Water in the Anthropocene: water experts call for action

At the end of the international conference on "Water in the Anthropocene: Challenges for science and governance", held in Bonn last week, the participants called for action to achieve global and sustainable water security. The conference was organized by GWSP and supported by BMBF. A large number of ZEF researchers were among the approximately 300 conference participants.

Around 60 parallel sessions and five plenaries were held during the conference, including 15 key notes by outspoken water experts from science and policy. ZEF-director Joachim von Braun held a key note on the final conference day, May 24, on "Putting people at the center of water agendas". Other ZEF senior researchers organized sessions on "Focus on the Aral Sea" and "Linking Integrated Land and Water Resouces Management with Ecosystem Services Assessment".

The conference was concluded by issuing the "Bonn Water Declaration". Bonn's Mayor Jürgen Nimptsch introduced and endorsed the Declaration. The main message implies a call for global action addressed at "a united front to form a strategic

partnership of scientists, public stakeholders, decision-makers and the private sector. This partnership should develop a broad, community-consensus blue

print for a reality-based, multi-perspective, and multi-scale knowledge-to-action water agenda (...)".

For records of key notes and plenaries as well as interviews with scientists please watch the ZEF youtube channel.