The eight Amazon Countries approved the first Strategic Action Program for Integrated Water Resources Management in the Amazon Basin, an historic step for the region through which Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela commit to protecting the largest river basin in the world, covering an area of 6,118,000 km2 and discharging 6.6 billion m3/year of water into the ocean. Based on a shared Vision and Transboudary Diagnosis Analysis of the basin, achieved through a wide-ranging process of public participation and scientific research, this Program offers collective responses to address the ongoing degradation of water resources, land and biodiversity and strengthens the capacity of the communities to adapt to extreme hydro-climatic events.

Three Strategic Lines of Action – Strengthening Integrated Water Resources Management, Institutional Adaptation to Climate Change and Variability, and Knowledge Management – set the agenda for the regional cooperation, which comprises, among others, the implementation of regional monitoring systems (hydro-meteorological, water quality, erosion and sediment transport, climate change vulnerability); institutional capacity building, planning and management; adaptation to climate change (early warning systems, forecasting an risk management); protection and sustainable use of resources (including groundwater); and data sharing, knowledge and awareness raising. The Program will be implemented in the framework of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), with the support from UN Environment and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), while advancing the countries´commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda.

For more information, contact Project Manager Maria Apostolova maria.apostolova@otca.org.br

The original article was posted on IW LEARN: https://news.iwlearn.net/first-strategic-action-program-for-the-amazon-basin