Thumbnail Image

Forest and Water

Forests. Water. Life.










Also available in:
No results found.

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Thumbnail Image
    Book (stand-alone)
    Advancing the forest and water nexus - A capacity development facilitation guide 2019
    Also available in:

    Forests are intrinsically linked to water – forested watersheds provide 75 percent of our accessible freshwater resources (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005) – and both forest and water resources are relevant to the achievement of all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Despite the important interlinkages, the forest-water nexus is often unaccounted for in policy and planning. For example, three quarters of forests are not managed for soil and water conservation, which poses a fundamental challenge to achieving sustainable and resilient communities and ecosystems. It is paramount to employ an integrated approach to forest and water resources in management and policy that takes into account the complexity and contextual nature of forest-water relationships. To achieve this, we must improve our understanding of forest-water relationships within local contexts and at different scales, as well as our ability to design, implement, and learn from landscape approaches that both rely on these forest-water relationships, and impact them. In this context, FAO’s Forest and Water Programme has developed a module-based capacity development facilitation guide for project and community stakeholders involved in forest, water and natural resource management to ensure we apply our knowledge to better manage forests and trees for their multiple benefits, including water quantity, quality and the associated socio-economic benefits that people within and outside forests so heavily depend on.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Article
    The Forest–Water Nexus: An International Perspective
    Forests no. 10, 2019
    2019
    Also available in:
    No results found.

    Discussions on the relationships between forests and water have primarily focused on the biophysical nature of these relationships. However, as issues such as land degradation affect the ability of forests to provide water-related ecosystem services resulting in water insecurity, the human dimension of the forest–water nexus has become more evident. This has resulted in the identification of the forest–water nexus as an issue that requires urgent recognition within major international policy processes and where knowledge gaps on the global state of the nexus exist. To address this, two major international policy frameworks driving the current development and environment agenda, namely the Sustainable Development Goals and the (Intended) Nationally Determined Contributions were analyzed to assess the integration of forests and water in international policy agenda. In addition, data on tree cover and water risks as well as data on forests managed for soil and water protection was analyzed to understand the global state of the forest–water nexus. The results indicate that even though there is no single indicator monitoring forest–water interactions, there are existing indictors that provide partial information on the forest–water nexus, which would be key to measuring progress towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Book (series)
    Water stress plugin for Water Evaluation and Planning system (WEAP)
    Using the water evaluation and planning tool for the calculation of Sustainable Development Goal indicator 6.4.2
    2024
    Also available in:

    This report presents the instruction manual of the new water stress plugin developed by FAO in collaboration with the Stockholm Environment Institute's U.S. Center (SEI) for the calculation of the SDG indicator 6.4.2 “Level of water stress: freshwater withdrawal as a proportion of available freshwater resources” by river basin.Since the indicator was introduced in 2015, it has been used widely to estimate the level of water stress experienced at the country or regional level. With this new plugin, countries will be able to assess SDG 6.4.2 at the basin and sub-basin levels providing a different and more hydrologically sound view on the dynamics of water resources and their use. The plugin allows exploring the spatial and interannual trends of the level of water stress within a basin avoiding any multiple counting of its freshwater resources and taking into consideration the needs of water supply of the different sections of the basin. By supporting the improvement of water monitoring and management, this report contributes to the achievement of SDG 6.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

No results found.