This Wetland Management Strategy is a multinational sectoral document aiming at (i) reversing wetlands degradation; (ii) instituting cooperative management and wise use practices for these transboundary ecosystems; (iii) guiding their sustainable utilization; and (iv) enhancing their greatest possible contribution towards the common benefit for the Nile Basin. The Strategy has been developed by the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI), an intergovernmental partnership of riparian states of the Nile River seeking its cooperative development, managing jointly its transboundary water resources and sharing the socio-economic benefits that arise from their development. The Strategy has the following 5 strategic objectives, established on NBI’s recognized and mandated role (1) strengthen the knowledge base on wetlands of transboundary importance in the Nile Basin to support basin-wide conservation, management, planning and restoration efforts; (2) raise awareness around the important role of wetlands and their ecosystem functions for the basin’s development; (3) develop and promote a basin-wide approach for the sustainable and cooperative management of wetlands taking into account the full variety of wetland uses; (4) strengthen national policies and institutional capacities for the effective management of wetlands with basin-wide importance; (5) strengthen basin-wide access to finance for wetland management and the capacity for development of feasible projects in the Nile Basin. The Strategy rests on 3 cornerstone principles for wetland management (1) wetlands as ecotones; (2) wise use of wetlands; and (3) equitable wetland resources use. To protect the environment, the Strategy envisages (i) the establishment of methodologies to assess the capacities of Nile wetlands for carbon sequestration and support of regional and international biodiversity through continuous research; (ii) diagnostic studies on important Nile Basin wetlands and their biodiversity including topics such as the sustenance of habitats to maintain the basin’s biodiversity, internationally important migratory bird routes, the hydrological inter-linkages between wetlands in the basin and impact of largescale development processes on critical transboundary wetlands (e.g. agriculture, infrastructure development, urbanization); (iii) studies on the services and function of wetlands to maintain and stabilize the regional water balance, reduce and buffer extreme events, and capacity to store carbon; (iv) provision of recommendations on the role of wetlands for national climate adaptation and mitigation activities. For an inclusive economic and social growth it is necessary (i) rigorous and accessible knowledge base on the Nile Basin wetlands to a better understanding of the significant role of wetlands for the basin’s resilience; (ii) enhanced understanding and knowledge-based decision making to generate positive cumulative impacts for all users; (iii) access to funding and financing of wetland management activities to improve national and regional efforts to implement and sustain management activities and coordinate activities relevant to shared wetlands; (iv) economic valuation of wetlands contributions in sustaining livelihoods and fisheries for the basin’s populations to inform management decisions and activities; (v) specific training programs and expert support to improve the management of transboundary resources. As for Governance, the following steps will be undertaken (i) identification, further development and prioritization of short and medium term activities; (ii) development of a Log-Frame Matrix indicating a detailed timeline for achieving each of the outputs, defining roles and responsibilities within the NBI and for National Focal Points, allocating a corresponding budget, and including indicators to enable measures of progress; (iii) put in place of a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) mechanism or system for following up on the operationalization of the Strategy.
2013-06-01