Posted on 22 March 2014
| Gland, Switzerland: Water crises ranked
third among 10 global risks of highest concern
in 2014, according to the World Economic
Forum’s annual Global Risks Perception Survey.
With water risk on the agenda of business
and investors as never before, WWF unveils
its updated Water Risk Filter.
The free online tool
allows users to map production facilities,
supply chains and commodities. The new version
of the website includes data on more than
120 agricultural commodities – including
cotton, palm oil and corn – making it the
most sophisticated tool for tracking water
risk exposure.
“What we’re seeing with
water is a real convergence of the business
agenda and the conservation agenda,” says
Jochem Verberne, Head of Corporate Relations
at WWF International. “Companies and investors
are beginning to understand that their futures
depend on a natural resource that is shared
among many users. That creates business
risk, and it creates incentive to be part
of the solution. The Water Risk Filter can
help.”
The Water Risk Filter
generates a score based on the physical,
regulatory and reputational risk related
to water in basins around the world. It
also includes an extensive risk mitigation
toolbox, allowing the user to reference
relevant case studies demonstrating actions
to improve water management.
Although now much more
powerful, the Water Risk Filter remains
too easy not to use. By simply inputting
a facility location or a commodity and where
it’s grown, the user will receive information
identifying risk hot spots. Once those locations
have been identified, the user can review
possible responses in the filter’s mitigation
toolbox.
Close to 50,000 individual
facilities have been assessed by the Water
Risk Filter since its original release.
Over 1,500 different organizations have
used the tool, including global fashion
retailer H&M, which utilized the filter
when creating a new water strategy for its
entire value chain.
“The Water Risk Filter
helped us see all the places where water
touches our business, and create strategies
to address raw material risks, support supplier
factories and improve efficiency in our
own stores and offices,” says Felix Ockborn,
Environmental Sustainability Coordinator
for water at H&M. “The tool helped us
see that working beyond our direct operations
to promote sustainable water management
is in the best interest of our business.”
First released by WWF
in 2012, the Water Risk Filter was developed
in collaboration with the German development
finance institution DEG. The website can
be accessed at http://waterriskfilter.panda.org/.
+ More
Fishermen and farmers
express extreme discontent over Soco plans
in Virunga
Posted on 20 March 2014
| Residents of two communities near Virunga
National Park’s Lake Edward last week publicly
declared firm opposition to the oil exploration
plans of a UK company. Citing the critical
economic importance of the lake and surrounding
farm land, the two groups issued statements
against oil exploration by Soco International
PLC.
Over 100 fishermen and
women from the Democratic Republic of the
Congo town of Kyavinyonge said they would
never accept activities that put their livelihoods
at risk. The fishermen stressed that it
is vital to protect Lake Edward’s ecosystems,
plants and animals to ensure survival of
the fish stocks upon which they depend.
In a separate statement,
a coalition of farmers based in the town
of Kiwanja said that it has never been consulted
regarding the oil project, and that as opposition
grew, intimidating tactics allegedly were
deployed to suppress resistance. The farmers
called for the cancelation of Soco’s permit
in Virunga, noting that the World Heritage
Site is protected by national laws and international
treaties.
Soco says it soon will
start seismic surveys in Lake Edward, and
reportedly will prohibit fishing in some
areas during the 2-3 months of testing.
Banners hanging above
the fishing town’s main street read, “No
to Soco in Lake Edward fisheries" and
“We Kyavinyonge fishermen refuse oil exploration
in our Lake Edward. We don't want Soco in
our place.”
An independent economic
analysis of Virunga National Park commissioned
by WWF found that 50,000 people depend on
Lake Edward for jobs, fish and freshwater.
The area’s fishing industry generates an
estimated US$30 million per year, according
to the study.
