|
The Issue
On January 18-20, the Luso-American Foundation (FLAD) along with the Bellagio Forum for Sustainable Development (BFSD) hosted a conference in Lisbon entitled, “Making the Passage Through the 21st Century: Water as a Catalyst for Change” 
The Opportunity
With this Conference, and the attendant publishing of a third volume of results, the organizers emphasized the unity between 1999, 2001, and 2005 in terms of straddling the old and new centuries, and FLAD completes an envisaged “trilogy” started with a sequence of two conferences, namely on “Shared Water Systems and Transboundary Issues” (1999) and on “Implementing Transboundary River Conventions” (2001), which have both set up the broader theme of water with a focus on the Iberian Peninsula. At the same time, FLAD addressed a series of events on a variety of environmental issues, all converging to the interdependence of population, environment and society at the end of the 20th century, coinciding with the general interest on environment and development during the second half of the past century, starting with NEPA in 1960, and followed by a cascade of material and meetings articulating theory, laws and regulations, as well as emerging practices and feasible comprehensive approaches .  The Partners A coalition of partners including BFSD members Ecologic and the Luso-American Development Foundation played a prominent role in the organization, support and coordination of the conference. The conference itself featured an outstanding array of international guests including Dennis Meadows, Bernard Barraque, Andreas Kraemer, Rodrigo Maia, A. Gonçalves Henrique, E. Stakhiv, Pedro Arrojo and Patricia Wouters. The Focus
This third Conference brought the participants to a way of thinking about “water” in a larger context of a new environmental arena of complexity and interdependencies; of new “drivers” propelling us into the future; and of specific steps needed for implementing requisite changes during the unfolding century. The Conference also explored methodological and conceptual concerns, emerging water challenges, developments of integrated water resources planning and management, citizen involvement and mobilization, forces of global complexity and their impact on water systems, and links to the new UN initiative “Water for Life - Decade for Action”. Next steps If you are interested in learning more about the Bellagio Forum for Sustainable Development, the Luso-Americana Foundation or any of our partners, please contact: info@bfsd.org. The outcome of the conference will not be limited to the publication of a book. Indeed, the organizers recognize that water and transboundary water diplomacy will be vital to maintaining peaceful relations among nations around the globe. The resources and energy put into this conference are intended to produce models which can be adopted by others who seek to mitigate potential conflict and find amicable solutions to fairly distributing one of the most valuable and vital resources on our planet. We are now well beyond the promising steps of the 21st century with new visionary commitments far-reaching environmental regulations, negotiated principles of sharing water, and better articulated indicators and indices for measuring both performance and outputs. We need to revisit changes and challenges in water resources planning and management, conceptual breakthroughs and methodological advances, as well as experiences gained along with lessons learned.  |
