved irrigated agriculture, the bene-fits they provide vary from season to sea-son. In dry periods the dams can reducethe flow of water by up to 30%, and thishas had a severe impact on downstreamwater users. Now a third dam has beenproposed on the Niger River. It is vitalthat the many users of the Niger Deltaare involved in decision making in rela-tion to this dam before it is built. The sec-toral approaches inherent in the institu-tions involved may not permit the esta-

blishment of an effective forum for localstakeholders to protect their resourcesand interests. A stakeholder-centredapproach that facilitates wise decisionmaking must be promoted in the assess-ment and location of this possible thirddam on the Niger. The WPRP can facilita-te capacity building for the stakeholdersinvolved to equip them with the knowled-ge and awareness needed to have their views taken into account.

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Decision makers often do not understand the importance of healthy wetlands,and therefore do not perceive the protection of wetlands to be a priority. Raisingdecision makers' awareness of wetland values is a first step towards sustainablymanaged wetlands.

Furthermore, stakeholders with competing interests need to work together tofind common solutions and bridge their differences.

Conservation and development organisations tend to work to their ownagendas. The WPRP sets out to bring these organisations together so thatthey can share their knowledge and expertise in order to realise commongoals.

Decision-making at the local level is often part of a much larger, complex pro-cess. Local stakeholders can participate effectively in these processes only if they are set within a framework of viable national policies and supported byauthoritative institutions.

The WPRP aims to facilitate dialogue between these sectors and identify acommon agenda that provides complementary solutions to wetland conserva-tion and poverty reduction. Through the policy and partnership activities of theWPRP it is aimed that the capacity of the conservation and development sec-tors will be strengthened so that they can influence poverty reductionstrategies.

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Policy and partnership

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Bio-rights

Bio-rights is an innovative financialinstrument that can assist in reconci-ling poverty reduction with the sustai-nable use of natural resources indeveloping countries. The systeminvolves payments by the global com-munity to local stakeholders for biodi-versity conservation services, thuscompensating for the opportunitycosts of sustainable use of theirnatural resources. The conditions for receiving funding are that the systemis endorsed by both donors and localstakeholders and that the fulfilment of environmental goals is monitored andmade transparent to the global com-munity. Bio-rights allow the publicvalue of key biodiversity wetlandareas to be transferred over time tolocal stakeholders as a direct econ-omic benefit. A win-win situation canbe achieved, because global stake-holders profit from the long-termbenefits of the natural resources andthe environmental services providedby wetlands, while local people cangain an increased income, improved

health and sustainable livelihoods.

In addition, local organisations, wet-land managers and other stakehol-ders will be able to apply for seedfunding support to assist them toresearch and develop other initiativesto improve their capacity to sustaina-bly manage wetlands and addressthe livelihoods needs of local commu-nities.

Whilst effective policy provides the framework, implementation on the ground iswhat matters. Furthermore, policy itself must be informed by the realities of prac-tice.

The WPRP will establish five demonstration projects in which localpartnerships illustrate how poverty reduction can be achieved through the wiseuse of wetlands. The five demonstration projects (four are planned for Africaand one in Asia) will be developed and implemented during the WPRP and willtake a demand-driven approach.

The projects will set out to demonstrate, in a practical way, how a resilient wet-land ecosystem can provide for both human needs and sustained biodiversity.Stakeholders in the demonstration projects will be encouraged to learn fromthe experience of others. Learning from the knowledge of indigenous stakehol-ders will be a guiding principle for the implementation of the projects.

One of the criteria for the projects to receive funding is the demonstrable com-mitment of an active partnership between conservation and developmentagencies and other sectoral interests in project planning and implementation.One of the mechanisms that will be tested in developing plans for the demon-stration projects is the innovative Bio-rights programme.

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Demonstration projects

Seed Grant Fund

To encourage stakeholders to contributeto developing the best possible solutionsfor wetland conservation and local deve-lopment, the WPRP will provide fundingand technical support to assist in thedevelopment of new project ideas. Theproject's Seed Grant Fund is designed tosupport initiatives at the local level.Funds and technical support are availableto help small NGOs or citizen groupsdevelop partnerships or form coalitions

with other organisations to develop fun-ding proposals to promote sustainablewetland management that leads to pover-ty reduction. Funding is also available inthe WPRP to develop training modulesand resource materials and to facilitateexchange visits to demonstration areas.

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The WPRP will link modular courses for capacity building with stakeholders invol-ved in the implementation of demonstra-tion sites to ensure that their region-spe-cific needs are addressed. These courseswill be implemented through already esta-blished regional training centres in East

and West Africa.

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Wetland management has to integrate environmental perspectives with livelihoodbenefits, especially the sustainable production of food. These approaches areseldom integrated in decision-making processes that establish managementprocedures. Socio-economic and biodiversity data are often not available to sup-port decision making.

To foster understanding between partnerships and to ensure that demonstra-tion projects become self-sustaining and replicable, it is important that local

technical capacity and skills in wetland management are improved. Increasedknowledge and knowledge management skills will help to improve stakehol-ders' ability to make informed choices and contribute to decision making.

Training courses

Practical wetland management planning skills will be further developedthrough training activities. The overall aim of the training will be the alleviationof poverty through sound wetland management.

The WPRP will make assessments that identify the capacity-building needs of

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policy and decision makers, field wor-kers and others involved in povertyreduction and sustainable wetlandmanagement, focussing on East andWest Africa. Stakeholders will learn tohelp design modular training coursesto meet their own needs. Workshopswill be held, and representatives of key partners who will benefit from the

training course will be invited toattend.

Capacity building


Capacity buildingin

East and West Africa


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The WPRP's awareness-raisingactivities will explain the relationshipbetween wetland degradation and theensuing risks to socially and econom-ically excluded groups. This will beshared with major donor agencies,governments, planners and thosewho implement development policy.

Outreach materials will be developed

and workshops will be organised for local staff of aid agencies (multilateraland bilateral aid agencies, founda-tions and co-financing agencies).These workshops will provide infor-mation and training on methods andapproaches for addressing poverty-environment issues in wetlands. Inaddition, lessons learned from theWPRP demonstration projects willhelp inform the exchange of informa-tion and ideas - and strengthen our abilities to reach out and generateawareness.

Important outputs of the WPRP will

be a 'toolkit' and awareness raisingmaterial for outreach use and for assessing and evaluating poverty-reduction programmes in wetlandareas.

These tools and other publishedmaterials will be made available onWetlands International's website andin hard copy formats.

Poverty Reduction StrategyPapers

Many of the WPRP activities will targetcountries where Poverty ReductionStrategy Papers and SustainableDevelopment Strategies are under reviewor in development. These strategies are

internally country-driven processes thatthe WPRP will seek to influence throughits wide range of activities. Greater recog-nition of the value of wetlands in PovertyReduction Strategy Papers andSustainable Development Strategies willassist governments to achieve their poverty reduction goals through integra-ted approaches to wetland management.

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Policy and decision makers often lack awareness of the interconnection betweenfunctioning ecosystems and people's livelihoods and between environmentaldegradation and poverty.

There is, therefore, an immediate need for decision makers to be aware of and understand the links between poverty and environmental issues in relationto wetlands. This includes keeping abreast of the current research and wet-

land policy development, especially in relation to international laws, conven-tions and other relevant mechanisms.

Hence, awareness and outreach activities cut across all the WPRP's activitiesand are essential for promoting a collaborative approach, sharing lessons lear-ned and stimulating new partnerships. The aim of the WPRP outreach activi-ties is to ensure that people of influence make well-informed and transparentdecisions on the exploitation of natural resources, and that their decisions areconsistent with national and cross-boundary priorities, and grounded in anunderstanding of the implications of their decisions on people and the functio-ning of wetlands.

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Outreach and awareness



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Wetlands InternationalP.O. Box 4716700 AL WageningenThe NetherlandsTel: +31 317 478854Fax: +31 317 478850E-mail: [email protected]: www.wetlands.org

Wetlands International is an independent, non-for-profitorganization. Wetlands International works globally,regionally and nationally to achieve the conservation andwise use of wetlands, to benefit biodiversity and human well-being.

For more information about the Wetlands and PovertyReduction Project or to find out how your organizationmight be involved, please contact Wetlands International or visit our website www.wetlands.org

The Wetlands and Poverty Reduction Project is financiallysupported by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Photo creditsFront cover: Wetlands International Mali. Copyright Leo Zwarts.

Pages 2 & 3: Wetlands International Mali. Copyright Leo Zwarts.

Pages 4 & 5: Wetlands International Mali.. Copyright Leo Zwarts.

Preparing the saltpan, Mekong Delta. Copyright Marcel Silvius


Gecko, Mali. Copyright Doug Taylor, Wetlands International.

Pages 8 & 9: Office du Niger presentation on Markala barrage. Copyright

Doug Taylor, Wetlands International

Catch of the day, Kalimantan, Indonesia. Copyright Marcel

Silvius, Wetlands International.

Wetlands International Mali. Copyright Leo Zwarts.


Back cover: Wetlands International Mali. Copyright Leo Zwarts.


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Wetlands and Poverty Reduction