{"id":47324,"date":"2020-03-11T13:55:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-11T12:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iucn.nl\/?p=47324"},"modified":"2021-08-16T14:05:56","modified_gmt":"2021-08-16T13:05:56","slug":"first-ever-environmental-flow-assessment-in-benin-successfully-completed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iucn.nl\/en\/news\/first-ever-environmental-flow-assessment-in-benin-successfully-completed\/","title":{"rendered":"First-ever environmental flow assessment in Benin successfully completed"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"block block-container small-12 large-offset-1 large-10\">\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How much water from the Ou\u00e9m\u00e9 river in Benin should be reserved to maintain important ecosystems and biodiversity in the Ou\u00e9m\u00e9 Delta? Benin\u2019s first-ever environmental flow assessment, carried out by local experts with support from IUCN NL, provides the answer. The experts recently presented their findings to decision-makers, in order to allow them to plan for water allocation and aquatic infrastructure in the river basin without jeopardizing the integrity of important ecosystems.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"block block-container small-12 large-offset-1 large-10\">\n<p class=\"has-cyan-bluish-gray-color has-text-color\"><em>Header photo: \u00a9 Elke Praagman,  Ou\u00e9m\u00e9 River Basin in Benin <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"block block-container small-12 large-offset-1 large-10\">\n<p>In the Ou\u00e9m\u00e9 River Basin, there are plans for dams and large water abstractions, which will alter the hydrological regime of the Ou\u00e9m\u00e9 River. If not planned properly, these developments will impact important ecosystem services such as fisheries, fertile soils, flood retention and water quality downstream in the Ou\u00e9m\u00e9 Delta.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"block block-container small-12 large-offset-1 large-10\">\n<p>By determining the environmental flow requirement in the Ou\u00e9m\u00e9 Delta, it is possible to reserve this part of the river flow for important ecosystems and their functions for nature and people. This way, it is clear how much water can be withdrawn for other uses whilst maintaining biodiversity in important ecosystems, including the goods and services we derive from them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"block block-container small-12 large-offset-1 large-10\">\n<p>\u201cLarge irrigation, hydropower development and infrastructure projects are already affecting the frequency and quality of floods in the Ou\u00e9m\u00e9 Delta,\u201d says Fid\u00e8le Sossa, director of the Beninese NGO AquaDeD. \u201cTogether with climate change, they constitute the main threats to ecosystem services linked to flows.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"block block-container small-12 large-offset-1 large-10\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Defining water allocation<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"block block-container small-12 large-offset-1 large-10\">\n<p>Especially when planning for water allocation in the river basin for hydropower, irrigated agriculture and other large-scale water using activities, the results from the environmental flow assessment will define the maximum amount of water that can be allocated without compromising the functioning of important ecosystems.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"block block-container small-12 large-offset-1 large-10\">\n<p>It is important to include the results of the Environmental Flow Assessment in the water management plans of the Ou\u00e9m\u00e9 River Basin. \u201cThe environmental flow assessment is a compass and an important tool to manage the current developments in the Ou\u00e9m\u00e9 River Basin. We presented our findings to decision-makers, so they can take environmental flows into account in the legal and institutional framework for these developments,\u201d says Sossa, who is part of the research team for the Environmental Flow Assessment, together with IUCN NL\u2019s partners from NGOs CREDI and BEES and the National Water Institute of Benin and with technical assistance of IHE Delft.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"background \" id=\"block_611a626a053ed\">\n             <div class=\"dark custom-padding-top\">\n    \n\n\n<div class=\"smallteam-members__name12 large-offset-1 large-10\">\n\t<div id=\"team-members-block_611a626d053ee\" class=\"team-members team-members-block block\">\n\t\t<span class=\"anchor-id\" id=\"\"><\/span>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"team-members__body small-12 grid-x\">\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"team-members__item grid-x small-12 medium-6\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"team-members__image cell shrink\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"team-members__image-wrapper lazyload\" style=\"background-image:inherit;\" data-bg-image=\"url(&#039;https:\/\/www.iucn.nl\/app\/uploads\/2022\/07\/13Maxime-IUCN-040722-scaled.jpg&#039;)\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.iucn.nl\/app\/uploads\/2022\/07\/13Maxime-IUCN-040722-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 2560px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 2560\/2560;\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"team-members__info cell auto\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"team-members__info-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"team-members__details\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"team-members__name\">Maxime\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEiselin<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"team-members__jobtitle\">no longer working at IUCN NL<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How much water from the Ou\u00e9m\u00e9 river in Benin should be reserved to maintain important ecosystems and biodiversity in the Ou\u00e9m\u00e9 Delta? Benin\u2019s first-ever environmental flow assessment, carried out by local experts with support from IUCN NL, provides the answer. The experts recently presented their findings to decision-makers, in order to allow them to plan [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":47328,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[187],"class_list":["post-47324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-nature-based-solutions-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iucn.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iucn.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iucn.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iucn.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iucn.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47324"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.iucn.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47332,"href":"https:\/\/www.iucn.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47324\/revisions\/47332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iucn.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iucn.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iucn.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iucn.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}