Watershed Connect

This week is World Water Week in Stockholm with this year's theme focusing on water cooperation and building partnerships. Seminars, interviews and other features will be available online. Meanwhile, forest fires in the US west are bringing water-energy-food nexus thinking to the fore, with the region's energy and water supplies vulnerable to the fires and overall climate risk.  

The Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority – East (SLFPAE) has pursued legal action against 97 oil and gas companies for damages to Louisiana's coast. In an interview with Harry Shearer, SLFPAE vice president John Barry offers big-picture insight into the factors degrading the coast and driving the suit.

Most of Louisiana’s oil and gas companies are on the defensive after a state entity sued nearly 100 of them for damages they caused by destroying protective wetlands. A handful of companies, however, have identified wetland restoration as a major goal – for their protection and the protection of the state. Here’s a look at one of the biggest.

Forest Trends' Water Initiative will preview their work on blending green and grey infrastructure at World Water Week later this month. In the meantime, the Ohio River Basin water quality trading program is moving forward on pilot trades and an agency responsible for flood control in Louisiana is suing over 100 oil and gas companies for coastal land degradation in a groundbreaking new lawsuit.  

Tierra Resources’ new carbon methodology could help close the financing gap for wetlands restorations projects on the Louisiana Gulf Coast, offering an extra push for private landowners. Entergy, the major utility in the region, sees more than one reason to be involved.

One of the agencies responsible for flood control in the US state of Louisiana is suing more than 100 oil and gas companies for damages caused by degraded coastal lands. Even if the suit fails, it could push the concept of ecosystem services into the mainstream.

Sissel Waage of BSR (Business of Social Responsibility) discusses reasons why ecosystem services thinking is on the rise as the number of governments investing in ecosystem services and companies incorporating their environmental impacts into existing business models continue to grow.

The likely winners of Australia's upcoming election pledge to cap instream buybacks and a Pennsylvania bill could promote unmarketable nutrient credits. Meanwhile, recommendations from Katoomba China have been recently released and a Chinese-language version of Watershed Connect launched.