PREFACE

PURPOSE

This document has been prepared on behalf of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC). Its purpose is to provide useful information on inland waters and their biodiversity to a wide audience, ranging from those interested in the state of the world environment generally, to those needing an overview of the global and regional context in order to improve planning, management and investment decisions.

This report is explicitly preliminary in approach, largely because of the enormous scope of the issues involved, but by striving to be geographically comprehensive and to use existing data and expertise to best advantage, we aim to provide a firm foundation for subsequent more detailed assessment of freshwater biodiversity.

Within this general context, the project has three principal objectives:

• to present a global overview of freshwater biodiversity, covering notable aspects of distribution, use, status and trends: see chapters 1, 2 and 3;
• to produce a preliminary global assessment of areas of special importance (hotspots) for freshwater biodiversity: see chapter 4;
• to develop a framework for comparative analysis of major river basins, using indicators of biodiversity, the condition of catchment basins and pressures on water resources, in order to generate indices of importance and risk: see chapter 5.

The 'hotspots' assessment is based on a compilation of expert knowledge. A number of leading specialists on the systematics and biology of four better-known animal groups kindly agreed to provide documented information on areas of special importance within each continent, 'importance' here being defined in terms of high species number or high endemism, or both, relative to other parts of the continent. The areas are mapped in this report and the supporting data summarised in table format. Information on these four groups was synthesised to arrive at a preliminary global list of key areas for freshwater biodiversity. This list is far from definitive, but will be of great value for many immediate purposes, while more detailed and quantified analysis will perforce await more prolonged research.

Similarly, a main aim of the comparative catchment basin analysis was to explore the extent to which sets of global data (either readily available or possible to generate within a reasonable period) could be analysed in order to derive meaningful indices of the status of drainage basins. The results appear promising enough to consider extending the analysis using fine-scale data, and make it possible to suggest a potential scheme for prioritising river basins with a view to biodiversity maintenance.

No attempt has been made to address directly the issue of water availability and quality for human use; this complex area has been comprehensively analysed in an overview document (UN [CSD], 1997) and a series of supplementary reports published by the Stockholm Environment Institute.

Whilst this document addresses various aspects of the biodiversity of inland waters in general, emphasis is given to large rivers and lakes as opposed to the variety of shallow, often well-vegetated systems (bogs, marshes, mires, swamps and coastal lagoons) traditionally referred to as wetlands.

Text, analysis: Brian Groombridge, Martin Jenkins. GIS analysis: Jonathan Rhind. Research: Neil Cox, Janina Jakubowska. Final document production: Julie Reay. Other assistance: Igor Lysenko (GIS services), Mary Cordiner (information services).

Angelo Antonio Agostinho; Tadeusz Backiel; Nixon Bahamon, Fernando Gertum Becker; Jonathan Benstead; Arthur Bogan, Jianbo Chang; Brian Coad; Salvador Contreras-Balderas; Adele Crispoldi (FAO); Mike Dadswell; Volodymyr Domashlinets; Benigno Elvira; Jens Floeter; Raghavendra Gadakar; Lance Grande; Tong Haowen; Charles Hocutt; Erling Holm; Bernard Hugueny; K. C. Jayaram; Erkki Jokikokko; Pulsri Kanjanamyoon; Chen Kelin; Kip Keller; Stefan Kuhardt; Sakari Kuikka; Guo-Qing Li; Paul Loiselle; Ricardo Moran Lopez; Massimo Lorenzoni; John Lundberg; G. Maiorana; Mearelli Mario; Petr Mashkin; Jascha Minnow; Rolando Muñoz; Daniel Paz; Tadeusz Penczak; Winston Ponder, Didier Pont; King Yue Poon; Asad Rahmani; T. V. Ramachandra; Patrick de Rham; Jon Paul Rodriguez; Richard Ruggiero; Tyson Roberts; Vladimir Sal'nikov; Scott Schaefer; Guiseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara; Melanie Stiassny; Glenn Switkes; Henne Ticheler; Cor de Van; Richard Vari; Lorenzo Vilizzi; Mauricio Zárate Villareal; Asbjørn Vøllestad; Lee White; Rick Winterbottom; Christian Wolter; Ted Zimmerman

WCMC is particularly grateful to numerous colleagues (see above) who have kindly provided information used in this report. Not all have had the opportunity to review our use of information provided; any errors, omissions or inconsistencies are the responsibility of WCMC. Special thanks are due to Rob Lesslie (ANU), for providing data resulting from his global wilderness analysis, and to a number of field and museum colleagues working on freshwater biodiversity.

Many thanks also to Pat Foster-Turley (formerly coordinator, IUCN-SSC Freshwater Biodiversity Initiative) for facilitating involvement of the SSC Specialist Groups on Molluscs and Inland Water Crustaceans.

Part of the data compilation on fish diversity at catchment level was first carried out for the World Resources Institute (WRI), who kindly allowed further use of the data here. We also are indebted to the many people who made time to provide data on fish diversity in major rivers, or advice on data sources. We are especially grateful to Dr Hamdallah Zedan (UNEP, Nairobi) for his interest in this study and for providing support. Thanks also to Paul Akiwumi (Water Branch, UNEP) for providing pertinent review comments. Part of this document is based on material first collated in a discussion paper on freshwater biodiversity prepared by WCMC for the CBD Secretariat in 1996.