Conference on Cross-Border Governance and Protection of Food-Energy-Water Systems Supported by International Watersheds

Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

Investigators

Abstract

The interdependent nature of food, energy, and water systems for social and economic development pose an array of challenges, particularly under conditions of varying abundance or scarcity of water. While water scarcity can place tremendous stress on agricultural and energy production, conditions of water abundance pose a different, but equally important, set of challenges. When water resources are abundant, the lack of incentive for conservation can rapidly lead to the degradation of the water or conflicts over competing uses. Most research tends to focus on water scarce areas. This has resulted in an unintended oversight of what may be happening in water abundant regions, where water resources may not be valued, priced, or managed to ensure long-term availability. The challenges of abundance become more even more difficult when watersheds share multiple national borders and different systems of governance. Each country may have unique policies that are country-based, driven by local perceptions, and often disconnected from the logic of the ecosystem's structure and function. These cross-border challenges are also linked to the food-energy-water nexus, where food and energy production can simultaneously threaten water sustainability and be threatened by degrading water resources. Understanding and addressing these challenges requires synthesis, cross-national and cross-disciplinary approaches, and integrative scientific approaches. Michigan State University will host a conference that brings together scholars with expertise in the water-food-energy nexus challenges faced by water abundant regions requiring cross-national agreements and information sharing. This conference will bring together scientists, researchers and policy-makers from three regions of the world characterized by recent pressures on what have been, until recently, abundant and relatively unpolluted water resources: North America's Great Lakes (the largest freshwater system on Earth, facing increasing pressure from agricultural runoff and invasive species and by demands from drier regions of the U.S. and Canada); East Africa's Great Lakes region (the largest lakes in Africa, facing rapid eutrophication and diminishing productivity of its inland fisheries); and South America's Amazon River (the largest river system on Earth, facing increasing pressure from hydroelectric development and fisheries collapse). Participants will explore stresses on the food-energy-water systems of these regions and identify gaps in knowledge about cross-border governance of these systems. This conference will specifically examine the connections between water resources and energy production, contamination of water from food, fish, and energy production, and the depletion of fresh water stocks resultant from human-environment interactions related to food (e.g. irrigation) and energy production (e.g. hydroelectric power).