The overall intent of the international lake network Living Lakes is to show ways for the effective conservation of the largest and most important lakes in the world.

The project was started by four partner lakes in four different continents: Lake Constance (Germany, Switzerland, Austria), Mono Lake (California, USA), Lake St. Lucia (South Africa) and Lake Biwa (Japan). At present the network consists of 58 lakes. And the network is growing continuously. At the lakes GNF is cooperating with local NGOs, which share their experience and know-how in the field of lake conservation and management.

In 2001 the project "Living Lakes: Sustainable Management of Wetlands and Shallow Lakes" was launched. The Global Nature Fund received a grant from the EU LIFE-Programme to carry out this wetland rehabilitation project. The project areas are the lagoons La Nava and Boada in Spain, and the Nestos Lakes in north-eastern Greece. The main goal of the project is to develop and implement a management plan with the local communities focusing on the development of the wetlands while benefiting the social and economic needs of the local population.

Highlights of Living Lakes in the year 2008 were the 12th Living Lakes Conference at Trasimeno Lake in Italy and the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Living Lakes network..

An important issue of the project is the involvement of business companies in this lake conservation initiative. The business partners bring their competence into the project in order to create sustainable structures. Unilever is the global partner of the Living Lakes project. Further supporters are Reckitt Benckiser, Daimler, Deutsche Lufthansa, T-Mobile, Kärcher, Ziemann, SIKA and the German Federal Foundation for Environment (DBU).

Media partners of Living Lakes are the environmental magazine natur & kosmos and the publishing house Gruner + Jahr. Product partners in the framework of the EXPO-Presentation of the project are furthermore the medium-scaled enterprises Kopf (Sulz), Rohner Textil (Heerbrugg, CH) and Saeco (Eigeltingen).