27 June 2012
Dundee campaign helps encourage Government to sign environmental treaty
Professor Patricia Wouters, Director of the University of Dundee's UNESCO Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science, has welcomed the UK Government's decision to sign up to a major international environmental treaty.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced at the recent Rio+20 meeting that the UK will accede to the UN Watercourses Convention to help ensure that the world's 263 international boundary crossing rivers are protected and peacefully shared.
This follows five years of campaigning by the Dundee Centre to persuade governments around the world to support the Convention, which was first adopted by the UN in 1997, but needs the accession of 35 countries to enter into legal force.
The UK's decision brings the number of signatories to 27, following an intensive campaign by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) beginning in 2005. The Dundee Centre was quick to back the WWF campaign and has been lobbying governments, NGO's and other groups to encourage the adoption of the Convention.
Professor Patricia Wouters, Director of the Centre, said she was delighted that the UK Government was the latest to accede to the Convention.
"The Dundee UNESCO Centre was approached by WWF to provide the legal input for this international campaign," she said. "Alistair Rieu-Clarke from our Centre worked closely with Flavia Loures from WWF and together we have increased the awareness of the important role that the UN WC can play, especially where regional agreements do not exist.
"The UK government shows international leadership in supporting this effort - we are so pleased with this development. We will work now with our regional partners and key stakeholders around the world to attract more support, with evidence already of strong momentum. The peaceful management of the world's shared water resources is a critical pillar of international security."
The UN Watercourses Convention is a flexible and overarching global legal framework that establishes basic standards and rules for cooperation between watercourse states on the use, management, and protection of international watercourses.
When ratified the UN Watercourses Convention will help to protect rivers such as the Mekong which, with its tributaries, flows through six countries - China, Burma, Lao PDR, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam - supplying a large proportion of the world's freshwater fish catch.
The announcement comes just weeks after WWF's Living Planet Report showed that globally, biodiversity in tropical rivers has declined 70 percent since 1970 - a steeper fall than for forest or oceans.
WWF-UK's CEO David Nussbaum said, "Our rivers and lakes are the lifeblood of our planet, vital for much of the world's growing population and a critical resource for our precious wildlife.
"This UN Convention will encourage countries to work together to share this finite resource and avoid potential water conflicts, brought about by increasing demand, and unavoidable impacts of climate change. We hope other countries will follow the UK's example to make sure the Convention comes into force."
The University of East Anglia's Water Security Research Centre has also been instrumental in highlighting the need for the Convention to be ratified and campaigning for government's to accede.
Mark Zeitoun, Director of the UEA Water Security Research Centre, said, "'The UK has done well to support these vital UN principles for fair water sharing between states.
"By signing up to the UN watercourses convention the UK has signaled its intention to help countries and people across the globe who need it most take a vital step towards water security, a step that consistent with its firm leadership on global climate governance."
The University of Dundee earlier this month played host to a UN Watercourses Convention Global Initiative Symposium, jointly organised with the WWF, which saw dozen of leading practitioners from around the globe descend upon Dundee to debate the legislation.
A follow-up regional event will take place at China's Xiamen University, where Professor Wouters also works as part of an appointment under the Chinese Government's 1000 Talents initiative.
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Grant Hill
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University of Dundee
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