2. Introduction
3.4 Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) for water management
IRBM is growing in importance across the world, and it has achieved remarkable success in many river basins. However, this approach could be more effective if it involves Nature-Based Solutions (NBS). NBS include the utilisation of ecosystems for achieving goals and objectives of issues related to water.304 The NBS for water
302 See Jacques Ganoulis, Alice Aureli and Jean Fried Transboundary water resources management: a multidisciplinary approach (John Wiley & Sons, 2013).
303 UNESCO, above n 1.
304 See Stefan Uhlenbrook and others The United Nations World Water Development Report: Nature-Based Solutions for Water (2018).
management is not a new approach because they have existed for thousands of years.
However, the emerging concept of NBS dates back to the 1970s with the growth of the environment and ecosystem's issues. The concept took a more systematic approach to recognise the strong relationship between people and nature at the beginning of the new century.305
For understanding the concept, it is best to quote the two definitions from both the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the European Commission.
The IUCN defined the concept as the following:306
Actions to protect, sustainably manage and restore natural or modified ecosystems that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits.
This definition illustrates the great ambition, not just moving away from the negative use of nature, but also requiring protection towards nature and ecosystems.
Significantly, NBS can be used for responding to significant social challenges. For instance, “reforestation reduces landslides, ecosystems provide food sources during times of crisis.”307 This concept may also be used for responding to ethical, intellectual and rational challenges.308 For example, promoting green infrastructure leads to resource efficiency, which will be added as a significant response to climate change issues.309 However, using NBS in water resource management and, in particular, river basin management, is new. However, it could be a useful tool because it is an easy option and more efficient. However, water policymakers and managers still ignore the NBS because less than 1% of water resources investment’s infrastructure is allocated for NBS.310
The second definition of NBS is the European Commission definition for the concept.
They defined the term as the following:311
305 E Cohen-Shacham and others “Nature-based solutions to address global societal challenges” (2016) 97 IUCN, Gland, Switzerland at 10.
306 At [5].
307 UNESCO, above n 1, at 115.
308 Hilde Eggermont and others “Nature-based solutions: new influence for environmental management and research in Europe” (2015) 24(4) GAIA-Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society at 246.
309 UNESCO, above n 1, at 115.
310 At 3.
311 EC—European Commission “Towards an EU Research and Innovation policy agenda for nature-based
Living solutions inspired by, continuously supported by and using Nature designed to address various societal challenges in a resource efficient and adaptable manner and to provide simultaneously economic, social and environmental benefits.
This definition illustrates the EU’s ambition to achieve a double goal in utilizing natural resources: economic growth and sustainability.312 Thus, NBS may be considered as a tool alongside IRBM for the proper management of the river basin. By combining the two approaches, river basins can be managed to meet economic, social, and environmental issues.
These definitions provoke a rethink about human impacts on nature, and natural resources in particular. Management of river basins is not only about the economic benefits of these resources, as believed in the last couple of centuries. The social and environmental outcomes of this management are far more significant than purely economic benefits. As Murray Bookchin explained, cognizing nature and the place of humanity and society within it leads us to determine effective tools to deal with nature and environmental issues. He stated:313
Whatever nature may mean, we must determine in what way humanity
“fits” into it and we must confront the complex and challenging question of the relationship of society — more specifically, the different social forms that appeared in the past, that exist today, and that may appear in the future
— to nature. Unless we answer these questions with reasonable clarity — or at least fully discuss them — we will lack any ethical direction in dealing with our environmental problems. Unless we know what nature is and what humanity’s and society’s place in it is, we will be left with vague intuitions and visceral sentiments that neither cohere into clear views nor provide a guide for effective action.
The above quote illustrates the strong relationship between nature and humanity because understanding this relationship leads us to discover solutions for environmental issues. As one of the main elements in this relationship, water requires ethical direction
solutions & re-naturing cities” (2015) 2020 Final report of the Horizon.
312 Joachim Maes and Sander Jacobs “Nature‐based solutions for Europe's sustainable development” (2017) 10(1) Conservation Letters at 121.
313 Murray Bookchin Philosophy of social ecology (Black Rose Books, 2017) at 18.
for its management, and NBS could be the proper method in this ethical direction.
Therefore, the application of NBS is quite significant for water management because it turns the antagonistic relation between humans and nature into a positive relationship.
Human beings are considered the main factor for increasing degradation of ecosystems and loss of wetlands. It is estimated that between 60% to 70% of the natural wetlands have been lost due to human activities since the beginning of the last century. In addition, around two-thirds of the global forests are facing degradation. Thus, this approach should be enhanced through a natural process for restoring and protecting our water resources via a number of methods such as reforestation and improving urban green spaces and natural and constructed wetlands.314
The application of NBS for water is quite valuable in this era because nature cannot handle all the pressure which human beings have created through the decades. The NBS solution assists us to rethink the strong relationship between water, nature and climate change.315 Using NBS to protect water resources is essential because the approach utilizes ecosystem functions to benefit society and restore these resources simultaneously. Many forms of NBS, such as ecosystem-based adaptation, ecosystem- based mitigation, ecosystem restoration, or ecosystem protection, can have a critical role in managing and protecting water resources.316 Therefore, IRBM will be more productive and valuable for managing the transboundary rivers if the approach adapts to NBS.
An effective method for adapting NBS in river management and transboundary management is granting legal personality to rivers. This is an inspiring method to effectively apply equitable utilization and minimization of environmental harm principles at international, federal, and local levels. Granting legal personality to rivers is not a new idea. It was proposed by legal scholar Christopher D. Stone in 1972.317
314 UNESCO, above n 1, at 4.
315 WWAP (UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme) United Nations World Water Development Report 2020: Water and Climate Change (UESCO, Paris, 2020) at 34.
316 Eulalia Gómez Martín, María Máñez Costa and Kathleen Schwerdtner Máñez “An operationalized
classification of Nature Based Solutions for water-related hazards: From theory to practice” (2020) 167 Ecological Economics at 1-2.
317 See Christopher D Stone “Should Trees Have Standing--Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects” (1972) 45 S.
CAl. l. rev..
However, implementing the idea and granting rivers legal personality to a specific river was introduced to the Whanganui River in New Zealand, the Ganges and Yamuna in India in 2017.318 Adopting NBS and legal personality, particularly for rivers, assists in overcoming the classic and capitalist understanding for managing rivers locally and internationally. The negative impacts of capitalism on nature and our understanding can be expressed in the following paragraph:319
The growth of capitalism spreading to every part of our planet was facilitated by the legal recognition of corporations as artificial persons capable of holding rights; whereas life-giving species and components of the Earth, such as lakes, rivers, forests and mountains have been systematically denied their inherent rights to be and to flourish.
Therefore, NBS and thinking of legal personality contribute to a better understanding of river management and return some rights to nature. This was the main reason for introducing NBS as one of the metrics to support the implementation of the two principles in the first part of the chapter. The following part of the chapter discusses and critically analyzes the two principles.