Water is life; an essential natural resource that shapes regional landscapes and is vital for ecosystem functioning and human well-being. However, growing pressures on its resources from population and economic growth, climate change, pollution, just to name a few, translate to adverse effects on the people and the environment. Additionally, most of the world’s wetlands have been lost to development yet quite a number of people still lack access to clean water and thousands perish daily for lack of it.
Ensuring that the world’s food needs are met by 2050 will take a doubling of global food production and a radical rethink of global water-management strategies and policies. Conservation and sustainable use of water can be managed in three ways: collecting run-off; improving the infiltration of rain in soils; and managing land, water and crops across watersheds to increase water storage in soils, wetlands and the water table. The EverGreen Agriculture principles fit perfectly into this strategy as trees shade the soil, reducing the soil temperature and cutting the amount of water that would evaporate into the air.