As an international network of lakes, wetlands and fresh water bodies that officially embarked on its mission in 1998, the Living Lakes Partnership works for the "enhancement, protection, restoration and rehabilitation" of the world’s water resources and its surrounding areas. With a vision towards maintaining a healthy ecosystem within bodies of water worldwide, thereby ensuring their sustainability for future generations of earth inhabitants, Living Lakes Partnership encourages cooperation among its members and affiliate organizations in order to crop up favorable concepts and innovative programs that would benefit not only our water resources but as well as those other "creatures" dependent upon them.
Living Lakes Partnership is comprised of 24 Lake Partners (which include among others Columbia River Wetlands in Canada; Mono Lake – USA; The British Norfolk and Suffolk Broads in Great Britain; Lake Constance of Germany, Switzerland and Austria; Lake Baikal of Russia; Lake Poyang in China; and our very own Laguna de Bay), one Candidate Lake – Lake Paliastomi in Georgia, one Honorary Member – Lake Vostok in Antartica, and ten Associate Members.
Backed by the Germanybased Global Nature Fund (GNF) – an International Foundation for Environment and Nature – the Living Lakes Partnership has set the following goals (partial listing) and hopes to achieve them within a five-year time frame (2005-2010):
"1. To initiate and support urgent actions focused on extremely endangered lakes
2. To facilitate implementation of the Agenda 21 at the member lakes
3. To further renewable energy in lake and wetland areas
4. To support and promote sustainable fisheries, tourism and organic agriculture
5. To intensify exchange in experiences and know-how between the Living Lakes members and with external stakeholders alike
6. To ensure involvement of local people and communities in the protection of lakes"
It seems that from among the many goals mentioned above, implementing Agenda 21 – that is to say "moving Agenda 21 from paper to practice" – plays the most central role. That is why mutual support among lake partners through technology exchange, information sharing, financial resource distribution, and strengthened political will of local leaders become vital elements in the protection and conservation, not just of lakes and watersheds but for the whole ecosystem as well. The tools and methods that Living Lakes Partnership will utilize to achieve the above mentioned objectives – these to include model projects, annual conventions, printed as well as audiovisual materials, and the world wide web – will consequently determine the organization’s continued success.
At a country largely dependent on water resources for food and livelihood, the Philippines (as it is surrounded by water) can indeed benefit from this conference. In an era of rapid modernization that tags along the development of massive industrial zones producing environmentally hazardous waste materials (particularly chemical wastes) dumped in rivers, seas and lakes, the country should heed the call for a renewed approach to water resource restoration and preservation. Indeed, communities living within water resource areas (such as Laguna de Bay and Taal Lake), whose members are of course the largest stakeholders, play critical roles. It is upon their commitment to sustainable methods of water resource utilization and their concerted efforts to preserve their ecosystem that would ascertain how much and how much longer their primary source of livelihood would yield food and finance for them. Likewise, proper management of our water resources provide for the continuity of aquatic diversity and those species of marine life that is most often unique for Philippine lakes and which the country is more often recognized for.
We are all stewards of our water resources regardless of whether we live in lakes, rivers, and watershed communities or not. For bodies of water, like all other elements within this earth, is the creation of a Divine Hand that entails the responsibility for us to nourish, nurture and protect. Thus, a sustainable lifestyle that includes proper and sustainable methods of water use is the key to a sustainable future. For our waters are not only sources of life. It also has a life of itself. Unless we act now, and unless we act swiftly, things may be a bit too late to be done. The urgent call rings loud: Let us keep our lakes, rivers, and watersheds "living" – not "leaving." (E-mail address: myrfnt@yahoo.com)
