WATER P-NOTES 47312 ISSUE 24 JanUary 2009 Managing Lakes and Lake Basins for Sustainable Use L akes and reservoirs are the world's major reposi- tainable way, it is critical to understand three defining tory of accessible freshwater. They are central to characteristics of lakes: their integrating nature; long the livelihoods and economies of a large fraction retention time; and complex response dynamics. of the world's population, as well as being centers of aquatic biodiversity. They play a central role in · The integrating nature of lakes means that con- integrated water resources management. Yet in nections between users are particularly strong. spite of their importance and the growing threats to For example, a polluter is often a victim of pol- them, they have not received sufficient attention in lution. Also, the connections among the water the global discussion on water policy. flows, substances and animal and plant life of the region are also quite strong. The Lake Basin Management Initiative (LBMI) was implemented as a Cooperative Program sup- · The relatively long retention time of most lakes, ported by a partnership of many international agen- compared to rivers, means that the "lake cies1 to draw on global knowledge on lake basin time scale" is different from the "political time management. An analysis of experiences from 28 scale". Lakes are stable, buffer floods and lakes around the world sought to identify practical droughts, sinks for pollutants, but slow to re- lessons learned from management of lake basins, spond to management. There is usually a sig- create new knowledge on lake basin management, nificant delay between an action that impacts fill an important gap in knowledge of lake manage- the lake and the change in a lake. This holds ment in developing countries, and derive lessons true for actions that are positive (e.g., improve- from internationally funded projects.2 ment in the trophic state of a lake) or negative (such as the consequences of increased nutri- ent load). Understanding the characteristics of lakes 1The partnership consisted of the World Bank, Global Environment Uncontrolled use, over abstraction and degradation Facility (GEF), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Ramsar Bureau, of the resources of a lake and its surrounding area United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the or basin, typically results in rapidly declining lake Bank- Netherlands Water Partnership Program (BNWPP), the Shiga levels, overuse of water, declining water quality and Prefecture in Japan, and two NGOs--the International Lake Envi- ronment Committee (ILEC) and LakeNet. The World Bank was the destruction of ecological integrity. Such degradation GEF implementing agency and ILEC was the executing agency. may include the surrounding lands and waters. To 2Table 2.1 from Lessons for Managing Lake Basins for Sustainable understand how to manage lake resources in a sus- Use, Report 32877, World Bank, December 2005. This note summarizes key findings of the final report of the Lake Basin Management Initiative, "Managing Lakes and Their Basins for Sustainable Use: A Report for Lake Basin Managers and Stakeholders", by the International Lake Environment Committee Foundation, 2005. The report was prepared with support from over 280 lake, water and environmental specialists from 41 nations. Its preparation was managed by Rafik Hirji (Team Leader) and Masahisa Nakamura (Project Manager, ILEC). Readers may download the complete paper from www.worldbank.org/water. WATER P-NOTES Figure 1 ignored. Lakes and lake basins sustain human live- lihoods (fisheries, agriculture, pastoralism, aqua- culture, human settlements, rural water supply), D *C support economic activities (commercial fisheries, * agriculture, horticulture, mining, industry, forestry, Time Plankton navigation, hydropower generation, tourism, urban Concentration water supply and sink for stormwater and waste Time disposal), provide habitat for biodiversity, and offer * A * B important aesthetic, cultural and spiritual values. In addition to their dramatic and picturesque features, Nutrient Concentration lakes have a rich endowment of resources, and are major components of the water cycle. Lakes play an important role in buffering against water and · The complex response dynamics of lakes means climate fluctuations, and collect inflowing materials that connections are often indirect and not easy across their basins. At the same time, the majority to determine. Lakes do not always respond of goods and services provided by lakes are not linearly. Changes are often irreversible or ex- directly bought and sold on markets. This is a key tremely costly and time consuming as indicated reason why the value of a lake may only become in the hysteresis in Figure 1. apparent once a lake has become polluted or im- paired. These characteristics mean: (i) that problems can often spread throughout a lake, (ii) stresses To improve sustainable management of lakes (e.g., from pollution) maybe slow to notice, but take and develop adequate responses to different uses, equally long time to fix, and (iii) problems are not it is necessary to understand the key problems gen- always clearly linked to their causes--good science erated by human use of lakes. Results of the LBMI is needed to establish causes. study indicate that many lake management issues actually originate within lake drainage basins. Lake The figure above illustrates that a large change problems also originate within the lake, in the litor- in nutrient concentration (pollution load from sew- ral zone of the lake and from outside the basin. The age or fertilizers, for example)) as depicted by mov- most commonly cited issues for the 28 lakes studied ing from point A to B is accompanied by a very in this project include the following: small, and hardly noticeable increase in plankton concentration (consequence of pollution load). · Inflow of sediments to lakes Once a critical nutrient load is reached, however, · Introduced fauna and flora a relatively small additional increase in nutrient load (from point B to C) generates a substantial · Unsustainable fishing practices reaction in terms of increased plankton concentra- · Issues that are well-known, but have not reeived tion (often, this is when aglal blooms occur). Once adequate attention, such as dropping lake lev- this occurs, the challenge for lake managers is to els due to over abstraction or reduced ground- reduce the nutrient loads from C to A. However for water flows that to happen, large sums of funds are needed for nutrient reduction measures, and even than, after · Other emerging issues that are less well known, substantial nutrient reduction from point C to D, the such as atmospheric nutrient pathways, climate response in plankton reduction is barely noticeable change, shrinking lake size, trade globalization until a critical point is reached D before noticeable impacts, and environmental flows. changes will occur from point D to A. Impairment of lakes typically arises through overuse and/or when two or more users are in conflict. Lake levels respond to changes in inflows Understanding the value of lakes, and outflows, with consequent drying or flooding their common uses and problems of shoreline habitat and wetlands. Temperature changes lead to shifts in stratification levels with Lakes provide value through indispensable goods consequent effects on biogeochemistry and food and services that are often undervalued or even chains. As in rivers, chemical pollution, effluent 2 ISSUE 24 · JANUARY 2009 discharges, and sediment loads can affect lake An integrated approach to management of the biota in diverse ways. Introduced flora and fauna lake together with its drainage basin is required to can also have major impacts on biodiversity and respond adequately to lake use management. This productivity. Lakes are particularly sensitive long- creates a variety of challenges, particularly because term indicators of climate change, integrating over the boundaries of lake basins rarely coincide with short-term temperature fluctuations to expose long- established political systems. Addressing problems term changes. Overall, the trend shows worsening in a lake basin may require crossing political juris- conditions in the quality of the lake environment dictions--national and/or international jurisdictions. globally. This is becoming increasingly necessary, as the par- ticular problem may lie well beyond the lake's basin. The challenge of managing lake Lessons learned from the 28 case studies es- tablish six necessary components to an effective basins management response: adequate institutions for im- plementing change; efficient, effective and equitable The goals of managing each lake will vary and policies; meaningful participation of all stakeholders change over time. Goals should aim to reconcile involved; technical measures to ameliorate certain the diverse management objectives in each lake problems; appropriate information about current basin, to minimize problems and maximize values and future conditions; and sufficient financing to derived from a lake, while addressing equitable dis- accomplish these aims. These components are de- tribution of benefits and responsibilities. scribed in Box 1. Box 1. Six components of lake basin management An integrated approach to lake basin management requires the following six components: · Institutions are needed to manage the lake and its basin for the benefit of all lake basin resource users. Institutions with authority and longevity are needed at all levels; at local levels (such as local councils), at regional levels (such as a lake basin authority), at national levels (such as a government department), at international levels (such as international commissions for transboundary lakes). Committed and visionary leaders can make a tremendous difference. · Policies must be developed to govern people's use of lake resources and their impacts on lakes. Formal policies are enacted through laws, statutes and regulations implemented by institutions. Informal policies may be developed and accepted among traditional groups of people living in the lake area. Policies at the local level are implemented through education to change people's behaviors, and through rules, incentives and disincentives to support behavior change. · Participation of people is essential in developing and managing the lake basin strategy. People are integral to establishing the value and use of the lake basin area; they provide knowledge and experience for management and enforcement of rules, and can demand accountability for use of resources. They may also be a source of finance for supporting lake management through user fees. · Technological resources can sometimes have a dramatic impact on increasing access to a lake's resources and resolving some types of problems. One of the most frequent technological responses includes the building or upgrading of sewage treatment plants to remove contaminants from lakes, or the building of embankments to improve a lake's ability to buffer floods. · Information sharing that is open and leads to improvements in understanding promotes efficient management of lake basins. Scientific knowledge can be applied to management strategies for effective use of a lake's resources. Traditional knowledge draws on local information sources to bring people into the process in developing and managing solutions to lake use. · Financing is required to fund the development of lake basin management and support its on-going operation through management institutions and stakeholder groups. It is necessary for the implementation of technological solutions. Access to financing is often the weakest point of lake basin management in developing countries. 3 WATER P-NOTES Strategic planning for sustainable nating project; (2) revising expected outputs to lake basin management be more integrated or (3) broadening the scope of a project as it achieves success and gains Strategic planning is essential to attain lake basin credibility. management goals, and to bring the six compo- · Flexibility is key to the planning process, due nents of lake basin management discussed in the to changing social needs and external factors. previous section together. Plans must be as compre- Plans must be responsive to monitoring results; hensive and integrated as possible, to address the monitoring may identify new issues and provide complex nature of lakes and their basins. Lessons valuable information on results of activities. on planning for sustainable lake basin management include the following points: · Lake basin management is a long-term process, not a project. · Plans for lake basin management must be aligned with regional and national plans for de- velopment and environmental protection. Toward future management of lake · Vision statements can be useful first steps to es- basins tablishing goals and developing more detailed management plans. Lake basin management requires clear understand- · Comprehensive plans seek to improve effective- ing of the importance, vulnerability, and unique ness through integrated action across sectors. characteristics of lakes and their basins. Learning There are challenges to creating comprehensive from the experience that has emerged from this plans, and they may be expensive to imple- international study of lake basin management has ment, costly to coordinate, and inflexible in re- allowed for the identification of key components sponding to changing political priorities. to sustainable development: institutions, policies, participation, technology, information, and financ- · Strategic Action Programs have been largely ing. Strategic planning is also a key means of beneficial in promoting contact between sec- developing goals and implementing management tors and national institutions, and have laid the approaches. There are a number of difficult issues foundation for joint management interventions. that will have to be addressed, depending upon Strategic Action Programs have been promoted the context. Some of the roadblocks commonly en- by the GEF International Waters projects. countered include: policy conflicts; political motives; · Initial coordination between sector and regional lack of a voice for local populations; corruption; plans should focus on areas in need of im- complications due to jurisdictional boundaries; and mediate attention; further coordination can be lack of funding to carry out operations. Experience phased in over time and respond to opportuni- has shown problems can be overcome through ties as they arise. creative and proactive approaches, efforts to build coalitions, develop shared visions, identify political · Sector or regional plans can be coordinated support, leverage external support, pursue sector re- through different approaches. Coordination can forms, and marshal evidence to support lake basin occur through: (1) creating a separate coordi- management. The Water Sector Board Practitioner Notes (P-Notes) series is published by the Water Sector Board of the Sustainable Development Network of the World Bank Group. P-Notes are available online at www.worldbank.org/water. P-Notes are a synopsis of larger World Bank documents in the water sector. 4 THE WORLD BANK | 1818 H Street, NW | Washington, DC 20433 www.worldbank.org/water | whelpdesk@worldbank.org