Contribution of wetlands to the food-water-energy nexus

Abstract

Since 2010, there has been increasing international interest and activity around "the nexus." The most common articulation of "the nexus" is recognition of the interlinked issues of water, food and energy (including the challenges of a changing climate). This is often considered in the context of emancipation of the "bottom billion" of the world's population from multiple, interlinked dimensions of poverty, as expressed in the Millennium Development Goals and their successor Sustainable Development Goals, but also in terms of the resilience of the developed world. The nexus approach recognizes the practical impossibility of effective management of each of these inherently interlinked elements in isolation, representing a practical step from a historically, narrow focus into a more systemic basis for management and decision-making.