The increase of population numbers leads to higher pressure on aquatic ressources. Coastal areas are already the most populated regions in the world: around 50 per cent of the worlds population lives in a 100-km wide coastal strip, in 2020 it is expected to be 75 per cent. 

Fish takes second place to crude oil in several developing countries as the key export product and most important source of foreign exchange. The fisheries sector and allied production segments are often the most vital and only source of food and income for millions of people in these countries. Along with aquaculture, they constitute the very basis of subsistence in a large number of developing countries. However, according to FAO estimates, 75 per cent of fish stocks are exhausted or exploited up to the maximum threshold.

Therefore, GIZ promotes the sustainable use of aquatic resources with the aim of securing sustainable livelihoods. The GIZ’s involvement

• is a concrete contribution to poverty reduction and sustainable development,
• should prevent over-fishing and the destruction of aquatic resources, both of which are on the rise,
• will promote the right of all sections of the population to be involved in decision-making so that a coherent policy for resource exploitation can be formulated.

The ProVárzea project in the Amazon (Brazil) is an example of the GIZ’s (former GTZ) work in aquatic resource management. Thanks to the highly successful efforts of the project to involve civil society and the executive power in the sustainable use of natural resources, this project has been selected as a model project in South America for the international Ramsar Conference in September 2005.