An Ecosystem Approach in International Environmental Law Relevant to Transboundary Freshwater Ecosystems

A global water crisis with far-reaching and interconnected impacts threatens the world. Healthy ecosystems are degrading, and access to a sustainable water supply is increasingly inequitable within and between States. The ecosystem approach has emerged as a concept to transform ecosystem management and prioritise equitable participation and outcomes for vulnerable societies but its normative content and international legal status remain unclear. This paper draws from international environmental and human rights law to ask what are the normative elements of an ecosystem approach in the context of international law relevant to transboundary freshwater ecosystems and what is the added value of an ecosystem approach for water law? It then explores the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) environmental instruments as a structurally distinct regime and demonstrates how the regime provides the strongest clarification of an ecosystem approach in international water law. Finally, it demonstrates how the ecosystem approach stimulates mutual supportiveness between different areas of international law.