The principles of WANI has been implemented in 30 projects in 12 river basins in 25+ countries, including more than 200 IUCN Members and partners, over the last six years. WANI commenced in the Pacific in 2008 and provides capacity building support and demonstration projects that model sustainable water management practices.
Managing water resources for the future
IUCN Oceania's Water portfolio focuses on integrated water resource management, environmental flows, water economics, watershed ecosystems, and river bank rehabilitation.
It also promotes increased awareness about the need for climate change adaptation and the value of coastal ecosystems to disaster risk reduction.
Our work is directly aligned to IUCN's global Water Programme through its Water and Nature Initiative (WANI). WANI focuses on good governance, payments for ecosystem services, capacity building of water resource managers at community, national and regional levels and the transfer of knowledge with the aim to improve the quality and sustainability of water resources.
WANI in the Pacific
Where we work
Kadavu, Fiji.
Rapid growth, infrastructure development and improper land-use on Kadavu are constantly degrading the island’s rich biodiversity of both marine and terrestrial resources. However, the unique tenure system over both marine and terrestrial resources in Fiji allows for the opportunity to arrest and restore this adverse effect through community-based management.
The project’s second phase will see the implementation of the management plan produced in the first phase and the restoration of degraded catchments in Nakasaleka district.
For updates on project implementation click here.
Nadi, Fiji.
The Nadi River Basin regularly suffers from heavy flooding, the most recent being the major floods of 2009. These floods are partially due to the poor management practices undertaken on the Nadi Catchments mainly by communities and local authorities.
The project’s second phase will see to the development of an integrated flood risk management plan for the Nadi Basin.
For updates on project implementation click here.
Where we work
Samoa
Togitogiga is the main source of water supply for downstream communities and has a unique biodiversity. It is also well known for recreational purposes as part of the “Togitogiga National Park”.
This catchment area has become significantly degraded due to increasing population and development pressures, soil erosion, sedimentation, and water pollution.
The project’s second phase will see to the development of the Togitogiga watershed management plan as well as seeing to its implementation.
For updates on project implementation click here.
At the regional level
The fourth project under WANI Phase 2 will include work at the regional level. The CRiSTAL toolkit which is a decision support tool for assessing and enhancing project impacts on local adaptive capacity to climate variability and climate change will be tested in Nauru, a State member of IUCN, and the Cook Islands.
Awareness-raising materials addressing water issues peculiar to atolls and a document compiling the lessons learnt from the projects in the Pacific will be produced.
Coming up !
Solomon Islands
A biodiversity assessment of Kovi catchment in Guadalcanal is intended to be carried out to complement the work of the GEF-funded IWRM project currently being executed by SOPAC in 13 regional countries. Kovi catchment is a potential source of water for Honiara but SIWA (Solomon Islands Water Authority) need to get the landowners on side.
The catchment has interesting fauna and flora and geological features for instance, caves. Once a biodiversity assessment has been done then an ecotourism plan will be developed in consultation with the landowners that will hopefully induce the landowners to maintain the ecosystem services of the catchment.
WANI Toolkits
A toolkit series has been developed under WANI. There are currently seven guides in the series:
- FLOWS: the essentials of environmental flows
- CHANGE: adaptation of water resources management to climate change
- VALUE: counting ecosystems as water infrastructure
- PAY: establishing payments for watershed services
- SHARE: managing waters across boundaries
- RULE: reforming water governance
- NEGOTIATE: reaching agreements over water
For more information on the toolkit series and to download each guide click here.
