network of research and training centres and programmes
Issue 27: September-October 2003
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UNU Update | |
| The newsletter of United Nations
University and its network of research and training centres and programmes |
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Issue 27: September-October 2003 |
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UNU stages 'virtual water'
A workshop on Role and Governance Implications of the Virtual Water Trade was UN University 's contribution to the World Water Week in Stockholm August 10-16. World Water Week has become an important annual forum for discussion of global water issues. The "virtual water trade" is the transfer of commodities whose production requires use of substantial amounts of water including important agricultural products such as wheat. Virtual water has major implications in discussions on water scarcity, international water systems and other natural resource management, conflict prevention, food security and international trade policy. The aim of the Stockholm workshop, co-chaired by Prof. Peter Rogers (USA), and Prof. Mikiyasu Nakayama, adviser to UNU Environment and Sustainable Development Programme, was to stimulate further analysis and illustrate the potential of virtual water trade through actual cases from various parts of the world. Increasingly, virtual water is seen as an essential policy element that stabilizes political economies of water-scarce regions and provides a low-stress way to balance the regional water gap and the global water surplus. It is also recognized as a novel way of interpreting the impact and strategies of the worldwide trade in agricultural products.
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