Rd October 2010 [a] Contents

Forests offer a range of options for water provision, depending on their type, location and age and on what users need. Cities may choose a number of different forest management options, including protection, sustainable management and, where necessary, restoration.

** How is vegetation in the catchment likely to affect water quality and flow? This needs specialist analysis, although some general points can be made. For example, cloud forests are likely to increase water, old natural forests may also increase flow, compared with young forests and plantations which are likely to decrease flow. Presence of any type of forest is likely to increase quality. Individual cases need to be assessed, depending on soil, climate, forest types and age, and management regime.

** How about the soils? In shallow soils the role of vegetation is less than on deep soils where roots can exploit to greater depth. Soils that are shallow to bedrock produce “flashy” flows, and can neither accommodate nor store much precipitation. Slip-prone soil areas are best in tree cover to promote stability.

** What is the land use? Current status is important, but so are recent changes and likely future trends.

** What are realistic management options? Present and future management options for land use should be analysed, including especially establishment and maintenance of protected areas, forest restoration.

Protected areas are not a panacea in terms of water supply, but they are clearly an important option to help to secure high quality urban water supplies in many situations. Lack of protection has been already been identified as a problem in some cities while in others it seems that better catchment management would help to address urgent problems in water quality and in some cases also of supply. It should also be remembered that protection of forests for their watershed values has important and usually beneficial implications for biodiversity and other values.

Bruinjzeel, L.A. (1990) Hydrology of Tropical Moist Forests and Effects of Conversion: A State of Knowledge Review. UNESCO, Paris and Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam

José Courrau

In 1600, the city’s 2,000 inhabitants received water from a distribution system of clay pipes. This system was supplemented in 1675, by Franciscan priests who built a private aqueduct for the exclusive use of the convents, monasteries and churches. These two water systems remained the main methods of water distribution for the next 200 years.

Due to the serious financial limitations faced by the protected areas in Venezuela, in 1999 the agency responsible for protected area management, INPARQUES, started to consider charging the water companies for the direct services they obtain from the country’s parks. However, until now this initiative has not been further developed (Cañizalez et al, 2006).

Azpurua Q., Pablo. P, and Rovati, G (1967) El problema del agua en la Caracas del futuro: con especial referencia al abastecimiento de agua de los Valles del Tuy Medio, Revista de Obras Públicas: 115, tomo I (3032): 1267-1287, Colegio de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos, Spain

Nigel Maxted, Shelagh Kell, Brian Ford-Lloyd and Sue Stolton

It has been estimated that there are approximately 284,000 species of flowering plants (Groombridge and Jenkins, 2002). Amongst many other benefits, plants provide an enormous reservoir of genetic diversity that is the foundation of and provides continued support for agriculture.

Brazil’s ‘typica’ coffee originates from the progeny of one tree, introduced from East Africa via the Caribbean. Such uniformity and the susceptibility to disease which goes with it, means that landraces and CWR are of great importance as a source of wider genetic variation and potential crop traits. In the 1970s Latin American coffee plantations were under threat from rust disease. The plantations were saved because of information gained from a rust-resistant strain of coffee found in Ethiopia. However, despite their continuing importance as a genetic resource, the montane forests of Ethiopia and the Coffea species which grow in the forest under-storey are under serious threat: about four-fifths have already been destroyed (Lewington, 1990). [!box ends!]

It has been argued that the protected area and agrobiodiversity communities too often work in isolation (Maxted et al, 1997b); CWR conservation in protected area has the benefit of directly linking ecosystem services and agrobiodiversity conservation to the benefit of both communities. Currently, there are only a handful of established protected areas where the genetic diversity of crops is actively conserved. However, in recent years there has been an increasing interest in CWR conservation and use following recognition that: a) CWR are increasingly threatened by the loss, degradation and fragmentation of their natural habitats (FAO, 1996 and 1998); b) they are often associated with disturbed habitats which are particularly threatened by climate change and are not being adequately conserved (Jain, 1975; Maxted et al. 1997c); c) conservation of CWR species in existing protected areas offers an additional ecosystem service, thus increasing their overall value (Stolton et al. 2008); d) CWR offer the necessary, novel genetic diversity that can enhance crop productivity or commodity improvement, promote disease and pest resistance and increase tolerance of adverse or marginal environments; and e) conventional and biotechnological breeding techniques have improved dramatically in recent years enabling more precise targeting of desirable traits, relatively easy transfer to the crop and fewer problems with the transfer of unwanted characteristics (Hajjar and Hodgkin, 2007).