Releasing the pressure: water resource efficiencies and gains for ecosystem services

This report discusses the need to balance short-term water productivity gains, particularly in agriculture, with water flows’ long-term role in maintaining sustainable landscape ecosystem services and supporting human well-being. Water is under increasing pressure for supporting both various functions in society whilst sustaining healthy ecosystem services in landscapes, and there is a growing need to consider the productivity of how water can be used for multiple benefits. This report outlines 10 key messages on the nexus of water productivity, water flows in landscapes and ecosystem services, and illustrates them with case studies. It is geared to practitioners in the areas of planning and management of agriculture, planning of land-use, forestry, biofuels, and water, and natural resource management.