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The Murray–Darling Basin Plan, a major initiative to return water from irrigators to the environment, has been lauded as world-class water reform. The enabling legislation for the Basin Plan, the Water Act, gains its constitutional legitimacy from international treaties such as the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. This Act mandated that water be returned from consumptive uses to the environment. An allocation of 2,750 GL/yr was set but has been reduced by the 'Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism' (SDLAM), intended to achieve equivalent environmental benefits with less water. We present a synthesis of changes in decision contexts that have led to water reforms being 'watered down'. We analysed the policy discourse of water reform to assess whether SDLAM projects will achieve outcomes congruent with Australia's international treaty obligations. We found little or no alignment between the purpose of the SDLAM projects and the principles of the treaties and the Water Act. As water scarcity increases under climate change, attempting to conserve wetlands (including rivers) with less water while maintaining or increasing irrigation diversions is likely to prove maladaptive. A major reframing of environmental water policy and management is required to enable meaningful and effective adaptation to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Increasing water scarcity creates the major challenge of how to achieve environmental outcomes while meeting human water demands. In the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia, this challenge is being addressed by the Murray–Darling Basin Plan and the 'Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism' (SDLAM), an offsetting program seeking to achieve environmental outcomes using less water. Aims: We provide a critique of the legislated method for evaluation of the SDLAM and the suitability of the process for evaluating whether equivalent environmental outcomes have been achieved. Methods: Four project case studies, project documentation, external reviews and relevant legislation were used to assess the implementation of the SDLAM and the evaluation method. Key results: The SDLAM evaluation method is not scientifically rigorous. It excludes residual risks, Basin-wide impacts and climate change. The evaluation timeline is biased towards measuring infrastructure outputs rather than environmental outcomes and impacts. Conclusions: Flaws in the SDLAM evaluation processes mean that environmental benefits are likely to be overstated, risking further reductions in allocations of water for the environment, contrary to the objectives of the Basin Plan. Implications: Improved evaluation, including empirical data on outputs, outcomes and impacts, is needed to ensure that conservation objectives can be met for wetlands subject to SDLAM projects. In the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia, policy-makers have implemented a program that attempts to use environmental water more effectively, allowing more water to be allocated for human uses. This program must be rigorously evaluated to ensure that the environmental benefits are not overstated. We provide a critique of the legislated method for evaluation, highlighting flaws and recommending improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how the state-led 'freshening the coastal zones' policy has been implemented in pursuit of sustainable development in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta. Drawing on a case study of the Ba Lai irrigation scheme in a coastal district of Ben Tre Province, the paper argues that the state's ideology of 'freshwater over saltwater' results in contested land-use policies that, in turn, drive forced transformation of resource-based livelihoods. By unraveling the political ecology of these social-political dynamics, the study shows how contemporary land-use approaches have modified coastalscapes, evidenced by the continued expansion of freshwater-based agricultural systems. These agriculture-favored development policies have negatively affected agrarian communities' options to sustain their traditional livelihoods (e.g. shrimp farming), which otherwise help yield higher incomes. This paper raises doubts about the 'freshening coastal zones' policy in addressing saltwater intrusion at the delta scale, while recognizing the equal role of saltwater in supporting coastal livelihoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freshwater ecosystems are among the most vulnerable and endangered in the world, facing continued uncertainty under climate change, development of water resources and land use change. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (1971) is one of the longest-standing international agreements on biodiversity conservation. Its central objective is the maintenance of the ecological character of Wetlands of International Importance and the wise use of all wetlands. Here, we examine how the maintenance of ecological character has been addressed in Australia as part of the Murray--Darling Basin Plan, one of the most ambitious water reform programs to be undertaken globally and intended to restore water from irrigated agriculture to the environment. We analyse policy and planning documents from Commonwealth and state jurisdictions on the management of environmental water. Despite stated objectives to conserve Ramsar wetlands in the Basin Plan, we found a pattern of complex and convoluted arrangements for delivering environmental water to Ramsar wetlands and a lack of transparency and accountability about how Ramsar obligations are considered within each jurisdiction. We conclude that consideration of the ecological character of Ramsar wetlands has been marginalised by governments when managing environmental water, despite the statutory requirements to maintain these wetlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]