FISA and WWF launch unique Clean Water Alliance

FISA, the International Rowing Federation (World Rowing) and WWF have announced their strategic alliance for the promotion of Clean Water.

The two organisations have agreed to use this alliance to promote Clean Water and to educate rowers and those who follow the sport, about its importance to the global environment. Efforts will be made to establish new best practices in sustainable sports event management and to make environmental impact a more significant criterion in the event-bidding process, particularly in respect of the measures organising committees will take to ensure that rowing events do not have a negative impact on the water courses.

The partnership is an important new alliance for WWF which engages in strategic and innovative partnerships in order to help organisations reduce their ecological footprint and make a positive contribution to the environment. By working collaboratively with FISA on Clean Water, WWF will be addressing one of its main priorities – that of protecting freshwater ecosystems.

As well, World Rowing seeks to educate and harness the energy of rowers all around the world to take actions that will protect the water on which they row, raise the awareness of other users around them and make themselves available for awareness-building and clean-up projects.

In effect, World Rowing and all rowers will become the ambassadors of WWF’s own Freshwater programme, using all existing global communication platforms to continuously reinforce key WWF Freshwater messages.

Added to these platforms are World Rowing’s major global events, which will also be used to communicate key Freshwater messages. In 2011, these events will take place in Munich and Hamburg, Germany, Lucerne, Switzerland, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Windsor, Great Britain, Bled, Slovenia and Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

Speaking on behalf of World Rowing Denis Oswald, President said “Rowers have an intimate and intense relationship with water. Naturally, they are interested in ensuring that the water bodies on which they row are protected and maintained, not just for their own use, but for the many other groups and communities who also rely upon it. We are convinced that this strategic alliance with WWF International is the most effective way that we can help raise global awareness for the need to preserve this most precious resource.”

Stuart Orr, Manager, Global Freshwater Programme, WWF International said “The rivers and the lakes where competitions are held are an integral part of a much larger, often threatened, ecosystem. To be able to work in an innovative way with FISA allows us to be able to reach new key audiences who have a direct link with water, and thus help us to deliver on our conservation goals.”
 

About  WWF:

WWF is one of the world’s largest and most respected independent nature conservation organizations, with close to 5 million supporters and a network active in more than 100 countries on five continents. Since its creation in 1961, it has maintained a constant record of success. Today, WWF runs about 1300 projects at any one time and employs more than 5400 people worldwide. WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature.
WWF is working to protect freshwater ecosystems and improve water access, efficiency, and allocation for people and the environment – an essential component of saving most of WWF’s priority places and species and reducing the impact of humanity’s water footprint.

For more information, please see www.panda.org/freshwater
WWF contact: Ian Morrison, WWF International imorrison@wwfint.org