Proceedings of the workshop on Catalyzing Improved Source-to-Sea (S2S) Governance, Management and Investment in East Asia and Southeast Asia (EASC2018 Session 2 Workshop 4)
PUBLICATION DATE:
Friday, November 30, 2018
PUBLICATION TYPE:
Meeting Documents
STATUS:
Only Available Online
DESCRIPTION:
Ecosystems along a continuum from source-to-sea are being degraded as an unintended consequence of economic activities that might happen far upstream or downstream in the source-to-sea system (Granit. J. et al, 2017). This is happening primarily for two reasons: 1) lack of awareness and understanding of the land-to-sea ecosystem linkages and flows of water, sediment, pollutants, biota and ecosystem services; and 2) lack of capacity and know-how to avoid or mitigate the interconnected threats and negative impacts coming from multiple sectors and multiple resource users. The impacts of climate change currently add further stresses in river basins and coastal and sea areas in most regions of the world. It is clearly evident that the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) include a number of targets (e.g., SDG 2, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14 and15) that are directly dependent upon the ability of governments and their partners to overcome these barriers.
A related overarching concern is that water use among East Asian and Southeast Asian countries is growing rapidly, while water quality and quantity challenges persist in such a way that the situation in some areas has threatened to derail economic growth. Increased population has intensified freshwater usage, both surface and ground water. Water demand is increasing drastically due to rapid urbanization, industrialization and agriculture/food production intensification and expansion, and many areas in the region are projected to be water stressed by 2025 (Lee 2013).
These two issues are inseparably linked and require urgent attention.
The S2S Partnership Hub Dialogue session aimed to:
- enhance S2S awareness by sharing the experiences and perspectives of policymakers, managers and practitioners at the regional, national and local levels;
- identify priority demands, opportunities and challenges for further development and up-scaling of S2S solutions across the region;
- explore and gather inputs on a regional approach to S2S, including potential value-add, focus areas, content, partners, etc. and, in doing so, confirm interest and informal endorsement of next steps.
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