Developed under the Amazon Basin Project – Implementation of the Strategic Action Program (SAP), the Toolbox for Water Management in the Amazon is now available in Spanish, Portuguese, English, and Dutch on the Project website. The tool adapts the content of the Global Water Partnership (GWP) global platform IWRM Toolbox to the regional reality, bringing together technical and strategic knowledge to support the integrated and sustainable management of water resources in the Amazon Basin, shared by the eight Member Countries of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO).

The Amazon Toolbox was developed in a participatory manner, based on training aimed at strengthening understanding of the principles and guidelines for water governance and management, supporting the implementation of the SAP and the preparation of National Action Plans (NAPs). Conducted by the Amazon Basin Project for water resource technicians and managers from the eight countries, the activity explored the potential for adapting the IWRM Toolbox to the regional context and presented an integrated view of IWRM—from the Andes to the Atlantic—based on the Source-to-Sea Approach. The participants’ contributions, recorded through questionnaires administered during the training, were essential for identifying common principles, supporting diagnoses, and guiding the development of the Amazon version of the Toolbox.

“The integrative nature and broad knowledge base of the Toolbox are indispensable for professionals, managers, and decision-makers interested in promoting more efficient, sustainable, and collaborative water resources management on a global scale, especially in these times of climate change and growing water challenges,” said Professor Carlos Saito, an expert in environmental education, spatial analysis, and water security, and training coordinator.

Tools for the Amazonian reality

Organized in an intuitive and multilingual manner, the Toolbox presents technical content distributed across three hierarchical levels. The first level contains the four pillars of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM); the second level contains thematic subgroups; and the third level contains 112 tools accompanied by explanatory texts and bibliographic references.

The four pillars of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) are as follows:

• Enabling Environment – brings together tools focused on policies, planning, and legal frameworks. The content ranges from legislation regulating water allocation to the integration of national and river basin plans, promoting a common regulatory basis to ensure that all social actors fulfill their roles in sustainable water management.
• Institutional Arrangements and Participation – focuses on governance structures and social participation. The tools address institutional responsibilities, mechanisms for stakeholder engagement, and coordination and capacity-building strategies to strengthen water governance.
• Management Instruments – brings together methods and techniques that support informed decisions, such as decision support systems, economic instruments, assessment methodologies, and strategies to promote social change and efficiency in water management.
• Financing – presents tools to ensure sustainable sources of resources. The section discusses how to build investment cases and provides financing mechanisms and structures capable of increasing investments in the water sector.

This modular structure allows managers and technical teams to access content ranging from conceptual foundations to solutions applicable to their contexts, encouraging the combined and adapted use of tools according to local realities.

At the service of the SAP

The Toolbox for Water Management in the Amazon was developed as part of the implementation of the Strategic Action Program (SAP) — a regional strategy agreed upon in 2017 by the countries of the Amazon Basin to address common challenges in water resources management. The regional adaptation of the IWRM Toolbox to the Amazon context is particularly aligned with the first of the SAP’s three Strategic Lines of Response — Strengthening Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) — by promoting more integrated, sustainable, and cooperative management of transboundary waters. The other two lines—Institutional Adaptation to Climate Variability and Change and Knowledge Management—are also covered, as the Toolbox provides technical content that strengthens institutional capacity to address climate effects, in addition to organizing and disseminating knowledge tailored to the reality of the Amazon Basin.