E. Lynn Porta and Aaron T. Wolf just published this paper - Intrinsic and Spiritual Dimensions of Water at the Local Scale, and the Disconnect with International Institutions - in Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 8948; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13168948
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Abstract
Local and indigenous populations the world over ascribe deeply and explicitly spiritual attributes to water. Springs, wells, and rivers are the homes of deities, have divine healing powers, and enhance processes of spiritual transformation. These attributes are rarely expressed in global declarations related to sustainable water management and are found only implicitly in a handful of international water treaties. This paper uses a multi-scalar lens to identify areas of disconnect between community-specific intrinsic and spiritual dimensions of water, regional management institutions or international agreements, and global conventions. The scale-based structure of the article highlights the systems-based connections, and disconnections, from global to local-scopes of dimensions of water enshrined in different institutions.Introduction
1.1. Scales of International Freshwater Management Institutions
Freshwater resources are unique within natural resources management practices because of the multiple layers of importance water holds for both human and non-human uses (Some material in this article draws heavily from: Porta, E.L. (2021). Cross-cultural and Sustainability Values in International Freshwater Management Institutions. Masters of Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA, 12 June 2021). Agriculture, transportation, construction, energy, recreation, certain religious practices, basic ecosystem functioning, all rely on the presence and accessibility of water for some part of each system. Social and cultural practices grounded in both place-based and cross-culturally common traditions further add layers of importance to water management and access. Local and indigenous populations the world over ascribe deeply and explicitly spiritual attributes to water. Springs, wells, and rivers are the homes of deities, have divine healing powers, and enhance processes of spiritual transformation.
The international community has developed several guiding documents and concepts in the management of these challenging resources, particularly in cases in which water crosses borders. Probably best known of the global declarations are the Dublin Principles of 1992, developed for the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, laying out basic concepts of water governance. Two general conventions regarding transboundary waters came also in the 1990s: The Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention) was adopted in Helsinki in 1992 and entered into force in 1996, while the Convention on the Law of the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1997. While the former was specific to European countries when it was first adopted, it has since opened to any country that accedes to the treaty anywhere in the world. Other conventions address specific components of transboundary basins, such as the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, which provided a framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources, which was signed in 1971.Institutions such as global international treaties, joint technical committees, or River Basin Organizations (RBOs) are more localized mechanisms used by governments from national to local scales to monitor, provision, or otherwise organize water resources use, access, and protection. Treaties help states organize their interactions over shared water resources and minimize conflicts over resources and communicate their goals, needs, and values in the negotiation process [1]. Agreements can vary in spatial scale through differences in the total area of interest to address a shared water resource, or the continuity of the territory covered in the treaty based on the number of riparian states participating in the agreement [2]. Assessments of the impacts of international agreements over transboundary water resources management have identified the utility of treaties in increasing cooperative behavior even when water availability is uncertain or variable, and across political power disparities among treaty signatories [1,3]. Such assessments follow the approach to examining the role of institutions like agreements in water management and conflict transformation began with the Basins at Risk (BAR) project of the Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database (TFDD) out of Oregon State University [4].Also within the TFDD is a register of international RBOs based on the significant legal and organizational characteristics of these institutions identified by Schmeier and colleagues [5,6]. RBOs are institutions with broad mandates in which representatives of riparian countries manage shared surface water resources. Past scholarship used the presence of both a treaty and an RBO in a river basin as an indicator of cooperative intent between countries [7,8]. RBOs can be effective institutions for managing international water resources through both politically challenging and environmentally complex management problems [9]. As Wolf, Stahl, and Macomber (2003) initially noted, these institutions themselves do not necessarily have the capacity to meet either their own stated goals or to address the challenges that water management entails [10]; prohibitive challenges include water scarcity, inequities in the distribution of the water resource, pollution from exogenic sources relative to the basin, and legal limitations in the organizations’ power [11,12]. The structure of these organizations is traditionally considered the most important determinant of this degree of effectiveness [8,10].
1.2. The Spiritual and Intrinsic Dimensions of Water
Institutions such as international conventions, agreements, and RBOs reflect the policy priorities and management choices favored by the participating stakeholders. The development of these priorities into shared policies implies a complementary set of favored dimensions of water or values associated with water needs, which may differ between signatories. In the practice of facilitating international freshwater resource management discussions, focusing on common values rather than stakeholder-differentiated needs or issues tends to result in more cooperative discussion processes and holistic treaties. This work also examines how the process of transboundary water management negotiations occur in a four-level process, which correlate with four worlds, or dimensions, of water: the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Using a value-centered dialogue, with the aim of moving towards a fourth and final dialogue level of the universality and spirituality of water, management negotiations can avoid tendencies of thinking for short-term needs, and can help promote conversations in water management that last in the long-term [13].The considered, or overlooked, values associated with the intrinsic, spiritual, sustainable, and culturally-aware dimensions of water are distinct across the scales of international institutions used to organize their interactions over shared water resources. Intrinsic valuing of water resources manifests from a recognition of the importance of a water resource for its own existence, rather than for a tangible environmental good, service, or benefit derived from it. This recognition could take the form of environmental preservation measures, or protection of endemic organisms or ecosystems, or some similar policy [14]. Spiritual and culturally-linked local value-recognitions of water would recognize the connections formed between the human spirit, soul, or collective group to a water resource, as opposed to material or physical things that come from a water resource. This could include awareness of aspects of water which foster a connection between the measurable, physical aspects of the world, and the harder to measure social, emotional, and cultural norms of place or group. In short, the spiritual aspects of water would focus on connections and relationships with some form of ‘other’—other people and their needs, the water resource itself, or something else [13]. This paper uses a multi-scalar on international institutions to identify areas of disconnect in the values expressed in different interactions and organizations over shared water resources. We consider variations in value-expressions across community-specific intrinsic and spiritual dimensions of water, regional management institutions or international agreements, and global conventions. The scale-based structure of the article highlights the systems-based connections, and disconnections, from global to local-scopes of dimensions of water enshrined in different institutions. This systematic-perspective is particularly relevant when the global environment includes actors from outside of riparian areas with possible levers of influence through funding and global political standing.
Cutting to the chase...
Conclusions
Water management decisions within political interactions are ultimately based on the values that actors hold when interacting with each other. Detecting when values that inform more sustainable, long-term, and culturally-integrated approaches to water based on its intrinsically-held or spiritually-based importance can identify opportunities to expand the activities by states associated with these values. This assessment highlights that signals of values in international water management institutions related to the intrinsic and spiritual, or environmental protectionism and inter-community connectivity and recognition, vary across the scale of institutions, time of establishment, and place. Currently, such values are growing in frequency and intensity of support in international agreements signed by states. However, global conventions and RBOs—the institutional scales addressing larger and smaller scopes than international regional treaties—express a greater variety of these values at a greater proportion than regional treaties. A more informed understanding of the values of implementing organizations such as RBOs can help the rising variety of states interested in these values implement programs in a more targeted, effective manner appropriate to their goals, location and interests.
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