The world’s lakes face a silent crisis. Agricultural pollution, overfishing, urban advancement and climate change are deteriorating the ecosystems that host the greatest freshwater biodiversity in the world. However, conservation based on ancestral knowledge, which recognizes the spiritual, cultural and political value that lakes have had for indigenous peoples for millennia, is gaining strength.
This change of outlook is what drives the Living Lakes Biodiversity and Climate Project (LLBCP), an international initiative that works on the protection and restoration of wetlands in ten countries on three continents: Cambodia, Colombia, India, Malawi, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, Rwanda, South Africa and Sri Lanka. Funded by the German Ministry of the Environment and coordinated by the Living Lakes network and the Global Nature Foundation, the project brings together governments, NGOs, scientists, local communities and indigenous peoples around the idea that sustainable water management requires both technology and cultural memory.
The project is based on a mapping of threats and opportunities in each region to then promote good practices. An attempt is made to mitigate the impacts of agriculture and fishing and solutions are designed, such as wastewater treatments, programs to control invasive species or ecological restoration. Each country will implement at least one initiative, the results of which will be disseminated, in order to replicate learning in other regions and strengthen the application of the management plans of the Ramsar Wetlands Convention (1971).
Train leaders
The LLBCP also has a long-term objective: to train leaders who integrate scientific knowledge and traditional knowledge. The Sustainability Leadership Journey is part of this framework, whose focus in the 2025 event is “Sacred Lakes”. Until November 22, in Villa de Leyva (Colombia), young people from more than ten countries met to train and work in territories of ancestral significance such as the Muisca Observatory, the Iguaque National Park and the Fúquene Lagoon. “The objective is to strengthen and motivate professionals to continue efforts for community, efficient and participatory management of lakes in the global south,” Felipe Valderrama Escallón, coordinator of the Water Management Area at the Humedales Foundation, in Colombia, told La Razón.
The participants, aged 18 to 35, shared learning with international experts such as Brigitte Baptiste, Ajanta Dey or Alejandro Juárez. The workshops addressed environmental communication, emotional management, collaborative leadership, etc. Since 2022, the editions have created a network of young wetland defenders and in this edition this alliance was deepened. Young people “share a common concern about the state of deterioration in which wetlands are found in many parts of the world,” says the technician.