Human needs and environmental rights to water: a biocultural systems approach to hydrodevelopment and management

Abstract

Abstract. Large-scale hydrodevelopment involves synergistic processes and generates cumulative effects that include the degradation of rivers and the complex human environmental systems they support. To avert impending crises in water scarcity and food security many nations are reshaping the priorities, regimes, and praxis of fresh water resource management to explicitly recognize and address diverse human and ecological needs. A recent United Nations sponsored study documenting the linkages between water, cultural diversity, and global environmental change argues that a coupled bio/social systems approach to watershed management prioritizing biocultural health over other concerns is needed to achieve sustainability goals, address the complex and protracted conflicts that characterize river basin management, and halt biocultural degeneration. Praxis implications include (1) the need for greater respect for and recognition of the rights, values, and contributions of culturally diverse peoples in the management and use of river systems, (2) expansion of the integrated water resource management model to include prioritized allocation of water to meet environmental and cultural flows.

Headwater Streams and Wetlands are Critical for Sustaining Fish, Fisheries, and Ecosystem Services

“…Cultural values of headwaters and the downstream rivers they support are diverse, and clearly expressed in nature-based tourism, aesthetic values, recreational fishing, and other activities (Beier et al 2017). Human-natural resource relationships have evolved in the context of intricate interactions among cultures, communities, and water (e.g., its quality, access, use, and associated resources) for both native and other peoples (Johnston 2013). Wild salmon, for example, hold central roles in the creation and migration narratives of native peoples, and continue to be present in prayers and visions in addition to diets (Stumpff 2001).…”

Fisheries Volume 44 Number 2 February 2019

“…Cultural values of headwaters and the downstream rivers they support are diverse, and clearly expressed in nature-based tourism, aesthetic values, recreational fi shing, and other activities (Beier et al 2017 ). Human-natural resource relationships have evolved in the context of intricate interactions among cultures, communities, and water (e.g., its quality, access, use, and associated resources) for both native and other peoples (Johnston 2013 ). Wild salmon, for example, hold central roles in the creation and migration narratives of native peoples, and continue to be present in prayers and visions in addition to diets (Stumpff 2001 ).…”

“…The Rio Grande and Colorado River fl ow from headwaters in the Rocky Mountains through traditional lands of the largest concentrations of indigenous peoples within the conterminous USA (Navajo, Apache, Pueblo, and others) and intersect the ranges of Apache Trout and Gila Trout. These headwater ecosystems and the services they provide are central to traditional place-based lifestyles of indigenous tribes (Johnston 2013 ). Eastern North Carolina Cherokee highly value headwater streams for their cultural signifi cance (extending back thousands of years) as well as for fi shery-based tourism (Balster 2018 ).…”

“…Impairment of headwaters and water quality extends to many other groups as well, and can lead to greater environmental inequality (e.g., Elkind 2006 ). Moving forward, heightened respect for and recognition of the rights and values of culturally diverse peoples in the use of river systems, including headwaters and associated resources, warrants additional and thoughtful consideration when legislating and implementing protections (Johnston 2013 ).…”

The precarious state of the hydrosphere: why biocultural health matters

“…Carbon credits are granted to hydroelectric dams under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Program, an entitlement that has helped to fuel the large‐scale intensive development of the worlds' rivers and watersheds now underway. , The specter of a global waters future market is not that far away, as described in a provocative commentary by Frederick Kauffman in Nature . Will water be the next global resource to become a commodity or financial derivative? The likely impacts from the creation of a global market do not bode well for biological or human communities.…”