Stakeholders and Participation

River Basin Management&

IP Field Study Days

2013-14

Reasons for stakeholder participation?

QUALITY INSTRUMENT DEMOCRACY

ADVANTAGES• KNOWLEDGE• FINANCING• MANPOWER• INITIATIVES

ADVANTAGES• UNDERSTANDING• COOPERATION• CREATIVITY• COMMITMENT

ADVANTAGES• TRANSPARANCY• MOBILIZING• NO NIMBY

PRACTICAL REASONSe.g. knowledge of the environment

PRAGMATIC REASONS e.g. support

PRINCIPLES, e.g. democratic rights

Adapted from: Breman, B. et al, Participatie in het Waterbeheer, Alterra, Wageningen, 2008

Key elements of IWRM

• Coordinated process, brings stakeholders together

• Focuses both on economic and social wellfare and equity AND protecting ecosystems

• Uses scientific data & tools to provide a sound base for judgement

• Proper governance; involving participation

Participation in the WFD

Stakeholder• An interested individual,

group or institution that may be affected by decisions or actions pertaining to a specific resource and may be part of decision-making about the resource

Participation• a process in which

stakeholder and public concerns, views and values are incorporated into decision-making (and implementation) of water resource management

• Not a single event; co-management of a resource necessitates ongoing commitment.

Adapted from: Breman, B. et al, Participatie in het Waterbeheer, Alterra, Wageningen, 2008

TOP – DOWN APPROACH

PARTICIPATIVE APPROACH

DECISION

DECISION

Problems identification and planning

Problems identification and planning

Implementation

Implementation

End of project

End of project

Start of project

Start of project

and interest

STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS

A. Stakeholder identification

• Who are the potential beneficiaries?

• Who might be adversely affected?

• Have vulnerable groups who may be impacted been indentified?

Categorization• Water users• Governmental

institutions• Civil society and NGO’s

B. Power – Interest Grid

C. Drawing out Assumptions and Risks, e.g.

• It must be made clear how different groups are represented; how these representatives are selected

• Expectations should be managed, e.g. UK involvement of amateur naturalist in BAP

• Not all stakeholders want to be involved and they may have very different reasons for participating.

Expectations: participation of amateur naturalists in the Biodiversity Action Planning (UK)

From: Towards succesful participation in European biodiversity and water governance – policy brief, GoverNat 2010

D. Levels of participation• Delegated power: stakeholder

has dominant decision-making power

• Partnership: joint setting of agenda and agreement on the process; participatory decision-making

• Consultation: informing and consulting; perhaps responding to plans and proposals

• Information: providing information

Step D: Stakeholder communication worksheet

• http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/worksheets/StakeholderCommunicationsWorksheet.pdf

Factors for successful participation

1. Managing expectations2. Adapting to context3. Interacting with multiple actors4. Involving bottom-up initiatives5. Recognizing and sharing benefits and

costsFrom: Towards succesful participation in European biodiversity and water governance – policy brief, GoverNat 2010

Adapting to context: Alqueva multipurpose water project

From: Towards succesful participation in European biodiversity and water governance – policy brief, GoverNat 2010

Interacting with multiple actorsagro-environmental project in Lleida

source: Towards succesful participation in European biodiversity and water governance – policy brief, GoverNat 2010

Bottom-up initiatives: bird lake in Lempälää, Finland

Source: Towards succesful participation in European biodiversity and water governance – policy brief, GoverNat 2010

Recognizing and sharing benefits and costs. Sado Estuary, Portugal

Protected species:Otters

Economic activity:Fish farmers

Source: Towards succesful participation in European biodiversity and water governance – policy brief, GoverNat 2010

Lessons learnt from earlier projects

• Stakeholder participation, especially in its earlier stages, needs a lot of resources

• Without lobying, women’s representation in the stakeholders fora becomes low

• Large stakeholders dominate and set the agenda

• The needs for rural small-scale stakeholders are not considered in large scale river basin management

Other Challenges to Participation

• Representation• Accountability• Role of experts• Scale• Time-frame• Jurisdictional issues

From: Perkins, P.E., Public participation in watershed management: international practices for inclusivenetss, Physics and Chemistry of the Earth 36 p.204-212, 2011