Less than a quarter of worldwide ecosystems reliant on groundwater are in protected lands or regions with policies aimed at conserving them, a paper has found.
The study, led by scientists at The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the Desert Research Institute (DRI) and published in Nature, mapped groundwater-dependent ecosystems (GDEs) in dryland regions on a global scale for the first time, showing significant gaps in protection efforts.
“Until now, the locations of these GDEs have been largely unknown, hindering our ability to track impacts, establish protective policies, and implement conservation projects to protect them,” said lead author Melissa Rohde.
“Groundwater is being pumped at rates higher than it can be replenished, but we aren’t managing or regulating it to the extent necessary to prevent further ecosystem impacts.”
Through leveraging satellite-based data, researchers found that 53% of GDEs are in areas with known groundwater depletion, and 21% are on protected lands or in jurisdictions with sustainable groundwater management policies.
Even in countries or regions with legislation in place, such as Australia’s National Water Initiative, the EU’s Water Framework Directive, and California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, very few of these ecosystems are effectively protected, according to researchers.
“This is due to inequitable decision-making processes that prioritise human over ecosystem water needs, the absence of environmental groundwater rights regimes, limited ecohydrologic expertise in water agencies, and a lack of scientific consensus on what measurable groundwater targets and thresholds are representative of environmental water needs,” said the study.
HIGHEST RATES
Geographically, Europe has the highest rate of dryland GDEs in areas experiencing groundwater storage loss (90%), followed by Asia (75%), and North America (65%), while smaller percentages of GDEs in South America (37%), Oceania (29%), and Africa (17%) are facing similar threats.
“GDEs are often biodiversity hotspots with niche habitats that support rare and endemic species, and provide critical thermal and hydrologic refugia during dry seasons, droughts, and long-term climate changes,” said the study.
In recent years, these ecosystems have come under increasing pressure due to climate change and human exploitation, particularly of underground aquifers.
Furthermore, researchers pointed out that the importance of groundwater is largely overlooked in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with vague linkages to ecosystems under Target 6.4 on water use and scarcity and Target 6.6 on water-related ecosystems.
“If we want to achieve our global biodiversity goals and our climate goals, then we need to connect the dots between groundwater and ecosystems,” said Rohde.
In 2022, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) urged national governments to ramp up efforts to tackle groundwater extraction, but most countries have failed to heed the call.
Groundwater depletion can lead to catastrophic impacts, including sinkholes, landslides, and coastal saltwater intrusion into lakes and reservoirs, the CBD said.
By Sergio Colombo – sergio@carbon-pulse.com
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