The return of the water - IUCN

The approach followed, and the results achieved, have considerable practical implications for the
implementation of policies. When local communities participate in the management process and
feel they may benefit, rather than just being on the receiving end of authority, rules and regulations
are more readily accepted. Also crucial knowledge of what works and what does not, is more
easily fed back into the debates and processes to improve policies for the future. This is the basis
of adaptive management, whereby initial policies and management systems are assessed and
improved on the basis of interactions with stakeholders. This requires trust between policy makers
and resource users. But such an adaptive management approach can work at all scales from local
to international.
The latest advance on policy includes the Plan of Implementation adopted at the Johannesburg World
Summit on Sustainable Development, which calls for action to “develop integrated water resources
management and water efficiency plans by the year 2005” (para. 25), this requiring, inter alia, to:
• develop strategies on integrated river basin and watershed management;
• improve the efficiency of water infrastructure;
• increase the efficiency of water use and promote allocation among competing uses to ensure
a balance between human needs and the preservation of ecosystems; and,
• mitigate extreme water-related events.
The Waza Logone project has partially achieved these objectives and will hopefully complete them
in the years to come. This would also be consistent with the recommendations produced by the
World Commission on Dams (WCD, 2000), which strongly advocates the release of environmental
flows from dams to support the livelihoods and biodiversity that depend on downstream ecosystems.
In particular the WCD highlighted the importance of managed flood releases from dams to maintain
and restore floodplain wetlands. This is also consistent with recommendations of the New Partnership
for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), which makes a strong plea for ecosystem restoration and
integrated water resources management.
To achieve progress with the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, the Government of Cameroon
and its partners may thus use the following guidance on ecosystems, people and institutions:
Improving the management of water resources and ecosystems.
While ecosystem goods and services have been partially restored, and water availability for human
needs and wildlife has been enhanced, we must ensure that water resources are managed as part of
broader integrated land, forest and coastal zone management. This will require designing further
sustainable catchment management strategies and ensuring that water resources management plans
are in place. To achieve this, increased co-operation with additional partners within the Logone
River and the broader Lake Chad basins will be required.
Improving stakeholder participation and co-operation among partners.
Information and awareness have supported a better understanding of the economic aspects of
ecosystem management. Floodplain benefits are used in a more sustainable way and equitably,
because of the local networks of resource users involved in participatory decision making. However,
further efforts are needed to agree additional regulations, incentives and investments to foster
sustainable management of water and other resources. Essential to this is the continuation of the
research and information gathering effort undertaken by the project, to support planning, decisionmaking
and negotiations over access and use of natural resources. The Research Master Plan (Mvondo
Awono, 2003) produced by the project and its partners should thus be used to the full.
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Towards Sustainability