Publication Name

management practices are threatening the marine envi-

ronment and coordination between marine planning pro-

cesses is lacking, GRID-Arendal plays an important role

in introducing “Ecosystem-based Management” (EbM) to

the whole region.

Transboundary waters

GRID-Arendal is involved in several regions, particularly

in Africa and Eurasia, engaging with countries which have

complicated relationships with each other but share com-

mon waters, such as rivers, lakes and/or seas. For ex-

ample, transboundary rivers form crucial lifelines for the

supply of energy, transport and irrigation for agriculture

in many countries. Several transboundary agreements

over water resources already exist and provide excellent

opportunities for international peaceful collaboration and

improved natural resource management.

In 2013, GRID-Arendal published the

Zambezi River Basin

Atlas of our Changing Environment

, in cooperation with the

Southern African Research and Documentation Centre’s

environment institute, the India Musokotwane Environ-

ment Resource Centre for Southern Africa. Eight countries

in Southern Africa (Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozam-

bique, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe) share

this globally important river basin. Credible scientific infor-

mation provided in the Zambezi Atlas will inform the insti-

tutional and legislative processes that will shape develop-

ments in the Zambezi River basin over the next decade.

The publication of the Atlas has renewed interest in ba-

sin management issues among the eight riparian coun-

tries. After the launch in Angola, several governments

expressed interest in the follow-up of the findings of the

atlas. GRID-Arendal also worked with the Zambia Environ-

mental Management Agency to produce the Zambia Atlas

of our Changing Environment.

The Zambezi Watercourse Commission (ZAMCOM) and

other institutions have expressed great satisfaction with

the Zambezi Atlas publication. And interest to use the at-

las methodology and visualization has been received from

potential partners such as Germany’s Gesellschaft für In-

ternationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and Kreditanstalt für

Wiederaufbau (KwF), which have activities in the Kavango-

Zambezi trans-frontier conservation area. This interest in-

dicates that the atlas work has a major potential to create

real impact on the ground as demonstrated previously

with the

Uganda Atlas of Our Changing Environment

that

generated immediate actions and policy decisions (ref.

the final biennium report for 2010-11).

An Eastern-European example of transboundary water

cooperation is the Lake Drukšiai/Drisviaty Basin Man-

http://www.grida.no/publications/the-uganda-atlas/

agement Programme. The transboundary water basin of

Drukšiai/Drisviaty Lake is shared by three countries: Lithu-

ania, Belarus and Latvia. The lake is part of a national park

and is included in protected nature reserves and NATURA

2000 network sites, which are fully or partly protected by

national laws. At the same time the basin is an environ-

mental and security hot spot of high concern, especially

in the region of Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) with

its nuclear waste storage and repository facilities and the

newly proposed Visaginas NPP. In addition, the national

boundaries represent barriers for implementation of a ba-

sin-wide approach and integration of various water man-

agement aspects. In 2012, an official Drukšiai/Drisviaty

Lake Basin Management Programme (DLB MP) website

and mapping application was launched. The tool has been

shared with all three basin countries and is intended to

stimulate information exchange between the stakeholders

(governments, academia, and NGOs) of the basin.

Another example is the Dniester River Basin, shared by

Moldova and Ukraine, which is the fifth largest trans-

boundary basin in the Black Sea region. GRID-Arendal

has been managing the Information Working Group of

Dniester projects, and assisting the two governments

in the development and negotiations of the Dniester

Treaty, signed on 29 November 2012. The achievements

of the Dniester projects include improved cooperation

and coordination between health authorities in the re-

gion responsible for the quality of drinking water. Trans-

boundary cooperation has been established to conserve

biodiversity, including the management of fish stocks,

improved sharing and management of information on

the basin, and increased awareness among stakeholders

and the public about the value of the water resources in

the Dniester Basin and the threats they face. An on-going

component aims to reduce vulnerability to floods. GRID-

Arendal’s substantive contribution has included the de-

velopment of the ‘Geoportal of the Dniester River Basin’

and production of the

Environmental Atlas

launched in

November 2012.

Five countries’ cooperation is the focus of GRID-Arendal’s

support to the Tehran Convention, the countries sharing

the Caspian Sea: Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and

Turkmenistan. For the last three years, GRID-Arendal has

supported the Tehran Convention through providing staff

to the Interim Secretariat, supporting regional assess-

ments and conducting the

Caspian Sea State of the Envi-

ronment

(SoE) report adopted by the Third Conference of

the Parties (COP3). The Caspian SoE report was finalized

and circulated in 2012. During this biennium, the Interim

Secretariat assisted with the preparations for COP4 held

in Moscow in 2012 and with the “Protocol on the Protec-

tion of the Caspian Sea against Pollution from Land-based

Sources and Activities”, which was finalized and adopted

at COP4. The web-based Caspian Environmental Informa-

tion Center (CEIC), designed by GRID-Arendal, serves as a

communication tool for the Secretariat of the Tehran Con-