The event will feature a presentation by the main organizer of the series, Ms. Serena Heckler, who is UNESCO’s specialist for the ecological and earth sciences for Latin America and the Caribbean and the webinar series’ primary scientific advisor, Professor Bibiana Bilbao of Simón Bolivar University, Venezuela, who was the lead author of the chapter on wildfires of the 2020 report “Adaptation to Climate Change Risks in Ibero-American Countries — RIOCCADAPT Report”. After this, a roundtable debate will consider the importance and role of the Latin American and Caribbean UNESCO Sites Climate, Risk and Resilience Platform for building capacity for climate action in communities across the region, with particular reference to the webinar series. Roundtable guests include executive secretaries of the UNESCO Man and Biosphere and UNESCO Global Geoparks Programmes, the private sector and the UNESCO Youth Climate Action Network. 

In the face of increasing climate instability, demographic growth and human migration, there is an urgent need to ensure universal access to water and sanitation, reverse the degradation of water resources and stop further decline in biodiversity. Ecohydrology uses the understanding of relationships between hydrological and biological processes at different scales to improve water security, enhance biodiversity and further opportunities for sustainable development, by lessening ecological threats and maximizing greater harmony within catchment processes.

One of the most important challenges of integrated water resource management, as set out in Target 6.5. of the Sustainable Development Goals, is the permanent adaptation of its regulatory and institutional framework to this approach, and mainly to the evolution of scientific and technological knowledge and the changes in the activities carried out in the territory, as reflected in hydrological planning at different scales depending on the country.  This web seminar has the following objectives: To carry out a first conceptual analysis on the most important aspects for revising and updating the regulatory framework in terms of IWRM To review, together with the webinar participants, the starting situation of the different CODIA countries in terms of the harmonisation of legal frameworks with an integrated water resources management approach in the light of ODS 6.5 (main difficulties encountered and good practices).

Erosion and sedimentation processes are increasingly evident in watersheds in Latin America and the Caribbean. These processes contribute to the deterioration of the region's ecology, accelerating the loss of soils, flora and fauna and altering the hydrological patterns of watersheds.