Healthy rivers are the lifelines of our planet. Rivers and their
watersheds – and the rich variety of life they sustain – provide
people with water, food, medicines, building materials, land-
replenishing silts, and more. They mitigate floods and droughts,
support forests, recharge groundwater supplies, sustain
fisheries, and provide byways for travel. We cannot do without
the goods and services that aquatic ecosystems provide, and we
cannot replicate them. Protecting our rivers now is the health
insurance policy we all need for a climate-challenged future. A
river is much more than flowing water. Its ever-shifting bed and
banks, the groundwater below, its surrounding forests, marshes
and floodplain are all parts of river life. A river carries not
just water, but just as importantly nutrient-rich sediments and
dissolved minerals that replenish the land. The river’s estuary,
where fresh water mixes with the ocean’s salt, is one of the
most biologically productive parts of the river – and of the
planet. Most of