Water

Only 3% of the earth’s water is freshwater; about two-thirds of it is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps and we have long over-stretched this precious resource.

 

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Water is the source of all life and
needs to be managed carefully

 

for people

+ 50 %

increase in global water demand by 2030

for nature

- 80%

decline in freshwater biodiversity since 1970

for security

90%

of all natural disasters are water-related

How we engage

Our work focuses on water governance that integrates the needs of people and nature, the implementation of sustainable water resource management to secure water-related ecosystem services and conserve freshwater biodiversity, and support increased investment in ecosystems as natural water infrastructure. 

 

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  • World Wetlands Day 2022 Photo: Ramsar
    In the spotlight:

    World Wetlands Day 2022

    A call to take action for wetlands is the focus of this year’s #WorldWetlandsDay campaign. An appeal to invest financial, human and political capital to save the world’s wetlands from disappearing and to restore those we have degraded.

     

    Wetlands Action for People and Nature

    #ActForWetlands

  • Logo Water Pavilion COP26 Photo: ©Water Pavilion COP26
    In the spotlight:

    Water & Climate Pavilion at COP26

    On the road to COP26 in Glasgow, IUCN along with SIWI, AGWA, CDP, and GWP are leading a historic effort to mobilize the water community and partners in the global climate action community to debut a first-ever Water & Climate Pavilion at the COP. 

     

     

    #Water4Climate #COP26 #ClimateAction

  • IUCN Congress Photo: IUCN
    In the spotlight:

    Water at the IUCN Congress

    For the first time, freshwater was featured as its own thematic focus at the IUCN Congress. Ensuring adequate quality, availability and accessibility of water is vital for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being and socio-economic development, and contributing to peace, security, and the maintenance of healthy ecosystems.

     

    #IUCNCongress #ForNature

  • Boy by waterfall, natural landscape, Lao PDR Photo: ©Shutterstock/Sirisak Baokaew
    In the spotlight:

    Wetlands and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration

    On World Environment Day 5 June 2021, the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration was officially launched. Along with WWF, BirdLife International, Wetlands International, the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), IUCN is committed to restoring wetlands in the coming decade.

     

     

    Watch our video and find out why. #WorldEnvironmentDay #GenerationRestoration #PartnersForWetlands 

  • Children's hands collecting water from a tap Photo: ©Shutterstock/Riccardo Mayer
    In the spotlight:

    World Water Day 2021

    On 22 March the world celebrates World Water Day. A precious and limited resource, how we value water determines how we treat water.

     

    Click on the heading for our NEW Feature Story:

    'The Value of Water - Precious public good or profitable private asset?' 

     

     

    #WorldWaterDay #Water2me #ValueWater

News

  • Claire Warmenbol, IUCN Communications Manager at COP26 (Glasgow, Nov 2021) Photo: ©IUCN/Sandeep Sengupta

    Twelve days in Glasgow: Impressions of a first time Climate COP experience

    14.12.2021

    Blog by Claire Warmenbol. Exactly one month ago the COP26 hammer was gaveled. These are my impressions from that climate conference - my first - which I found it to be like no other, both in terms of diversity and calibre of participants as well as in...

  • Coral reef coastal ecosystem, American Samoa Photo: Shaun Wolfe / Ocean Image Bank

    The Blue Carbon Policy Project is operational

    09.12.2021

    Striving to make international policies coherent and aligned, to accelerate coastal ecosystem conservation.

  • Africocypha varicolor 16% of the world's damselfly and dragonfly species are threatened with extinction, including Africocypha varicolor, a species found only in two streams on the Moyabi-Madzay plateau in Gabon.   Photo: André Günther

    Dragonflies threatened as wetlands around the world disappear - IUCN Red List

    09.12.2021

    Gland, Switzerland, 9 December 2021 (IUCN) – The destruction of wetlands is driving the decline of dragonflies worldwide, according to the first global assessment of these species in today’s update of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™. Their decline is...

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Learn more

BRIDGE basins_alt map_2019 Photo: IUCN Water Programme

BRIDGE

BRIDGE - Building River Dialogue and Governance. This project aims to build water governance capacities through learning, demonstration, leadership, and consensus-building, in particular in transboundary river basins.

 

Sugarcane grower, SUSTAIN Initiative, Tanzania Photo: Maria Ana Borges

SUSTAIN

Bridging water security and sustainable development. Building sustainable and inclusive growth to improve water and food security and climate resilience.

 

Peat bog on the Isle of Skye, Scotland with the Cuillin mountain range in the background Photo: ©Shutterstock/Helen Hotson

Water for Climate Impact Programme

The Water for Climate Impact Programme aims to catalyse investment into aquatic ecosystems, particularly peatlands, wetlands and coastal ecosystems. To help secure capital* for the new programme, IUCN is looking to identify a pipeline of bankable projects that contribute to the protection...
Cover: Women as change-makers Photo: ©IUCN Water

New report

Women as change-makers in the governance of shared waters

 

Quick reads

Aimed at policy-makers and journalists, IUCN Issues Briefs provide key information on selected issues in a two-pager format.

Gender-based violence and the environment - an IUCN Issues Brief Photo: IUCN

Gender-based violence and the environment

Evidence shows that there are direct links between environmental pressures and gender-based violence, and that the degradation of nature, competition over increasingly scarce resources and...
thumbnail_iucn_issues_cc_peatlands Photo: thumbnail_iucn_issues_cc_peatlands

Peatlands and climate change

Peatlands are a type of wetland which occur in almost every country and are known to cover at least 3% of global land surface. The term ‘peatland’ refers to the peat soil and the wetland habitats...
Thumbnail_CC and Water issues brief Photo: IUCN

Water and climate change

Water and weather, the delicate balance between evaporation and precipitation, is the primary cycle through which climate change is felt. As our climate changes, droughts, floods, melting glaciers,...
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