005/2001

Editors - for further information or to interview an IWMI scientist on this topic, please contact Kshalini Nonis (k.nonis@cgiar.org) Tel + 94 1 867 404 Fax + 94 1 866854.

May 17, 2001

The International Water Management Institute joins the World Conservation Union, IUCN

Bringing a new research perspective to conservation of natural resources and biodiversity

The recent acceptance of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) as a member of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) brings the research communities focusing on water in agriculture and water in environment into a new partnership. This membership strengthens the environmental dimension of the Institute's research on sustainable water management in developing countries. It also complements the new international initiative, the Global Dialogue on Water, Food and Environment, in which both IWMI and IUCN are participating.

The World Conservation Union includes numerous countries, several hundred government agencies and some 10,000 scientists. Its mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable.

IWMI's mission is improving water and land resources management for food livelihoods and nature. "Water use for food production and better lives for the poor are parts of the overall picture," says Frank Rijsberman, Director General of IWMI, "To be complete, our research must also consider the broader impacts these activities have on natural resources, and understand how to provide 'security' for natural ecosystems." The Institute's five research themes address sustainable land, water, and groundwater management and farming practices, from several environmental perspectives.

A joint IWMI-IUCN research project, in Sri Lanka, assesses the impact of irrigation development on biodiversity. Dr. Felix Amerasinghe, the Principal Researcher leading this work for IWMI, explains: "The Uda Walawe Irrigation Development Project in Sri Lanka gives us a rare opportunity to assess biodiversity before and after irrigation development." The Institute's researchers are working with their counterparts at IUCN Sri Lanka to take an inventory of plant and animal species in the area where irrigation is being developed. One outcome of the initial stage of this study will be the identification of the habitat types and natural resource zones within the area whose conservation could particularly benefit stakeholders.

As founding members and catalysts behind the creation on the Dialogue on Water, Food and Environment, both IWMI and IUCN aim to bring together the agricultural and environmental communities. This will initiate studies in many ecosystems in Asia and Africa where there is likely to be emerging competition between the need to expand food production and to the need to sustain local wetlands and other natural ecosystems.

Amerasinghe adds, "It is important that the environmental dimension of agricultural water receives more attention. In this area, the goal of IWMI research is to find ways of balancing the needs of water for agriculture and water for nature. This is the unique perspective that this partnership brings to the work of environmental conservation."