Bioclimate.org: Flowing forward. Freshwater ecosystem adaptation to climate change in water resources management and biodiversity conservation

Authors	Le quesne T. , Matthews J. , Von der heyden C. , Wickel A. , Wilby R. , Hartman J. , Pegram G. , Kistin E. , Blate G. , De freitas C. , Levine E. , Guthrie C. , Mcsweeney C.
Source	WWF (84)
Type	R - Report (613)
Peer Review	1 - High (2301)
Audience	S - Specialist (3514)
Pages	77
Notes	Extract from executive summary Freshwater ecosystems provide a range of services that underpin many development objectives, often for the most vulnerable communities in society. These include provisioning services such as inland fisheries, and regulating services such as waste assimilation, sediment transport, flow regulation, and maintenance of estuarine, delta, and near-shore marine ecosystems. Repeated global surveys such as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the Global Biodiversity Outlook 3 have identified freshwater ecosystems as having suffered greater degradation and modification than any other global ecosystem, resulting in significant negative impacts on freshwater ecosystem services. A new UNEP report entitled Dead Planet, Living Planet: Biodiversity and Ecosystem Restoration for Sustainable Development (UNEP, 2010) underscores the huge economic benefits that countries might accrue through restoration of wetlands, river and lake basins as well as forested catchments.