Conservation and Management of Urban Wetlands: Strategies and Challenges

Lake 2006: Symposium on Environment Education & Ecosystem Conservation
28^th to 30^th December 2006
Rustum Choksi Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

Lake 2006 was organised from 28th to 30th December 2006 at Rustum Choksi Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. This symposium focused on Environmental Education and Ecosystem Conservation to bring in awareness among school students, teachers and the public. The symposium was organised by the Energy and Wetlands Research Group, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science in collaboration with the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), Canada, Karnataka Environment Research Foundation (KERF), Bangalore, K.K. English School , Varthur and Vidya Niketan Public School , Ullal upanagara, Bangalore. As a part of the symposium there were paper and poster presentations and model displays from school and college students apart from many presentations from research scholars across the country. The symposium attracted more than 200 participants from different walks of life. This provided a forum for 120 students along with 80 researchers, technologists, economists, sociologists and others to meet and discuss issues regarding ecosystem conservation. The main objective of the symposium was to bring out the current trends in aquatic ecosystem conservation, restoration and management including the hydrological and the biophysical aspects, peoples’ participation and the role of non-governmental, educational and governmental organisations and future research needs for the restoration, conservation and management. As a part of the symposium a panel discussion was held with about 22 panelists who came out with the following key recommendations:

Environmental education program should be more proactive, field oriented and experiential (with real time examples) for effective learning
Environmental education should be made mandatory for teachers and teacher educators at the teachers’ training institutes (Tch, B Ed, D Ed)
Experts to be involved in the preparation of resource material related to ecosystem studies and the same to be disseminated to educational institutions for monitoring surrounding ecosystems through electronic or print form in local/bilingual language (materials need to be in self learning format with the objective of learning need to move away from content centric approach)
Implement solid waste management effectively at educational institutions level towards zero waste
A taxonomic inventory of taxa like birds, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, aquatic plants and insects of wetlands to be prepared and periodically revised for respective wetlands through local schools and colleges and this is to be made available as reference for each wetlands
Ecosystem conservation and management requires collaborated research involving natural, social, and inter-disciplinary study aimed at understanding various components, such as monitoring of ecosystems, socio-economic dependency, biodiversity and other activities, as an indispensable tool for formulating long term conservation strategies. This requires multidisciplinary-trained professionals who can spread the understanding of ecosystem’s importance at local schools, colleges, and research institutions by initiating educational programmes aimed at raising the levels of public awareness of aquatic ecosystems’ restoration, goals and methods. Actively participating schools and colleges in the vicinity of the water bodies may value the opportunity to provide hands-on environmental education, which could entail setting up of laboratory facilities at the site. Regular monitoring of water bodies (with permanent laboratory facilities) would provide vital inputs for conservation and management. Potential of students in educational institutions to be tapped for interacting and contributing to monitor the status of ecosystem, in and around their locality.
Government Agencies, Academics, Institutions and NGO’s must co-ordinate grass-root level implementation of policies and activities related to conservation of ecosystems (both Inland and Coastal), their sustainable utilisation, restoration and development including human health. There is also a need for management and conservation of aquatic and terrestrial biota including their health aspects. Traditional knowledge and practices have to be explored as remedial measures. Cost-intensive restoration measures should be the last resort after evaluating all the cost-effective measures of conservation and management of ecosystems.
Ecosystem approach in aquatic ecosystem restoration endeavour considering catchment land use plan as of pre-project status and optimal land use plan shall first be prepared for short term (10 years and 30 years) and long term periods keeping in view developmental pressure over time span.
Soil conservation measures based on designated and actual land use plans, compatible to climate, topography, soil type and hydro-geology of the catchment and impact of siltation on productivity of land and ecosystem values.
Catchment areas of wetlands in general with lakes and riverine ecosystems in particular, to be protected. Land cover / land use changes should be curtailed / minimized with immediate effect
Impact of pesticide or fertilisers on wetlands in the catchment areas to be checked
Regulate illegal sand and clay mining around the wetlands
Immediate steps to conserve endangered wetlands such as Myristica swamps
National Wetlands Policy both at state and national level to be formulated and enforced
Identify water bodies of biodiversity importance and declare them as Wetland Conservation Reserves (WCR)
Marine and Coastal areas to be considered as fragile ecosystems and hence should be comprehensively protected from any industrial and power generation activities.
Lake management should involve all stakeholders like public, local non-governmental agencies, etc.
Management and maintenance of lakes to be decentralised involving stakeholders, local bodies, institutions and community participation without any commercialization or commoditization of lakes.
Lake monitoring and management to be assigned to neighborhood schools so that school children can learn the ecological process
All wetlands to be considered as Common Property Resources and hence custodians should carefully deal with these ensuring security
Urban wetlands, mostly lakes to be regulated from any type of encroachments
Lake privatised recently to be taken over and handed over to locals immediately thus restoring the traditional access to these lakes by the stakeholders
Restore surviving lakes in urban areas strengthening their catchment area and allowing sloping shorelines for fulfilling their ecological function
Alteration of topography in lake / river catchments should be banned
Provisions to be made for adoption of wetlands by the NGO’s and self-help groups for their conservation, management, sustainable utilisation and restoration.
Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES) be the Nodal Agency for capacity building at all levels: Formal and Non-formal and Govt. officials. Students should be involved in participatory management of the wetlands. Due impetus be given on equipping the institutions with qualified environmental specialists. Teachers of the local institutions shall be trained for in-turn capacity building in their own areas, in which, aquatic ecosystems especially wetlands could serve as `field laboratories’.
It was felt among the participants that public needs to be better informed about the rational, goal and methods of ecosystem conservation and restoration. In addition, the need was realized for scientist and researchers with the broad training needed for aquatic ecosystem restoration, management and conservation. In this regard Lake 2006 proposes: