Event

JPAC Session 21-02: Sustainable management of transboundary waters: How to build successful collaborations

Air, land and water are inherently linked to the building blocks of life. Ensuring the quality and proper management of these resources is fundamental to protecting and improving community resiliency, the health of our citizens, natural ecosystems and species, and also to supporting sustainable economic prosperity.

Despite vast freshwater resources in North America, several environmental and sustainability issues affect the continent's water security. An increase in the magnitude and frequency of droughts, deforestation, forest fires and floods; changes in our climate; the release of toxic chemicals to surface waters; the depletion of groundwater; the litter of plastics and leakage of nutrients and emerging pollutants into the water supply; and years of land-use changes—all these have direct impacts on water quantity and quality. As a result, the ability to meet the demand for a high-quality water supply for an increasing population and its availability to such key economic sectors as agriculture, industry, energy, and transportation, is at risk.

Freshwater resources may or may not correspond to political boundaries but regardless, activities on either side of the border can have a huge impact on communities relying on these resources. The sustainable management of transboundary waters therefore requires international cooperation at the local, regional, and national levels, especially in areas vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and where water is already scarce. Addressing water security at the continental scale will require collaborative decision-making to advance sustainable water management and ensuring access to clean water.

Agenda

Friday, 29 October 2021

11:00–11:05

Opening and welcoming remarks

Pedro Moctezuma
JPAC Chair

Pedro Moctezuma

JPAC Chair

Economist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), with a PhD in planning and development from the University of Liverpool’s Faculty of Social and Environmental Studies, Pedro Moctezuma Barragán is a prominent national and international activist on the issues of water, the environment and community participation. He is currently coordinator of the Sustainability Research Program at the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM) where he also sits on the Board of Directors. He is a member of the National Coordination Council of Agua para Tod@s, Agua para la Vida (“Water for all, Water for Life”) and a participant in the Society, Environment and Institutions (SUSMAI) graduate seminar at UNAM.

Founder and Director of the lncalli lxcahuicopa Center for Sustainability (Centli), which also includes agro-ecological and forestry centers, both located in Tlalmanalco, Mexico State, and co-founder of the Amecameca and La Compañía River Basins Commission, Moctezuma Barragán also has experience in implementing community development processes and in projects on the design and self-managed construction of social housing.

Founder of the Department of Socioeconomic Research at the Torreón School of Economics, in Coahuila, he has given over 140 courses in various academic institutions. In addition, he has been a member of various academic commissions, organized courses and workshops, participated in the reviewing of undergraduate and MA curricula, and presented over two hundred papers and conferences in dozens of universities in Mexico, as well as in Europe, Canada, the United States and Latin America. The author of over 60 publications, he has also sat on multiple editorial boards.

11:05–11:40

Presentations by invited experts

This segment will showcase North American success stories focusing on the collaborative process, including initial steps, leading to positive outcomes on multidimensional transboundary water issues.

Merrell-Ann Phare
Canadian Commissioner, International Joint Commission (IJC)

The IJC International Watersheds Initiative (IWI) is an approach to resolving transboundary water issues, grounded on the belief that local communities, given appropriate assistance, are best placed to achieve solutions.

Merrell-Ann Phare

Canadian Commissioner, International Joint Commission (IJC)

Merrell-Ann Phare is a lawyer, writer and the founding executive director of the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources (CIER), a national First Nation charitable environmental organisation. She is a commissioner of the International Joint Commission. As chief negotiator, Merrell-Ann led the negotiation of transboundary water agreements in the Mackenzie River Basin and the creation of Thaidene Nene, a national and terrritorial park in the east arm of Great Slave Lake in NWT. She is the author of the book ‘Denying the Source: the Crisis of First Nations Water Rights’ and co-author of ‘Ethical Water’. She facilitates the Collaborative Leadership Initiative in southern Manitoba. She is a member of the Forum for Leadership on Water, Smart Prosperity’s Leadership Council, is a recipient of Canada’s Clean 50 Award, and regularly speaks on water ethics, governance, and reconciliation issues.

Jennifer Pitt
Colorado River Program Director, National Audubon Society

The United States-Mexico 1944 Water Treaty – Minute 323 scales up ongoing environmental restoration projects and makes provisions for future water security in the Colorado River Basin. The agreements establish the rules by which water will be shared when there is a surplus and restrictions that will be adopted when there is drought, as well as protecting the ecology of the Colorado River Delta.

Jennifer Pitt

Colorado River Program Director, National Audubon Society

Jennifer Pitt is the Colorado River Program Director for the National Audubon Society, where she focuses on efforts to protect and restore freshwater and riparian habitats and reform water policy in the Colorado River Basin. She works with water users throughout the Colorado Basin to develop practical programs to restore river habitats and to dedicate water to critical environmental resources. Her expertise includes US-Mexico border environmental issues, the legal and policy framework for Colorado River management, water markets, and the science of river restoration. Pitt received her A.B. from Harvard College and her M.E.S. from Yale University.

Juan Gonzalo Moreno Márquez
Member of the Cucapa Tribe and President of the Bienes Comunales de San Luis Río Colorado and co-founder of Contraloría Ciudadana del Agua de Mexicali

The Citizen Water Board of Mexicali (Contraloría Ciudadana del Agua de Mexicali) comprises citizens, communities, peasants, academia and Cucapá indigenous grassroots organizations contributing to transformative planning on basin and underground water issues and human rights advocacy to solve problems of water scarcity and inequity, the growing demand from diverse sectors, a low efficiency due to poor infrastructure, and management failures that promote investments requiring intensive use of water.

Juan Gonzalo Moreno Márquez

Member of the Cucapa Tribe and President of the Bienes Comunales de San Luis Río Colorado and co-founder of Contraloría Ciudadana del Agua de Mexicali

A member of the Cucapá Indigenous community and a native Cucapá speaker, Juan Gonzalo Moreno Márquez holds a BA in education and is presently completing a law degree. He is the president and founder of American Indian Movement Mexico (Movimiento Indio Americano México, A.C.); a member of the National Coalition Water for All, Water for Life (Agua para Tod@s, Agua para la Vida); co-founder of the Citizens Water Comptrollership of Mexicali, Baja California; president of Communal Property Council (Comisariado de Bienes Comunales) of San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora; an advocate of the Salton Sea restoration project; a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) in the United States; facilitator and promoter of the Native American Church of Turtle Island (NACTI), and facilitator of traditional ceremonies with traditional plants. Moreno Márquez has dedicated a major part of his life’s work to promoting social projects with Purépecha, Tzotzil, Tojolabal and Mayo communities, as well as other villages and communities in Baja California. As a member of the American Indian Movement, he is an advocate of the Water and Tribes Initiative (WTI), which was presented at the American Indian Congress with the goal of convoking, assembling, and organizing the tribal nations of the Colorado River to unify their efforts to defend water from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico.

11:40–12:40

Moderated Discussion, Question and Answer Period with presenters, JPAC members and audience

Felicia Marcus
JPAC member

Felicia Marcus

JPAC member

Felicia Marcus is the William C. Landreth Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Water in the West Program, an attorney, consultant, and member of the Water Policy Group. She most recently served as Chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board, implementing laws regarding drinking water, water quality, and state’s water rights, hearing regional board water quality appeals, settling disputes, and providing financial assistance to communities to upgrade water infrastructure.

Before her appointment to the Water Board, Marcus served in positions in government, the nonprofit and private sector. In government, she served as the Regional Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Pacific Southwest Region. Preceding her work at the EPA, Marcus served as the President of the Board of Public Works for the City of Los Angeles.

In the non-profit world, she was the Western Director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, and prior to that the Executive Vice-president and Chief Operating Officer of the Trust for Public Land. Marcus also has an extensive background as a private sector and public interest lawyer.

In 2020 she was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in East Asian Studies from Harvard College, and Juris Doctor degree from New York University School of Law and studied at Hong Kong University on a Rotary Fellowship.

12:40–12:45

Closing remarks

Pedro Moctezuma
JPAC Chair

Pedro Moctezuma

JPAC Chair

Economist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), with a PhD in planning and development from the University of Liverpool’s Faculty of Social and Environmental Studies, Pedro Moctezuma Barragán is a prominent national and international activist on the issues of water, the environment and community participation. He is currently coordinator of the Sustainability Research Program at the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM) where he also sits on the Board of Directors. He is a member of the National Coordination Council of Agua para Tod@s, Agua para la Vida (“Water for all, Water for Life”) and a participant in the Society, Environment and Institutions (SUSMAI) graduate seminar at UNAM.

Founder and Director of the lncalli lxcahuicopa Center for Sustainability (Centli), which also includes agro-ecological and forestry centers, both located in Tlalmanalco, Mexico State, and co-founder of the Amecameca and La Compañía River Basins Commission, Moctezuma Barragán also has experience in implementing community development processes and in projects on the design and self-managed construction of social housing.

Founder of the Department of Socioeconomic Research at the Torreón School of Economics, in Coahuila, he has given over 140 courses in various academic institutions. In addition, he has been a member of various academic commissions, organized courses and workshops, participated in the reviewing of undergraduate and MA curricula, and presented over two hundred papers and conferences in dozens of universities in Mexico, as well as in Europe, Canada, the United States and Latin America. The author of over 60 publications, he has also sat on multiple editorial boards.