18TH WORLD LAKE CONFERENCENOVEMBER 9-11, 2021

GUANAJUATO DECLARATION
The 18th World Lake Conference (WLC18), was convened virtually at the Universityof Guanajuato, Mexico during 9-11 November, 2021, recognizing that freshwater isessential for all life and socioeconomic development on our planet, and that many
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be difficult to achieve without
sustainable supplies of freshwater. With more than 90 percent of all the liquid
freshwater on the surface of our planet being contained in lakes and wetlands, it is
now imperative to acknowledge their extremely important role in the global water
agenda. Because the health of people is directly related to the health of theecosystems upon which they depend, lakes represent windows that inform us of
the state of our global environment, thereby reflecting the way we live andproviding clues as to whether or not our world is sustainable. Since ancient times,
lakes have provided food and multiple other ecosystem services for humans andother life forms that have subsisted on them.
This man-nature relationshipinvolving lakes has transcended over numerous generations, having resulted inunique and ubiquitous interdependencies. Such an interdependency relationshipis consistent with the concept of sustainability, most notable today within the SDGs.
Therefore;• Noting millions of lakes exist on our planet, being present on every continent andproviding a wide range of life-supporting ecosystem services, as well as being
aquatic habitats for a variety of important flora and fauna biodiversity, andrecognizing that lakes receive stresses from all directions, thereby being sensitive
integrators and mirrors of the impacts of human activities in and even outside theirdrainage basins;• Appreciating their unique defining features also give them an important potential
mitigation role in addressing predicted changes in global precipitation patterns
attributable to climate change, including storing scarce water during droughts andexcessive water during floods, therefore also being relevant in regard to theimplementation of decisions arising from the 26th Session of the Conference of theParties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC
COP26);
Recognizing that although United Nations (UN) and other internationalorganizations exist to address rivers, groundwater, large marine ecosystems,regional seas and open oceans, there is no comparable global-scale entity with a
specific focus on lakes and their management challenges, making them a significant
missing link in the global water agenda;•we, the participants at WLC18, make the following recommendations:v In close collaboration at the local, national and international level with researchand educational institutions, NGOs, lake practitioners and stakeholders, andrelevant UN agencies and other international organizations, all governments share1

this serious concern by jointly declaring the need for mainstreaming lakes, wetlands
and other lentic water systems as a key missing component of the global water
agenda and SDGs, with due emphasis in relation to the situation facing the Latin
American region;v The concept of Integrated Lake Basin Management (ILBM) be transfused to deal
with the interlinked water systems comprising lakes, rivers and coastal basins,otherwise referred to as lentic-lotic basins, which have yet to be addressed fully
within the frameworks only of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) andIntegrated River Basin Management (IRBM), as exemplified with the Lerma River –Lake Chapala – Santiago River Basin case in Mexico, and as noted similarly in othercases in Latin America and on other continents;
v Make maximum effort to compile and cross-fertilize existing knowledge andinformation, and that generated in the future, at the local, national and international
levels, including development of a protocol for ILBM research and relevant
knowledge base, as well as establishing training institutions and developing
university curricula, with knowledge and information encompassing the six ILBM
Pillars of Governance with its focus on policies, institutions, stakeholder
participation, technology, information and funding;v Existing centers be strengthened, and new centers be established, to enhancecross-fertilization of knowledge, experience and lessons learned in promoting ILBM
at every level of critical interaction in lake basin management, including transjurisdictional and international transboundary cases, ensuring they also include
consist of disciplinary experts and appropriate representation of the public at large,
including Indigenous Peoples;v Regional lake networks be established within and across continents, with specificrecognition of that need in Latin America, to facilitate synergistic collaboration forsharing knowledge and experiences promoting governance efforts effectively
linking the themes of the SDGs, human water security and ecosystem integrity,
including improving understanding of these and related lake issues;v Recognize that the public at large, including Indigenous Peoples and their multigenerational experiences with lakes and their ecosystem services in Latin America
and elsewhere, are important social actors in fostering integrated lake
management, and ensure that they can actively participate in the management
process, including formulation of policies, strategies and regulations, developmentof plans, and implementation of programs as key elements for achieving successful
management of lakes and their basins;v Recognize also the important role played by the Youth as actors helping to facilitatesustainable development and environmental protection at local, national andinternational levels, ensuring their inclusion by facilitating their interactions in the
sharing of knowledge, in building national and transboundary relationships, and incollaborating on scientific and management pursuits related to achieving andmaintaining healthy global lakes;
v Promote citizen science and build capacity among citizens to facilitate their being
co-creators and managers of guidelines and activities relevant to sustainable
management of lakes and their basins, including the mitigation role played by lakes2

in regard to climate change impacts, their potential role in facilitating economic
recovery in the post COVID-19 phase, and the development and use of meaningfulsocial, economic and environmental indicators;v Facilitate improvement in the technical capacities of decisionmakers andmanagers to address health, pollution and eutrophication challenges facing lakes
and their interlinked systems, as well as the ability of scientists, engineers and othertechnical practitioners to communicate relevant information and data inunderstandable terms for enhancing science-based management decisions andprograms for effective lake basin management; andv Ensure specific and continuing recognition of the crucial roles played by lakes inregard to human health, well-being and economic development, and in addressing
climate change impacts, by increasing their visibility in the global arena with such
efforts as establishment by the United Nations of a World Lake Day or similar
popular recognition activity on a global scale.

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