White paper - ‘Embedding Lakes into the Global Sustainability Agenda’
A White Paper in published in March 2023 by UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology on behalf of the United Nations Environment Programme, which coordinated World Water Quality Alliance Ecosystems Workstream. The White paper highlighted the need for a new sustainable approach to lake management, focused on ecosystem protection and restoration.
Overview: World Water Quality Alliance (WWQA) is a voluntary, global multi-stakeholders network, pooling expertise on water quality science and technology innovation. They address priority topics relevant to assessment of water quality, water governance, scalable solutions for water quality and monitoring emerging pollutants serving countries throughout the lifetime of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and beyond. WWQA Ecosystems Workstream offers decades of expertise in implementing ecosystem restoration programmes in lakes.
The White Paper highlights that, currently, lakes are undergoing large-scale degradation. This threatens their societal and economic value. Nutrient pollution from agriculture and wastewater is the main pressure that lake restoration is facing. The White Paper underlines the inadequacy of the current global approach to lake management, and proposes an international response focused around a new integrative approach towards Sustainable Lake Management. This approach would provide multiple benefits that are currently underrepresented or fragmented in existing environmental policy, limiting up-scaling and uptake.
You can access the full paper here:
WWQA Ecosystems, 2023. White Paper – Embedding Lakes into the Global Sustainability Agenda. Published by UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology on behalf of the United Nations Environment Programme coordinated World Water Quality Alliance Ecosystems Workstream. 22nd March 2023. ISBN: 978-1-906698-82-9. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.7752982.