The Indigenous Water Initiative focuses on themes which support the principles of the Indigenous Peoples' Kyoto Water Declaration and address the urgent priority of adapting to climate change:  (Click on the theme title for details).

1. Indigenous Water Justice.  How can indigenous people protect their customary rights to water?   How are water rights linked to human rights, cultural rights, and the rights of nature? 

2. Indigenous Water Values.  Indigenous societies understand water and water bodies as having spiritual and living attributes.  Water is valued by indigenous societies not only for what the water can provide to humans, but also for what the water is in itself. 

3  Indigenous Water Managment.  Although indigenous peoples are actively managing irrigation systems, springs, and parts of rivers, lakes, etc in many parts of the world, these systems of indigenous knowledge are often overlooked and under-appreciated.  Their systems of knowledge and understandings about water need to enter the discourse of dominant, conventional water management, which is in urgent need of new ideas, including ancient "new" ideas.   At the same time, some new technologies can offer great benefits to indigenous management systems.  

4. Indigneous water visioning and planning. Indigenous water development offers an opportunity to express cultural values, but this requires careful and conscious planning. How can water planning blend traditional styles of decision-making with participatory group processes such as Appreciative Inquiry and Strategic Visioning?

5. Awareness raising.  Development agencies and state/national governments face a steep learning curve in understanding the perspective of indigenous peoples about water development. The Initiative promotes indigenous inputs in a variety of fora where water policies are discussed, such as water conferences, training programs, and professional water journals.