Figure 1: ILBM-related Case Study Lake Locations

The five case studies from the pink highlighted countries in Figure 1 are listed as related case studies in the end of this paper, each comprehensively illustrating how closely　a sustainable management of inland water basins is related to their sound ecosystem and healthy human livelihood in coexistence with biodiversity. The project tasks and deliverables seen in these South / Southeast Asian and South American inland water basins are as follows.

In Nepal, the degradation of biodiversity in the Himalayan Lakes is an immediate concern, affecting not only human livelihood and agriculture, but also the entire ecosystem of fauna and flora in its catchment area. Under such circumstances, a promotion of ILBM initiated in Rupa, one of many Himalayan Lakes, has strengthened governance in the local municipalities which in turn restored their abundant ecosystem and boosted economy.

Mexico, where deterioration of the forest ecosystem in the Lake Chapala basin once caused a decline in agricultural production and an increase of the poverty level, is now presenting successful project outcomes from the ILBM approach. The formation of better organization and regulations helped mitigate deforestation, improve agricultural productivity, develop herbal medicinal technology and expedite cost effective eco-technologies, now all generating profits to local livelihood.

In the Philippines, a remarkable restoration of SEPL has been achieved through an implementation of sustainable management in Tadlac Lake. Triggered by the lake turnover and fish mortality from intensified aquaculture proliferation in the late 90s, stakeholders from the local authorities to residents all played important roles in the conservation movement which eventually lead to fundamental consideration for a successful ecotourism program.

India presents two cases from different approaches. The one in the Western Indian tribal belt promotes ILBM as a solution to child malnutrition, which is a challenge imposed by the loss of biodiversity in the regional forest area under the persistent threat of climate change. Now the pilot project conducted shows that all the existing water bodies can be exploited to obtain sustainable food security for the local tribes to eradicate child malnutrition without any external support.

On the other hand, the case in Ujjani Reservoir, where severe river pollution is putting the lives of marginalized people at risk, proves that ILBM is also applicable to river (lotic) basin management.　One of the remarkable approaches in their ILBM promotion is utilization of an inventive eco-technology called green bridge, a grafting ecosystem filter to improve self-purification capacity of stream availing bacteria in the local ecosystem.

Despite the background difference, we can observe several measures and effects common in all cases. First of all, strengthening the governance as symbolized in the six pillars of ILBM is a primary step in implementing sustainable basin management. This means their basin management plans and programs for resource development, use and conservation would not be sustainable without a support of appropriate governance framework gearing together as characterized in Figure 2.