Conference on Cross-Border Governance and Protection of Food-Energy-Water Systems Supported by International Watersheds

粮食、能源和水系统对社会和经济发展的相互依存性质构成了一系列挑战，特别是在水资源丰富或短缺的情况下。虽然水资源短缺会给农业和能源生产带来巨大压力，但水资源丰富的条件带来了一系列不同但同样重要的挑战。当水资源丰富时，缺乏养护的动机会迅速导致水的退化或因相互竞争的用途而发生冲突。大多数研究往往集中在缺水地区。这导致了对水资源丰富地区可能发生的情况的意外疏忽，在这些地区，水资源可能没有得到重视、定价或管理，以确保长期可用性。当流域共享多个国家边界和不同的治理制度时，丰富的挑战变得更加困难。每个国家可能都有独特的政策，这些政策以国家为基础，受到当地观念的驱动，往往与生态系统结构和功能的逻辑脱节。这些跨界挑战还与粮食-能源-水关系有关，粮食和能源生产可能同时威胁到水的可持续性，并受到水资源退化的威胁。理解和应对这些挑战需要综合、跨国家和跨学科的方法，以及综合的科学方法。密歇根州立大学将主办一次会议，汇集了水资源丰富地区面临的水-粮食-能源关系挑战方面的专家学者，这些挑战需要跨国协议和信息共享。本次会议将汇集来自世界上三个地区的科学家、研究人员和决策者，这些地区的特点是，直到最近，一直丰富且相对未受污染的水资源面临着最近的压力：北美五大湖（地球上最大的淡水系统，面临着来自农业径流和入侵物种的压力，以及来自美国和加拿大干旱地区的需求）；东非大湖区域（非洲最大的湖泊，面临迅速富营养化和内陆渔业生产力下降）；南美洲的亚马逊河（地球上最大的河流系统，面临着水力发电开发和渔业崩溃带来的越来越大的压力）。与会者将探讨这些地区的粮食-能源-水系统所面临的压力，并确定这些系统跨境治理方面的知识差距。本次会议将具体审查水资源与能源生产之间的联系，食物、鱼类和能源生产对水的污染，以及与粮食（如灌溉）和能源生产（如水力发电）有关的人与环境相互作用造成的淡水资源枯竭。

The interdependent nature of food, energy, and water systems for social and economic development pose an array of challenges, particularly under conditions of varying abundance or scarcity of water. While water scarcity can place tremendous stress on agricultural and energy production, conditions of water abundance pose a different, but equally important, set of challenges. When water resources are abundant, the lack of incentive for conservation can rapidly lead to the degradation of the water or conflicts over competing uses. Most research tends to focus on water scarce areas. This has resulted in an unintended oversight of what may be happening in water abundant regions, where water resources may not be valued, priced, or managed to ensure long-term availability. The challenges of abundance become more even more difficult when watersheds share multiple national borders and different systems of governance. Each country may have unique policies that are country-based, driven by local perceptions, and often disconnected from the logic of the ecosystem's structure and function. These cross-border challenges are also linked to the food-energy-water nexus, where food and energy production can simultaneously threaten water sustainability and be threatened by degrading water resources. Understanding and addressing these challenges requires synthesis, cross-national and cross-disciplinary approaches, and integrative scientific approaches. Michigan State University will host a conference that brings together scholars with expertise in the water-food-energy nexus challenges faced by water abundant regions requiring cross-national agreements and information sharing. This conference will bring together scientists, researchers and policy-makers from three regions of the world characterized by recent pressures on what have been, until recently, abundant and relatively unpolluted water resources: North America's Great Lakes (the largest freshwater system on Earth, facing increasing pressure from agricultural runoff and invasive species and by demands from drier regions of the U.S. and Canada); East Africa's Great Lakes region (the largest lakes in Africa, facing rapid eutrophication and diminishing productivity of its inland fisheries); and South America's Amazon River (the largest river system on Earth, facing increasing pressure from hydroelectric development and fisheries collapse). Participants will explore stresses on the food-energy-water systems of these regions and identify gaps in knowledge about cross-border governance of these systems. This conference will specifically examine the connections between water resources and energy production, contamination of water from food, fish, and energy production, and the depletion of fresh water stocks resultant from human-environment interactions related to food (e.g. irrigation) and energy production (e.g. hydroelectric power).