Backgrounder: 14th Annual Living Lakes Conference in China
Members of Living Lakes Canada from Wildsight and the Lake Winnipeg Foundation represented Canada at the 14th Living Lakes Conference in Nanchang, China. Kat Hartwig of Invermere, BC and Alex and Catherine Salki of Winnipeg, Manitoba were invited to present their work on water stewardship in lake communities with a special focus on the Columbia River Basin and the Lake Winnipeg Basin.
Living Lakes International was formed in 1998 by Global Nature Fund in Germany and now has over 100 partner environmental organizations focused on water stewardship for lakes and wetlands around the world.
The conference hosted 350 delegates from 33 countries spanning 5 continents. It was held in Nanchang city in southern China but delegates also had to the opportunity to visit Lake Puyong Hu, a member of Living Lakes International, and China’s’ largest freshwater lake which is now facing significant ecological challenges. Puyong Lake is one of the few lakes that remain naturally connected to the Yangtze River.
Some conference delegates, including those from Living Lakes Canada, were invited to meet and have tea with the Premier of Jiangxi Province as well as with the Environment Minister, who emphasized that climate change and loss of biodiversity are global challenges that need to be addressed and solved with joint forces.
The conference was co- hosted by the Jiangxi Provincial Government, Jiangxi Academy of Science, Global Nature Fund, Ramsar, Jiangxi Academy of Sciences and Mountain River Lake Sustainable Development (MRLSD). Although the conference theme was “Lakes in densely populated regions: Balance between people and nature,” there was significant information exchanged on the protection of lakes and wetlands worldwide, on sharing new approaches for their successful management, and reaching a common understanding of the need and urgency to foster the protection of lakes and wetlands worldwide.
Chinese scientists presented on the impacts that extreme drought and the Three Gorges Dam had on the Poyang Lake. Puyang Lake is one of the few lakes that remain naturally connected to the Yangtze River. Chinese hydrologists noted that “lakes played a valuable function for flood mitigation due to human caused climate variation. Puyong Lake’s surface covers 4000 km2 at high water levels and can shrink to 1000 km2 at low water, and thus also provides 3000sq km of important wetland habitat. However, in the last decade, many more extreme low water events occurred and there were serious water supply issues to 12.4 million inhabitants and irrigation problems for 3.9 million hectares of arable lands. Hydrological and hydrodynamic models show that the lake is expected to become ever drier under future climate conditions.”
