Our missions
IAGF-IFGR is an international NGO working for the sustainable future of rivers, founded by Erik Orsenna and CNR in 2015, before the COP 21.
Rivers are vital for the development of life and our societies; the future of humankind depends on their good health. However, they are increasingly affected and threatened by the effects of climate change and human activities.
According to the WWF, nearly 2 billion people directly depend on rivers for their drinking water. However, 80% of the world’s population live in areas where the state of rivers severely threatens access to drinking water. 90% of natural risks are linked to water, 40% of the world’s population will be faced with water shortages from now to 2050. What is more, rivers make up less than 1% of the world’s land surface.
It is therefore urgent to act by treating them as contributors of solutions, sources of life, links, and levers of development. That is why IFGR defends a multidisciplinary, systemic, and balanced vision of the challenges and uses involved.
A collective of multidisciplinary experts, IFGR provides a forum of international dialogue, open to stakeholders, between all the world’s rivers.
We act in 4 STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS
1.MULTIDISCIPLINARY DIALOGUE and SHARING
→ Coordinating a network of international experts, disseminating multidisciplinary knowledge in the service of targeted needs in the territories.
2. ADVOCACY and RECOMMENDATIONS
3. SUPPORTING PROJECTS
→ Strengthening the place of rivers in national and international public policies, encouraging cooperation between stakeholders.
→ Enhancing projects rooted in the territories, through the Label Living with Rivers awarded by our committee of experts and the support of our Endowment Fund.
4. AWARENESS
→ Creating and sharing pedagogic tools
(The Rivers Fresco in 2024, pedagogic kits for schoolchildren, etc.).