I thought this might be of interest to ECOFEMers. Apologies for the
length as well as for any cross-posting.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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DEVELOPMENT AFFECTING RIVERS AND WETLANDS
BOOMERANGS TO CAUSE ECONOMIC AND BIOLOGICAL LOSS
A new Worldwatch Paper, Imperiled Waters, Impoverished Future: The Decline of
Freshwater Ecosystems, demonstrates that giant dams, massive irrigation systems, and
widespread
logging often bring few economic benefits, and instead cause environmental
degradation, poverty,
and suffering, as well as irreplaceable loss of biodiversity.
# Billions of dollars spent for flood control, plus the effects of land
degradation, actually
increased the severity and cost of flooding on the Columbia, Rhine, and
Mississippi rivers.
# Pollution and diversion have driven freshwater fisheries into collapse worldwide,
and the
extinction of freshwater species far outpaces the extinction of mammals and birds.
# Wetlands worth billions of dollars to the public for fisheries, water
purification, and
groundwater renewal have been converted to less beneficial uses.
Freshwater ecosystems are both disproportionally rich and disproportionally
imperiled.
Some 20% of 9,000 known freshwater fish species worldwide are already extinct or
imperiled,
with the toll much higher where human impact is heavy. In North America and Europe,
about
40% of all native fish species are extinct or imperiled. In East Africa's heavily
stressed Lake
Victoria, 40% of its unique 350 native fish species are at risk, with 60% already
extinct.
Senior researcher Janet N. Abramovitz, author of the report, said, "As alarming
as these
numbers are, the rate of extinction is even more alarming -- a hundred to a thousand
times the
natural rate. By destroying species faster than nature can create new ones we are
running a
'biodiversity deficit' that can never be recovered." She added,
"If these losses had occurred overnight they would have made headlines
worldwide, and the full weight of government and business would be brought to
bear to save freshwater fish species and fisheries. It is tragic that these slow
catastrophic changes are accepted as the 'price of progress,' because it is a
price
we must not -- and need not -- pay."
Beyond their obvious benefits for agriculture and industry, intact freshwater
ecosystems
are vital to human health and economies worldwide. They provide clean drinking water,
natural
flood control, as well as income and food from fisheries. But the human desire for
immediate
profit and 'quick fixes' has led to a cascade of damage. Hydroelectric dams, water
diversions
for agriculture, flood control levees, dredging, air and water pollution, habitat
degradation such
as logging, as well as exotic species such as the zebra mussel, are combining to
disrupt and
destroy freshwater species and functioning ecosystems worldwide. In one tragic
example, when
a dam was built on the Mun River in Thailand, more than two thousand families were
evicted
from their homes, thousands more lost their source of food and income, and all 150
species of
fish disappeared from the river.
## Since 1900, about 33 of 330 native mussels species in North America have become
extinct, 199 of the remainder are at risk -- a great global loss, as North
America is home
to fully 1/3 of all freshwater mussel species. Only about 75 species are
considered stable
by biologists.
## Some 50 native species of freshwater mussels once inhabited the Little Tennessee
River,
but after a dam impounded the river in 1979, 44 species disappeared.
## At one city on the German/French border, the Rhine River's floodwaters had risen
7.62
meters above flood level only four times this century before 1977, an average of
once
every twenty years. Since then, that level had been breached ten times, an
average of
once every other year.
Based on successes around the world, and the results of many regional and economic
studies worldwide, the report recommends basic changes in policy: recognize that the
values that
intact ecosystems provide before short-term decisions cause long-term losses; and that
governments, lenders, and businesses recognize that many development projects, however
glamorous they may seem, can actually reduce economic benefits. Here are several
examples:
1. The value of water in one Nigerian floodplain was calculated at $45 per 1,000
cubic
meters if left alone to support local fisheries, farming, and livestock. But if
diverted for
other uses -- at high cost -- its value drops to just 4 cents per 1,000 cubic
meters.
2. One 552,000-acre swamp in Florida provides $25 million a year in water storage and
aquifer recharging, with no upkeep costs.
3. The value of intact mangrove swamps in Malaysia for flood control and storm
protection
alone has been estimated by economists at $300,000 per kilometer, the cost of
rock walls
that are needed to replace them when they are cut down. If the value of
fisheries is
included, the figure would be even higher.
4. Economic studies of the Missouri River show that recreation produces, at very
little cost,
at least four times the revenue of river barge traffic, which requires costly and
repeated
dredging and channelization. Ending the public subsidies for navigation would
also help
restore the river's natural functions such as controlling floods and nurturing
fisheries.
Yet despite the clear dollars-and-sense relationship shown by the studies above
and many
others, governments, engineers, and investors are entering into devil's bargains of
mega-projects
that will enrich a few in the short-term, but impoverish many in the long term.
Poorly planned
development that "kills the goose that lays the golden egg" continues. Logging, dams,
flood
control, and massive land conversion wind up costing more than they are worth, while
destroying
forever biological diversity that provides direct food and free services for humans.
## In 1895, the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest provided a bounty of nearly
20,000
tons of salmon a year. One hundred years later, the catch had collapsed to just
533 tons.
Projected for the next century, that is a loss of nearly 2 billion tons of salmon
missing
from the local economy and world food supply.
## The Great Midwest Flood of 1993 rendered ineffective more than a thousand levees
along
more than 6,000 miles of the river. The cost of that flood exceeded $12 billion.
## In the Mekong River in southeast Asia, the benefits of maintaining the natural
flow of the
river would allow 52 million people in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam to continue
supporting themselves with little capital investment. An expensive plan to dam
and divert
the river -- a staircase of dams that would reduce the flow of the Mekong by 50%
and
provide electricity and water for Thailand's booming economy -- would push the
region's
people further into poverty and saddle them with a burden of debt to pay for the
dams.
The report describes examples that show great improvements can be made in managing
natural resources to avoid losses like the above. Better sewage treatment and changes
in
industrial processes have reduced the amount of heavy metals entering the Rhine River
by 90%
since the 1970s. In the Pacific Northwest, a shift is beginning towards non-damaging
economic
uses of natural resources (such as recreation and non-timber forest products) that
employ more
people and provide a more sustainable economic base than current destructive uses.
Yet Abramovitz cautions that without changes in national and international
policies, and
greater cooperation, the decline is likely to continue. The key to stopping this
needless
destruction and repairing damage already done requires abandoning the fragmented
approach to
managing rivers and their watersheds. Rather than having dozens of agencies and
bureaucracies,
each managing a piece or a function of a river within a narrow mandate, the author
recommends
integrated ecosystem-based planning at the watershed, national, and international
levels. She
recommends managing resources over large enough areas and long enough time scales to
allow
their species and ecological processes to remain intact while still allowing human
activity.
The cost of restoring the natural flows to rivers would not be nearly as costly
and
disruptive as many would have us believe. Restoring half the wetlands in the lower 48
states to
their natural functions would affect just 3% of the nation's agricultural, forest, or
urban land.
Removing two aging dams on the Elwha River in Washington State would cost only $100
million, but would yield $3 to $6 billion per year in benefits, including fishing and
other
recreation, from restoring the river and its wild salmon -- a substantial return on
investment.
We already know the heavy price that regulated rivers, dam construction, water
diversion
and pollution, alien species, fisheries mismanagement, and habitat degradation and
fragmentation
can exact from a region. The time has come to act on a corollary principle: over the
long-term,
keeping naturally functioning ecosystems healthy will offer the greatest number of
benefits for
the greatest number of people.
For further information, refer to the Worldwatch Econet conference: worldwatch.news;
or e-mail
us at: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
**The paper is not available via e-mail.
************************************
Stefanie S. Rixecker
Centre for Resource Management/
Department of Resource Management
Lincoln University
Canterbury
Aotearoa New Zealand
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Phone: (64) (03) 325-2811 x8377
Fax: (64) (03) 325-3841
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