The need for water to grow more food is increasing daily. The world is undergoing a dramatic food crisis and experts believe that food shortages will intensify during coming decades.The Nature Conservancy fully supports endeavors to improve the human condition and reduce hunger.We believe this can be done while sustaining healthy ecosystems.

Irrigated agriculture already is the world's largest user of water, accounting for 70 percent of global water withdrawals, and an anticipated increase of 14-17 percent is expected over the next two decades. The World Development Report of 2008 calls for an increase in agriculture in developing countries.

Improving Water Productivity & Improving Water Quality

 One central approach to more sustainable irrigation is the concept of more "crop per drop" or water efficient farming. The Conservancy is working to go beyond more crop per drop and towards allocating more water to freshwater ecosystems through environmental flow transactions. 

Improving Water Quality

Pesticides, fertilizers and animal waste are washed into our rivers when rain and snow carry nutrients and sediment across farms and into waterways. In the United States alone, agricultural pollution accounts for 60 percent of contamination in rivers and lakes.

Tools and Resources

Technologies including the Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration (IHA) software, flow restoration database and the Regime Prescription Tool (RPT) to aide freshwater practitioners can be found by clicking here.

Journal Articles about Freshwater Conservation

Suggested articles for Freshwater Agricultural Practitioners:

Brown, C. and King, J. 2006. Environmental flows: Striking the balance between development and resource protection. Ecology and Society 11(2): 26. [online} URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/
(Reprinted here with permission from the author.)

Arthington, A.H., Bunn, S.E., Poff, N.L., and R.J. Naiman. 2006. The Challanege of Providing Environmental Flow Rules to Sustain River Ecosysytems. Ecological Applications 16(4):1311-1318. 

Golet G.H., M.D. Roberts,  E.W. Larsen, R.A. Luster, R. Unger, G. Werner, and G.G. White. 2006. Assessing societal impacts when planning restoration on large alluvial rivers: A case study of the Sacramento River Project, California. Environmental Management 37:862-879

Kendy, Eloise, 2006, Impacts of changing land use and irrigation practices on western wetands.  National Wetlands Newsletter, vol. 28, no. 3, May-June 2006.

Baron, J.S., N.L. Poff, P.L. Angermeier, C.N. Dahm, P.H. Gleick, N.G. Hairston, R.B. Jackson, C.A. Johnston, B.D. Richter, and A.D. Steinman. 2003. Sustaining healthy freshwater systems. Issues in Ecology 10:1-16.
View the English version (.pdf, 279 kb)
View the Spanish version (.pdf, 286 kb)
(This paper is posted with the permission of the Ecological Society of America.)

Richter, B.D., R. Mathews, D.L. Harrison, and R. Wigington. 2003. Ecologically sustainable water management: managing river flows for ecological integrity. Ecological Applications 13:206-224.
View the paper (.pdf, 361 kb)
(This paper is posted with the permission of the Ecological Society of America.)

Baron, J.S., N.L. Poff, P.L. Angermeier, C.N. Dahm, P.H. Gleick, N.G. Hairston, R.B. Jackson, C.A. Johnston, B.D. Richter, and A.D. Steinman. 2002. Meeting ecological and societal needs for freshwater. Ecological Applications 12:1247-1260.
View the paper (.pdf, 196 kb)
(This paper is posted with the permission of the Ecological Society of America.)