ISSN 0912-7402

No.61 : October 2015

– Save Water, Save Lakes –One Year to the 16th World Lake Conference(Bali, November 7 - 11, 2016)
The 16th World Lake Conference (WLC16：Bali, November 2016)
is approaching in one year. It is estimated that the venue country,
Indonesia, has over 840 major lakes and 735 small lakes. Some arenatural (e.g., crater lakes, coastal dammed lakes, and oxbow lakes)
and others are artificial (e.g., reservoirs for power generation/flood
control/irrigation and ponds in urban areas), varying in theircharacteristics and uses. The Conference will be held in Bali, which israther known as a popular beach resort.
However, there are a few important lakes in this island; the mostnotable one is probably Lake Batur located in the north east region ofBali. This crater lake has a stunning panoramic view and is designatedas one of the 15 Priority Lakes (to learn more, please read thefeatured article on the next page) under the conservation policy by theIndonesian National
Government. This
lake is a good
example of how
deeply the lakes
in this country are
related to livelihood,mostly in agriculture,especially inconnection with
“Subak”, or a
traditional irrigation
system developedin Bali, one of the
major rice producing
districts of Indonesia.
Of course, the
The Jatiluwih Rice Terrace,
Conference should
the UNESCO World Heritage Site

not miss this interesting local feature in its program.
What makes Subak unique is its relation to the religion. In addition
to farming, members of Subak participate and also share expenses inreligious events related to water. Each Subak has its own temple thatcan be seen all around the island. Among which, the prestigious Taman
Ayun and Ulun Danu Batur Temples are the UNESCO World Heritage
sites, registered as the “Cultural Landscape of Bali Province: the Subak
System as a Manifestation of the Tri Hita Karana Philosophy”, together
with rice terraces which have socio-economic value maintained by
Subak and also with Lake Batur which is believed to be a home of thegoddess who generated the headspring to support the Subak system.
The Conference participants should have chances to visit some of these
attractive sites during the WLC16 excursions.
Hosted in such attractive sites, this upcoming World Lake
Conference will be the first one ever held in South East Asia in its 30
year history. Wide range of session and forum topics are expected, fromglobal trends such as climate change and transboundary lake basinissues, to national/regional discussions of Indonesian and South East
Asian lakes. We look forward to meeting our readers in Bali next year.

Taman Ayun Temple, the UNESCO World Heritage Site
(Its canal supplies water to the neighbouring paddy ﬁelds, is rarely seen in other temples.）

For the latest information of WLC16, please visit the Conference website (www.wlc16bali.com).

IN
THIS
ISSUE

■ One Year to the 16th World Lake Conference■ Lakes of the World: The 15 Priority Lakes of Indonesia■ A Letter from Scientific Committee (China)■ A Report from a Former JICA
Training Participant (Venezuela)■ Recent Progress in ILBM Platform Process in Kenya■ Overview of ILEC Activities (April - September 2015)■ “Lakes & Reservoirs” Latest Issues■ Greetings from the New Secretary General■ Board Members Reorganized■ Biwa-Kids Ambassadors Go to Thailand Vol.1■ Hot News: The World Lake Conference Is
Coming Back to Japan1

Lakes of the World

The 15 Priority Lakes of Indonesia
Luki Subehi＊Indonesia is listed among the 12 megadiversity countries,
ranked as the second in the world (the first in Asia) in the numberof freshwater fish species. Moreover, there are 840 lakes, 735
ponds and 162 dams in Indonesia, covering about 21,000 km2
of area, retaining approximately 500 km3 of water volume andproviding both ecological and economic services. Recently, there
is an increasing need to conserve and maintain the ecologicalbalance of inland water system which are subjected to massive
pressure.
Upon the endorsement of Konferensi Nasional Danau
Indonesia II (KNDI II) conducted during October 13-14, 2011 in
Semarang, the Ministry of Environment, Indonesia designated 15
lakes as the national priority to resolve environmental crisis. Thisdecision was to follow up the Bali Agreement on Sustainable
Management of Lakes approved in the previous KNDI I in 2009and unanimously signed up by the nine ministers. It is imperative
to develop a plan of management strategy and responsible uses
based on comprehensive scientific studies, including mitigationof disasters and involvement of community to maintain thesustainability of Indonesian lakes.
The group of 15 lakes includes Toba (North Sumatera),
Maninjau, Singkarak (West Sumatera), Kerinci (Jambi), Rawa
(Banten), Rawapening (Central Java), Batur (Bali), Tempe,
Matano (South Sulawesi), Poso (Central Sulawesi), Tondano(North Sulawesi), Limboto (Gorontalo), Sentarum (West
Kalimantan), Cascade Mahakam – Semayang, Melintang,
Jempang (East Kalimantan), and Sentan (Papua). Assessment
criteria of the designated priority lakes are as follows:
1. Lake damage: Level of sedimentation, pollution,
eutrophication, highly reduced quality and quantity of water
2. Lake utilization: Hydropower plant, agriculture, fisheries(aquaculture/floating cage), usable water, religious andculture values, tourism (including lake uniqueness,
accessibility, amenity-infrastructure and society condition)
3. Local government’s and society’s commitment to wisely
manage lakes (master plan, local regulation (perda),
managing committee)

4. Strategic lake: Lakes featuring strategic functions of national
interest
5. Biodiversity (including endemic fish species, aves andvegetation)
6. Carbon urgency (the challenge against global climatechange)The second phase (2015-2019) consideration for priority
lakes are : Diatas, Dibawah (West Sumatera), Ranau (South
Sumatera), Dendam Tak Sudah (Bengkulu), Lindu (Centre of
Sulawesi), Towuti, Mahalona (South of Sulawesi), Bratan (Bali),
Paniai (Papua), Laut Tawar, Aneuk Laot (Aceh), Kelimutu (Nusa
Tenggara Timur), Rinjani, Taliwang (Nusa Tenggara Barat) andZamrud (Riau). It is certainly not an easy challenge to reach ourgoals for all priority lakes, but worth making efforts to reachsustainable ecosystem of the lakes in the future.
The Integrated Lake Basin Management (ILBM) is a
useful conceptual framework to support the managment ofIndonesian lakes with its six governance pillars (participation,
institutions, policies, technology, information and finance). In
the hope of fulfilling our common mission, ILEC, the Ministryof Environment and Forestry, Ministry of Public Works andHousing, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) - ResearchCentre for Limnology and Udayana University will organize
the 16th World Lake Conference. It will successfuly be held in
Bali, Indonesia, in November 2016 with the theme of “Lake
Ecosystem Health and Its Resilience: Diversity and the Risks ofExtinction .”Lake Maninjau

Lake Tempe

Lake Limboto＊Senior Researcher, the Research Center for Limnology Indonesian Institute of Sciences E-mail: luki@limnologi.lipi.go.id2

A Letter from Scientiﬁc Committee

Water Blooms in the Three Gorges Reservoir:
Responses of the riverine ecosystem tothe anthropogenic disturbanceZhengyu Hu (China)
Water blooms are a rapid increaseor accumulation in the populationof microscopic pelagic algae in the
freshwater ecosystem. Since pelagic
algae is a broad term, includingorganisms of widely varying sizes,
growth rates and nutrient requirements,t h e r e i s n o o ff i c i a l l y r e c o g n i z e dthreshold level as to what is defined
as a bloom. For some species, algae
can be considered to be blooming atconcentrations reaching millions ofcells per milliliter, while others form
blooms of tens of thousands of cells
per liter. Typically, only one or a small
number of algal species are involved,
some blooms may be recognized bydiscoloration of the water resulting fromthe high density of pigmented cells.
The photosynthetic pigments in algal
cells determine the color of the bloom,
due to the different predominant algal
species with different type of pigments
contained therein, a wide variety watercolor such as greenish, yellow, brownor red could be seen when the bloom
occurred.
Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) is thebiggest river-type deep reservoir in theworld. After the TGR’s impoundment,
more than 170 tributaries became thetypical bay in its mid-downstream,
where water blooms occurred frequently

in spring and summer annually. The
backwater area was the sensitive area
for water bloom and different type ofwater bloom could be observed, suchas dinoflagellates bloom, cryptomonas
bloom, diatom bloom, green algal
bloom and cyanobacteria bloom, etal., that so many types of water bloom
could be observed in the TGR is very
amazing and complex. Information on
occurring mechanisms of water blooms
in the new reservoir (TGR) is very
important to forecast and prevent water
bloom. After 12 year’s investigation,some valuable data was obtained andwe found the following spatio-temporal
pattern. First, a distinct spatial
heterogeneity was the characteristics of
the water bloom distribution. Althoughwater bloom occurred in the backwater
area, due to many typical bays wereformed in one tributary, different
type of water bloom could be seen indifferent bay at the same time, even in
the same tributary. On the other hand,different tributary showed significant
different variation. The spatial featureof water bloom was the consequence ofaccelerated eutrophication process andthe profound changes of hydrodynamics
after the TGR’s impoundment. A
significant seasonal succession of water
bloom was observed, dinoflagellates

Dinoﬂagellates bloom

bloom andcryptomonas
bloom wereappeared inspring, diatom
bloom wasobserved in
the late springand early
summer, green algal bloom occurred in
the early summer, cyanobacteria bloom
was founded in summer and the early
autumn. Temperature and light intensity
was the driving force in the successionof water blooms in TGR.
Before the impoundment of TGR,
there was no water bloom could befound in the upper of the Yangtze
River. After impoundment, water
blooms occurred frequently. Dam andreservoir changed the upper of the
Yangtze River markedly. So far, themajor conclusion is that water bloom isthe response of freshwater ecosystem
to the anthropogenic disturbance. The
disturbance here could be divided into
two parts; physical disturbance andchemical disturbance. The type of water
body and hydrological characteristics,
especially the hydrodynamics
were changed by the Three Gorges
Dam, which belong to the physicaldisturbance; the nutrient loading
and its distribution pattern was alsochanged and the backwater turned
to be the eutrophication area, which
belongs to the chemical disturbance.
The two disturbances resulted in the
biological variation, then the structureand function of freshwater ecosystem
was changed and water bloom occurred.
Though many studies have been
published, the occurring mechanismsof water blooms in the TGR are
poorly understood. Further studies on
population dynamics and phytoplankton
structure under specific conditions
should screen to illustrate the dynamics
of water bloom in detail. At the sametime, the treatment technology withhigh efficiency and long-term effects
should be developed.
3

A Report from a Former JICA Training Participant
Enrique Pacheco Graf (Venezuela)
the end result, we hope to design, promote
and implement climate change mitigation
and adaptation strategies related to fresh
water ecosystems vulnerability, directed
to policy formulation at the local, regionaland national level.
JICA course he participated has provento be fundamental in the application ofknowledge obtained during the training
phase in Japan. Method, discipline andrespect for the multiple points of viewthat may arise during community based
actions, are without any doubt, the basis
for the much needed human values on
Prof. Enrique Pacheco Graf from the University of thewhich a prosperous country should be founded. Upon his

Andes (Universidad de Los Andes) in Mérida, Venezuela

return from Japan, Prof. Pacheco and his colleague and life

participated in the 2012 JICA-commissioned training course

project partner, Prof. Quiñonez have been focused onon the Environmental Education Focused on Fresh Water

community resilience to climate change based upon fresh

Environment. He is currently working in a team based projectw a t e r e c o s y s t e m s v u l n e r a b i l i t y, m a n a g e m e n t a n drelated to a graduate program in Community Management ofconservation. This local initiative we hope to have the desired

Climate Change which will be the first of its kind inpositive implications at the regional and national scales,

Ve n e z u e l a a n d p o s s i b l y L a t i n A m e r i c a . Wi t h i t , a tfundamental to promote a much needed national policy for

CIDIAT-ULA, based upon his ample experience and strong

appropriate mitigation and adaptation actions. Based upon

community ties, he and Prof. Esneira Quiñonez of the same

this experience, we have developed strong and durable

institution, are working on the design and promotion of acommunity ties, and have been involved in the design andlocal community climate change resilience project based on

development of local environmental education programs andappropriate mitigation actions envisioned for expansion atcommunity networks for climate change wise (efficient +regional and national scale. They have designed andeffective) mitigation and adaptation. This, we may

developed local environmental education for climate changeemphasize, are essential for the project´s sustainability. As a

networks, hoping to promote and strengthen community

result, innovative work on community resilience to climate

awareness of climate change local processes and scenarios inchange has emerged as a possible regional and national

order to influence public opinion towards the urgent necessity

reference to be taken into account in terms of a much needed

for policy formulation and implementation.
Due to the general lack of public awareness of climatechange at the global, regional and local scale, and its possible
implications on sustainable development issues, there is anurgent necessity to strengthen at local and national levels,
knowledge and building capacities in climate change
mitigation and adaptation financing, policy formulation andcommunity resilience. In order to acquire this knowledge andbuild the necessary capacities, we are convinced of the needto share experiences through feedback processes with othercolleagues and community experiences around the world. At
4national policy for appropriate mitigation and adaptation

mitigation and adaptation capacities through the proposed

actions.

environmental education program for climate change

Immediate and future action plans include the design,awareness and policy formulation with respect to appropriate

development and implementation of a local community

mitigation actions. These include low carbon development

climate change resilience projects as the base for a future

strategies and infrastructure, source based GHG inventories

regional and national level programs envisioned to promoteand fresh water ecosystems vulnerability to climate change.

Recent Progressin ILBM Platform Process in Kenya
ILEC, supported by its African Scientific Committee

Nakuru County Government. The meeting was attended by

Members and Research Center for Sustainability, Shiga

representatives from major Kenyan lakes, including Naivasha,

University, Japan, undertook a project known as “AFSAN” toBaringo, Bororia, and Turkana as well as AFSAN-target lakes,

improve access to water and sanitation in some East African

Nakuru and Victoria. Participants shared management issues

lakes in 2009-2011. The project was financially supported byand challenges of these lakes. Through the discussion, ILEC

the Ministry of the Environment, Japan. The AFSAN was

made a point that lakes and reservoirs had to be managed

pursued by promoting the Integrated Lake Basin Management

through a gradual, incremental and long-term process called(ILBM) for Lakes Nakuru, Lake Victoria/Nyanza Bay in

the ILBM Platform Process that can be infused into moreKenya and Lake Chivero in Zimbabwe. In June 2013, ILEC

conventional, government-driven water resources management

organized an international symposium in Yokohama, Japan toapproach like IWRM and IRBM. The ILBM emphasizes thefollow up on the project and discuss the next step in promoting

importance of improving the river-lake basin governance with

the ILBM. In September 2014, on the occasion of the 15th

broad participation at the grass-root level. ILEC also

World Lake Conference (Perugia, Italy), ILEC organized aintroduced the ESSVA (Ecosystem Service Shared Valuethematic session featuring post-AFSAN activities to further

Assessment), or a methodology to be used in the preparatory

promote the ILBM in broader range of Kenyan lakes.

process for evolving this ILBM Platform Process. It is aimed

In March 2015, ILEC organized the Expert Group Meetingin Nakuru City, Kenya in collaboration with the Ministry ofat obtaining the perceptional and factual profiles of ecosystemservice values and risks shared across the basin.

Environment, Water and Natural Resources of Kenya and the

In August 2015, ILEC organized the ILBM-ESSVA

Workshop in Japan to follow up on the discussion from theconcept into the IWRM/IRBM framework. The proposed

previous meeting in Nakuru. The workshop invited

approach will be further refined and applied for the above

representatives from the Kenyan National Government,

three lake basins first, and then their outputs will be shared

Nakuru County Government, and from Lakes Nakuru,

widely at the forthcoming meeting in Kenya scheduled in late

Victoria and Baringo. Together with ILEC experts, they have

November this year for feasible adaptation in other lake basins

successfully refined the ESSVA for use in infusing the ILBM

in Kenya and eventually in other regions of Africa.
5Overview of ILEC Activities (April - September, 2015)
April 12-17 Participation in the 7th World Water Forum (Daegu & Gyeongbuk)【PIC❶】
May 8-13 TWAP Final Technical Meeting at Shiga University and ILEC (Otsu & Kusatsu)
June 3 Delegates from National Hydraulic Research Institute of Malaysia (NAHRIM), headed
by its Director, visit ILEC
28 The Ramsar Biwa-Kids Ambassadors Project: 1st Pre-Workshop (Nagahama)July 1 A JICA partnership program training team from the Vietnam visits ILEC
30 The Ramsar Biwa-Kids Ambassadors Project: 2nd Pre-Workshop (Hikone, Moriyama &
Yasu)

PIC ❶

August 3-7 ILBM-ESSVA Workshop at ILEC【PIC❷】
16-21 WLC16 Consultative Visit to Indonesia (Bali, Jakarta and Yogyakarta)【PIC❸】
22 The Biwa-Kids Ambassadors participate in the Lake Biwa Citizen Conference 2015 (Otsu)
28 Delegates from Hunan Province, China visit ILEC during their JICA training program inJapan
September 7-11 Preparatory visit to the Ramsar Biwa-Kids Ambassadors project sites (Chiang
Mai)
11 A JICA commissioned training program, “Integrated Basin Management for Lake
PIC ❷Environment” kicks off (- Nov. 6)【PIC❹】

PIC ❸

PIC ❹

Scientiﬁc Journal of ILEC
Lakes & Reservoirs: Research and ManagementLatest Issues
Volume 20, Issue 1 (March 2015 )
Page

１
19
33
42
54

Article Title
Detecting land use/land cover changes in the Lake Hayq (Ethiopia) drainage basin, 1957-2007
Landscape integration of North Patagonian mountain lakes: a first approach using characterization of dissolved organic matter
Water-related bird assemblages in an urban pond ‘archipelago’: Winter patterns of bird species occurrence, abundance and richness
New dimensions of reservoir sedimentation: a case of Khodiyar Reservoir, India
Regime shifts observed in Lake Kasumigaura, a large shallow lake in Japan: Analysis of a 40-year limnological record

1st Author
Hassen M. Yesuf.
Patricia E. Garcia.
Maria Paola Di Santo
Pradeep Kumar Majumdar
Takehiko Fukushima

Volume 20, Issue 2 (June 2015 )
Page

69
77
85
101
120
128

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Article Title
Environmental characteristics and phytoplankton productivity of a shallow Ramsar-site floodplain in the western Himalaya

1st Author
Mohammad A. Khan

Intervention of Naraj Barrage: Its effects on sediment inflows into Chilika Lake, India
Stratification and water quality of an abandoned opencast coal pit lake at Raniganj Coalfield Area, West Bengal, India

Siba P. Mishra
Subinoy Mondal

The responses of Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus (Linnaeus, 1758) in Lake Wamala (Uganda) to changing climatic conditions

Natugonza Vianny

Life under ice in the perennial ice-covered Lake Glubokoe in Summer (East Antarctica)
Effects of human activities on benthic macroinvertebrate community composition and water quality in the upper catchment of the
Mara River Basin, Kenya

Andrey N. Sharov
Zipporah Gichana

Greetings from the New Secretary General
Dear readers,
I was appointed as Secretary Generalof ILEC on April 1st, 2015. First of all,
I would like to extend my sincere
appreciation to all our readers who
have been supporting the activities of
ILEC. My first involvement in ILEC
actually dates back to April 1987; ayear after this Foundation wasestablished in 1986. Back then, I was incharge of water quality monitoring andalso in making a lake database at theEnvironmental Division of Shiga
Prefectural Government. My work was
to design a data collecting format andto obtain lake data fromnational/international partners of theGovernment. Almost thirty years havepassed since then, during which period
I served in the evolving field ofenvironmental administration at the

Shiga Prefectural Government andwitnessed ILEC growing andexpanding its activities. For example,
numbers of international training
programs and regional conferenceswere organized in the aim of promoting
the sustainable lake basin management
method. ILEC has gained its global
recognition through such activities
carried out in an attempt to introduce
and apply experiences and know-how,which were accumulated nationally andinternationally, to the world.
Today, the United Nations’ working
group on the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) proposes to “ensure
availability and sustainable
management of water and sanitation forall” as one of the Goals. Globally
speaking, it is highly required toachieve an integrated water resource

management bothin quantity andquality, while inJapan it is rather
important toensure water quality on a high level. I
see that it is one of the Foundation’s
important roles to contribute to theworld in this aspect of the global needs.
In addition to continuously contributing
to developing nations, ILEC also aims
to expand its range of activities byenhancing its support for Japaneseyoung generation and enterprises toglobally extend their activities andservices on lake environmental
conservation, and hopefully to improve
its national name value. I thank youvery much for your continued support
for ILEC.
Shigekazu Ichiki

Board Members Reorganized○ Replacement of Trustee
As of April 1, 2015, Mr. Yasuhiko Hiroi (Director General, Department of Lake Biwa and the Environment, Shiga
Prefectural Government) was appointed as Trustee to succeed Mr. Hiromu Sakai.
○ Board of Directors: The 2nd Phase (Since June 5, 2015 )Director General
Deputy Director
GeneralHironori Hamanaka

Masahisa Nakamura

Akio ImaiToru Shinohara

Yoshihisa Shimizu
Director
Yasuhisa Ishikawa

Kazuhiko Takemoto

Kaori Kubo

Chair, Board of Directors, Institute for Global Environment Strategies (IGES);
Former Vice-Minister for Global Environment, Ministry of the Environment
Professor, Research Center for Sustainability and Environment, Shiga University;
Chair, the ILEC Scientific Committee
Director, Center for Regional Environmental Research, National Institute forEnvironmental Studies
Director General, Lake Biwa Museum
Professor, Research Center for Environmental Quality Management, Kyoto
University
Director, Environmental Policy Division, Shiga Prefectural Government
Director, Institute for Advanced Study of Sustainability, United Nations
University (UNU-IAS)
Professor, Faculty of Education, Shiga University
7

Biwa-Kids Ambassadors
Go to Thailand:
Vol.1 Pre-Workshops
This fiscal year 2015, ILEC is conducting the Ramsar

two pre-workshops held in their home town, Shiga. They

Biwa-Kids Ambassador Project commissioned by the Shiga

experienced a traditional fishing method in Lake Biwa, andPrefectural Government. The project itself was formerly

took several cooking lessons using the lake’s endemic fish.

conducted four times since 2008 by other foundations. In thisOne of the recipes they learned was how to prepare Funa

fifth edition of the project, under its theme; “Learning about

Zushi, a fermented sushi made with Funa fish, which tastes

Freshwater Food Culture through Experiences”, six selected

like blue cheese. They not only enjoyed delightful taste ofAmbassadors (children aged from 10 to 12 reside in Shiga

the food but also discovered the importance of environmental

Prefecture, Japan) will be sent to Chiang Mai, Thailand toconservation and the value of local food culture passed down

exchange their learning experiences with local children there

through generations to generations in the Lake Biwa basins.

and also to participate in the field studies.

The next issue of this newsletter will feature a report from

Prior to the exchange program in Thailand taking place

their Thailand trip.

in this coming November, the Ambassadors participated in

Hot News :The World Lake Conference Is Coming Back to JapanWe are pleased to announce that Ibaraki Prefecture is hosting the 17th World Lake Conference (WLC17) in 2018.
The WLC is coming back to Japan in 17 years after the 9th Conference (BIWAKO 2001).

INTERNATIONAL LAKE ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE FOUNDATION (ILEC)

1091 Oroshimo-cho, Kusatsu-city Shiga 520-001, JAPAN
Tel:+81-77-568-4567 / Fax:+81-77-568-4568 /Website: www.ilec.or.jp / Facebook: www.facebook.com/ilec.english*The latest issue and back issues of this newsletter are also available on our website above.

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