Water is one of the most valuable natural resources on earth. It is essential for all forms of life and for the maintenance of biodiversity. Water is also the essential component of wetland ecosystems such as rivers, lakes, aquifers, etc which contribute to improving the life, wellbeing and health of our planet. That’s why ensuring the good health of those ecosystems requires sustainable water use practices.
Unfortunately, natural ecosystems have suffered and are still suffering today from the excessive and intensive use of water due to human activities, such as agriculture, leading to overexploitation of these water supplies. This is causing the degradation of wetlands, preventing them from providing their valuable ecosystem services and subsequently impacting the livelihoods of human beings.
The purpose of this guide is to provide auditors and inspectors from agricultural products certification companies, as well as technicians and farmers who require it, with a useful tool to enable them to tackle the complex task of auditing legal water use.
This document is based on the Spanish document “Guía de WWF para verificar el uso legal del agua en la agricultura”, published by WWF Spain in 2021 as part of the Mission Possible: Guadalquivir challenge.
The WWF Spain original report is available here [1].
