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GWP’s VISION is a water secure world. Our MISSION is to advance governance and management of water resources for sustainable and equitable development.

OUR UNIQUE VALUE: GWP mobilises action on the global water crisis through a unique combination of social capital, shared values, credibility within the global water community, bottom-up orientation, and expertise. A network of networks, we ensure the ‘voices of water’ can inﬂuence local, national, regional, and global development priorities. We are committed to our role as a neutral convener and respected for our focus on inclusiveness and sustainability.

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GWP creates and communicates information about integrated water resources management which contributes to improved water governance and, ultimately, water security.

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Institutional Partners are the basis of GWP's multi-stakeholder partnership. A strong, diverse partnership can bring about the changes needed to achieve a water secure world. In this section, learn about the benefits of being a Partner and meet a few who already are. We invite like-minded organisations to join us!

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This is where you can find links to the websites of our Regional Water Partnerships (RWPs). RWPs are closest to the countries where we work. They share knowledge and learning across national boundaries and are expected to have an open, inclusive, and gender-sensitive policies for bringing together as wide a group of stakeholders as possible to solve water problems.

Central and Eastern Europe Mediterranean

9/24/2012

Balancing Growth and Environmental Protection

Prof Michael Scoullos GWP participated in the “COP 11 of the RAMSAR Convention”, the 11th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Wetlands entitled “Wetlands: Home and Destination” on 5-10 July in the Parliament Palace in Bucharest.

Prof. Michael Scoullos, Chair of GWP Mediterranean delivered a presentation as Invited Speaker in the Plenary on “Water security and the importance of wetlands as natural infrastructure in water resources management”. He emphasized that water security is part of the overall security since it is closely linked to food security, energy security, security of livelihoods, maintenance of biodiversity, and the reduction of natural risks such as floods, as part of the ecological services delivered by wetlands.

COP11 offers the opportunity to deal with the challenges of protecting wetland ecosystems around the world and to set the Ramsar Convention strategy for the next 40 years. It was observed that in a global world, it is counterproductive to overlook the interdependence of development, tourism and biodiversity. Efforts are required to reduce the effects of climate change and to secure the livelihoods of local communities. An important aim of national strategies is environmental protection, including the prevention of pollution, for example, by shipping on the Danube River and other waterways. There is a need to balance the growth of strong economies with the protection of the natural environment.

The Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971), called the "Ramsar Convention", is an intergovernmental treaty that embodies the commitments of its member countries to maintain the ecological character of their Wetlands of International Importance and to plan for the "wise use", or sustainable use, of all of the wetlands in their territories. Unlike other global environmental conventions, Ramsar is not affiliated with the United Nations system of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEA), but works very closely with the other MEAs and is a full partner among the "biodiversity-related cluster" of treaties and agreements.

Presentations and a report from the meeting are available here.

More information: GWP Perspectives Paper “Water and the Green Economy”.

Page last edited: 9/24/2012