Watershed degradation in many third world countries threatens the livelihood of millions of people and constrains the ability of countries to develop a healthy agricultural and natural resource base. Increasing populations of people and livestock, particularly in the steep, mountainous watersheds of Nepal and the Himalaya region, are rapidly depleting the existing natural resource base because the soil and vegetation systems cannot support present levels of use. In a sense, the carrying capacity of these lands is being exceeded. As populations continue to rise, the pressures on forests, rangelands, and marginal agricultural lands lead to inappropriate cultivation practices, forest removal, and grazing intensities that, in the extreme case, leave a barren environment that yields unwanted sediment and damaging streamflow to downstream communities. With a reduction of 11.3 m2 hectares of tropical forest each year and population densities in excess of 600 people/km in places like Java, actions must be taken soon.
In the day-to-day struggle to subsist, the long-term view of soil conservation and resource management is lost by most watershed inhabitants. Consequently, soil is eroded and productivity of even these marginal lands is reduced further. Downstream dwellers do not escape the impacts of watershed degradation; wood for fuel, construction and other purposes becomes scarce, reservoirs fill with sediment, and landslides and floods cause increasing losses of life and property. High investment reservoirs constructed for hydropower and extensive irrigation systems are threatened by high rates of sedimentation caused by upland watershed degradation. The economic and social costs will be severe if nothing is done to correct the existing situation in many countries.
People inhabiting upland watersheds find themselves in a dilemma. They need to produce food and harvest fuelwood to exist. Yet, their intensive use threatens their own long-term survival and that of future generations. From a national perspective, countries find themselves unable to establish sound natural resource programs and strong agricultural economies that are so important to make the transition from developing county status to that of a developed country.
Actions urgently need to be taken by policy makers and decision makers at the highest levels of government to halt and reverse watershed degradation. The following are recommended:
A balance between population and the environmental carrying capacity of upland watersheds must be achieved. In steep, mountainous watersheds undergoing severe degradation, significant policy and programme responses are needed within the next 10 to 15 years.
Countries need to develop national conservation strategies and frameworks to achieve appropriate and comprehensive management of mountain watersheds.
Solutions must not ignore the basic needs of people living in upland watersheds; incentives may be needed to change existing land-use practices into environmentally sound and sustainable resource use.
National programmes need to explicitly resolve inequities that result from imposing watershed management programmes; resources may need to be transferred from the politically and economically more powerful lowland communities, often the major beneficiaries of management, to the increasingly impoverished upland dwellers who must restrict current levels of cultivation, grazing, and fuelwood harvesting. For example, watershed management benefits derived by irrigation and hydropower systems downstream should partially be used to promote. and sustain sound upland watershed management.
Special institutional and organizational arrangements are needed in most countries to coordinate and effectively carry out the planning, funding, implementation, and monitoring of watershed programmes; the fact that water and sediment flow in response to gravity, processes which do not necessarily coincide with political or institutional boundaries, must be recognized in programme development.
The instability of land tenure and the complexity of user rights seriously constrain the development of land use practices needed to stabilize forest and rangelands. Watershed management programmes cannot become effective on a sustainable basis until such constraints are overcome.
Watershed management practices should be implemented which solve soil and water degradation problems but at the same time are socially and politically acceptable and economically feasible.
Governments must recognize that existing land use practices in many upland watersheds have to be changed or modified.
Multiple use options employing agroforestry, production forests, protection forests on critically steep slopes, stall feeding of animals, and other practices which provide needed goods and services without sacrificing soil and water resources must be promoted in appropriate areas; achieving more diversified and stable mountain economies should be an objective of watershed management programmes.
Effective implementation and monitoring of watershed practices is essential and requires technical personnel who are adequately trained and willing to work in remote areas under difficult conditions; governments and agencies should seek out, reward, and promote watershed specialists for these critically important jobs.
Effective watershed management is rarely found in mountainous watersheds of developing countries; the development of appropriate practices is hampered by a lack of relevant training, insufficient applied research, and limited demonstration projects. These problems are particularly acute in tropical countries.
Governments and agencies must recognize the importance of having properly educated and trained people in watershed sciences; most countries lack suitably trained technical personnel.
Research that focuses on solving practical problems in the field needs greater financial and technical support.
Demonstration projects and monitoring of existing watershed projects should be established to show local people and government administrators the benefits of sound watershed management practices.
Public awareness and the involvement of local communities are crucial for the successful and sustained management of mountain watersheds.
Local and national consequences of watershed degradation and benefits of watershed management need to be understood by all. Mass media, localized educational activities and other measures should be used to induce the general public, politicians, and decision makers alike to take appropriate measures to promote watershed management of mountain lands.
Public awareness campaigns should concentrate on the real and realizable benefits of forests in providing watershed protection; professionally sound judgment is needed to guide resource allocation.
