Rio Grande Governance Initiative
The Rio Grande flows 2,000 miles from the Rocky Mountians of Central Colorado, through New Mexico and Texas where it forms the border with Mexico, until it joins the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way, the river and its major tributaries provide water to some 30 million people and their fields, factories, homes and cities. The river is dammed, diverted, dredged, straightened, walled (on the US side), and polluted. In patches it is totally dry, and flows to the sea only intermittantly. There are still fish in the river, but their chemical loads make render them too hazardous for human consumption.
Who's in charge here? How has the river been allowed to deteriorate into an at-risk ecosystem? The short answer is that too many entities have conflicting jurisdictions over the river and no one is in charge of the whole thing. Environmental interests are barely a blip on the river's radar. They have won a number of battles, e.g., for endangered species protection, but have little input in big issues like river straightening and levee building. Indian tribes along the New Mexico portion are becoming more active after the tragic construction of Cochiti Dam 40 years ago, but remain largely absent from river-wide policy debates.
The Rio Grande Governance Initiative seeks to influence the way the Rio Grande is managed through giving voice to the indigenous cultures and diverse stakeholders along the river basin:
"Engaging Traditional Knowledge" Project. Native Puelbo Indian communities along the New Mexico portion of the Rio Grande continue a knowledge tradition extending back thousands of years. Their knowledge about the river and the region can help inform new policies based on principles of respect for Nature and concern for future generations. Through a process of interviews and workshops, this project seeks to articulate Puebloan understandings about the Rio Grande in terms that will be accessible to both the Native communities and to other river stakeholders. Click here for more details.
Promoting a Stakeholder Council. The Water-Culture Institute is working with a coalition of environmental and civic organizations along the Rio Grande Basin to form a stakeholder council that would advise local, state and federal agencies on river management issues. Promoting the active involvement of stakeholders such as environmental groups, businesses, local governments, farm and ranching associations, etc is essential for those diverse interests to be reflected in the river's management. But in addition to these "why" and "who" issues of whose interests should be represented, comes the "what" and "how" issues about the kind of institutional arrangements that can do the job. Click here for a background paper on stakeholder roles in Rio Grande river management.
Resources
1. Organizations Helping the Rio Grande
Note: This is just a very partial list and is limited mostly to the New Mexico stretch of this binational river..
Rio Grande Regional Advisory Committee (RAC) is a recently formed network to link stakeholders along the whole river, and on both sides of the border.
WildEarth Guardians has been actively involved in helping the Rio Grande recover a bit of its ecological health. See their webpage on a Free-Flowing Rio Grande.
Paseo del Norte Watershed Council is one of the few active watershed groups on the main stem of the Rio Grande.
Amigos Bravos seeks to protect the water quality of the Rio Grande as well as other waters of New Mexico
New Mexico Audubon Rio Grande page focuses on federal water policies affecting the river.
2. Rio Grande Documents
Hope for a Living River: A Framework for a Restoration Vision for the Rio Grande, 2003, 3.2MB
Development of an Integrated Management Plan for the Rio Grande Basin: Issues, Opportunities, and Recommended Actions, 2007 (Deborah Hibbard, for the US Army Corps of Engineers, Albuquerque).
Water Management in the Binational Texax/Mexico Rio Grande/Rio Bravo Basin, n.d. (Mary Kelly, Texas Center for Policy Studies, published in the Yale F&ES Bulletin 107.
Rio Grande - Rio Bravo: Designing a Common Future, "State of Knowledge" Conference Minutes, Monterrey, Mexico, June 2001.