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, cul… Show more
“…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).…”
Section: Headwaters Are Culturally Significantmentioning
Headwater streams and wetlands are integral components of watersheds that are critical for biodiversity, fisheries, ecosystem functions, natural resource‐based economies, and human society and culture. These and other ecosystem services provided by intact and clean headwater streams and wetlands are critical for a sustainable future. Loss of legal protections for these vulnerable ecosystems would create a cascade of consequences, including reduced water quality, impaired ecosystem functioning, and loss of fish habitat for commercial and recreational fish species. Many fish species currently listed as threatened or endangered would face increased risks, and other taxa would become more vulnerable. In most regions of the USA, increased pollution and other impacts to headwaters would have negative economic consequences. Headwaters and the fishes they sustain have major cultural importance for many segments of U.S. society. Native peoples, in particular, have intimate relationships with fish and the streams that support them. Headwaters ecosystems and the natural, socio‐cultural, and economic services they provide are already severely threatened, and would face even more loss under the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule recently proposed by the Trump administration.
“…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).…”
Section: Headwaters Are Culturally Significantmentioning
Headwater streams and wetlands are integral components of watersheds that are critical for biodiversity, fisheries, ecosystem functions, natural resource‐based economies, and human society and culture. These and other ecosystem services provided by intact and clean headwater streams and wetlands are critical for a sustainable future. Loss of legal protections for these vulnerable ecosystems would create a cascade of consequences, including reduced water quality, impaired ecosystem functioning, and loss of fish habitat for commercial and recreational fish species. Many fish species currently listed as threatened or endangered would face increased risks, and other taxa would become more vulnerable. In most regions of the USA, increased pollution and other impacts to headwaters would have negative economic consequences. Headwaters and the fishes they sustain have major cultural importance for many segments of U.S. society. Native peoples, in particular, have intimate relationships with fish and the streams that support them. Headwaters ecosystems and the natural, socio‐cultural, and economic services they provide are already severely threatened, and would face even more loss under the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule recently proposed by the Trump administration.
“…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 ).…”
Section: Headwaters Are Culturally Significantmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…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 ).…”
Section: Headwaters Are Culturally Significantmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…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 ).…”
Section: Headwaters Are Culturally Significantmentioning
“…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.…”
While the fundamental role of water as a human need and a human right has been acknowledged by the United Nations and member states, too often strategies to secure that right conflict with the competing interests and actions for the same resource. We are approaching a global tipping point in the hydrosphere where the biocultural sustainability of water resources is threatened by the cumulative and synergistic impacts of degenerative changes. When water that sustains life, livelihoods, and culture is threatened, the cultural stability and diversity of peoples and their environment is also threatened. Achieving long‐term sustainability of our hydrosphere requires re‐embedding social, cultural, and environmental concerns within and throughout the local, regional, and global systems that plan, finance, develop, manage, and use our world's water. WIREs Water 2014, 1:1–9. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1003
This article is categorized under:
Human Water > Rights to Water
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