Abstract
As part of the Water Co-Governance for Sustainable Ecosystems (WaterCoG) project, this research evaluated two river catchment pilots in the United Kingdom (UK) via a series of semi-structured interviews in order to better understand how collaborative governance (co-governance) approaches contribute to water governance. The findings demonstrate that the participatory process used by catchment partnerships (comprising stakeholders working together within a catchment area) to co-produce knowledge has enabled them to jointly identify improvements that are more meaningful than previous actions to those involved or affected by the situation in their catchment. However, there are concerns about the balance of social, economic and environmental interests in decision making, as well as perceived misunderstandings about the situation in the catchment as a whole. All interviewees (comprising stakeholders from across different scales and levels of water governance) recognized benefits from working together. They also observed that progress to deliver measures is impeded by polices and institutions that are not conducive to partnership working. The interviewees recognized and valued the significant capacity and capability of catchment partnership host organization(s) to facilitate and enable the development of the catchment partnership. However, they also raised important questions about the host’s ability to represent the needs and interests of all catchment partnership members. The recommendations emerging from this research suggest ways to improve water co-governance, including considering the feasibility and desirability of the catchment partnership host; reconceptualizing catchment management plans as a process rather than an outcome; conducting and regularly reviewing a stakeholder analysis of catchment partnership members; working more closely together with other types of partnerships and committees; engaging in and providing opportunities for developing skills in systems thinking, social learning and collaborative actions; working with the UK Government to develop place-based policies and plans; and engaging in dialogue with the UK Government and other bodies to review access to funding and other types of resources.
Highlights
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015
Research is conceptualized as a ‘place of knowledge production’ in which value-free facts are produced; policy is conceptualized as a ‘place of knowledge use’, in which the facts are used to inform policy making; and practice is conceptualized as a ‘place of knowledge adoption’
Knowledge is disseminated from science to society, and communication is seen as the means to bridge the gap between these domains [28,29]
Summary
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015. There remains a need for local experiences and better understandings in co-governance processes [2] It is in this wider context that the Water Co-Governance for Sustainable Ecosystems (WaterCoG) project implemented 16 pilots to identify shared challenges and lessons learned. The project demonstrates through the adoption of new participatory, ecosystem servicebased approaches that implementation and integration of water management frameworks can be achieved at the same time as providing additional social, economic and environmental benefits not currently being realized. A synthesis paper by Borowski-Maaser et al [2] provides an overview of the wider projectlevel evaluation from 11 of the 16 pilots, including the background and context for the WaterCoG project, development of the evaluation process, and key messages emerging from it
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