Ganga River Restoration as a Pathway for the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF): Insights from India’s Namami Gange Flagship Programme
The Ganga Basin spans 1.08 million km² and sustains 500–520 million people and is among the world’s most densely populated and culturally significant river systems. Yet, decades of industrialization, untreated sewage, hydrological modification including water diversions and agricultural intensification have pushed the river to its most severe drying spell in a millennium. In response, the Government of India launched Namami Gange (since 2014): now a UN World Restoration Flagship.
The case study, prepared by the IUCN-led UN Decade Science Task Force (STF), provides a summary of drivers of restoration success and ten key recommendations that can be used to inspire other restoration projects: 1. Secure and Legislate Ecological Flows; 2. Expand Nature-based Solutions (NbS); 3. Strengthen Groundwater Governance. 4. Address Emerging Contaminants and Modernize STPs. 5. Mainstream Indigenous and Local Knowledge. 6. Scale Community Stewardship and Citizen-led Monitoring. 7. Rejuvenate Tributaries for Basin-wide Impact. 8. Enhance Transparency and Third-party Verification. 9. Strengthen Cross-state Basin Institutions and 10 Integrate Climate Resilience into Basin Planning.
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