The Fall of the Water

Preface by the Executive Director of UNEP and the Director General of IUCN

and financial costs of reversing established settlement and infrastructure development in environmentally sensitive regions are very high. While there are many promising steps towards im- proved environmental governance in the region, for example in Nepal and in parts of China, much more is needed. Options for action include increasing the number and extent of protected areas and providing adequate financial resources and enforcement to safe- guard these critical habitats and the indigenous com- munities they shelter. We hope that this report will help the involved govern- ments and people in the region understand the con- tribution of conservation to watershed management. UNEP and IUCN welcome increased local and inter- national collaboration on shared water resources and emphasize the need for all governments in the region to expand protected areas in the catchments and basins of the great rivers and seize a unique opportunity for peacefully reaching common goals. We all share a deep personal responsibility and obligation to ensure that future generations can also benefit from the fall of the water from the world’s tallest mountains.

Water means life. Nowhere else on this planet is the dependence of the population on mountains for the water resources they provide as high as in Asia. Here, on the “Roof of the World”, nearly half of the world’s population relies on the health of mountain ecosystems to supply clean water for drinking, sanitation, food pro- duction, livestock and biodiversity. This report is a result of a collaborative effort between the United Nations Environment Programme, IUCN – The World Conservation Union and local experts across the Himalayan region. It demonstrates that continued unrestrained “piecemeal” development of these vulnerable mountain areas undermines the future availability of water resources to both people and nature. Recent floods have also shown how cru- cial sound watershed management is to livelihoods and – ultimately – the survival of millions of people throughout Asia. Satellite images in the report reveal significant changes over the past decades, including deforestation, erosion and salinization. It is therefore of particular concern that only a few percent of these watersheds are current- ly protected. The report makes a powerful statement that if we fail to assess the impacts of uncontrolled large-scale development, we may indeed lose what we gain locally. This is especially important as the human

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Klaus Toepfer , Executive Director, UNEP

Achim Steiner , Director General, IUCN