Page 62 - CIWA AR25

Cross-Cutting Themes: Biodiversity & Conservation

BIODIVERSITY &

CONSERVATION

CIWA’s FY25 portfolio continues to embed biodiversity and Untapping Resilience strengthens knowledge, safeguards, and
conservation into transboundary water cooperation, guided by operational practices so that groundwater investments support

the CIWA Biodiversity and Conservation Framework finalized in pastoralist livelihoods and environmental integrity in the Horn of
FY24. The framework’s vision is to improve transboundary water Africa. Knowledge products include rangeland guidelines aligning

management that supports biodiversity conservation so that groundwater development with ecosystem resilience and conflict
communities are more climate-resilient, livelihoods are sustained, sensitivity, with direct implications for biodiversity in arid and semi-
and nature’s services are safeguarded. arid rangeland ecosystems. FY24 saw the establishment of the data
hub, monitoring approaches, and capacity-building partnerships
Improving Water Resources Management in West and to manage groundwater sustainably and protect ecosystems in

Central Sahel focused on how vegetation cover influences fragile, transboundary settings.
transboundary water resources and on prioritizing the location
of NBS and landscape interventions (e.g., watershed and
rangeland restoration) to protect water resources and enhance
resilience. DREVE will emphasize NBS and regenerative practices to
increase water storage and support freshwater biodiversity across
Sahelian basins.

Support to the RCRP program through the Strengthening
Transboundary Basin Organizations through Program
Development and Capacity Building in Africa operation
includes binational technical assistance to develop a Lake
Kariba transboundary fisheries management plan (for Zambia

and Zimbabwe). This work has experienced delays, but in FY26
the technical assistance will assess climate and socioeconomic

impacts of declining fisheries, address invasive weeds and water
quality pressures, and promote inclusive stakeholder participation,
including women and other vulnerable groups, in conservation

and fisheries management. New work in the Cubango-Okavango
Basin advanced a livelihoods program with stronger biodiversity
accounting and introduced improved guidelines for citizen
engagement in transboundary water planning. NBS analyses to
complement gray investments were completed and presented
to South Sudan, launched for Mozambique, and are under
consideration for Comoros. FY26 will see continued just-
in-time NBS support—initially focused on Mozambique
and linked to ongoing work in South Sudan.

The South Sudan Transboundary Waters
Support program is implementing
a dedicated knowledge and
capacity pillar that is generating a
strategic, basin‑relevant evidence
base on the Sudd wetland—one of
the world’s largest wetlands and a
critical regulator of Nile hydrology,
biodiversity, and carbon storage.

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