The natural environment is dependent on water to provide society with many essential benefits or “ecosystem
services” (e.g. drinking water, biodiversity, food production, recreation, carbon sequestration). A number of EU
directives aim to protect and improve the delivery of these services. However, successful implementation and
integration of the different directives at a local level is a major shared challenge in the North Sea Region.
Understanding how this can be achieved is fundamental to delivering long-term sustainable ecosystem-based
management strategies for the North Sea Region and the focus for the WaterCoG project.
The project will demonstrate through the adoption of new participatory, ecosystem service based approaches
that implementation and integration of different water management frameworks can be achieved at the same
time as providing additional social, economic and environmental benefits not currently being realised.
A strong transnational component will identify and incorporate common, transferable elements of different
approaches into an up-scaling toolbox that will extend the impact of the project and build capacity for delivering
improved sustainable management strategies for North Sea Region ecosystems.
The projects’ output aims for a change in working practice that will improve the integration between top-down
implementation of European and national directives and bottom-up, participatory developed solutions for
improving the quality and sustainable management strategies of North Sea Region ecosystems.
The European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD) encourages water managers to implement active stakeholder involvement to achieve sustainable water management. However, the WFD does not describe in detail how member states should operationalize participation. The need for local experience and local understanding of collaborative governance (co-governance) processes remains. The WaterCoG project evaluated 11 local pilot schemes. Building on the participatory, qualitative evaluation of pilot schemes from Sweden, United Kingdom, Denmark, The Netherlands, and Germany, the authors take a closer look at how co-governance can improve water governance, how water managers can make best use of tools and knowledge, and how they can improve process designs. The results reflect how social learning and successful co-governance are linked. Social learning as a shared understanding of complex ecosystem and water-management issues can be supported with active stakeholder involvement and citizen science. As such, in co-governance processes, stakeholders need technical access to data and knowledge and a shared process memory. This enables them to develop a shared understanding and facilitates bringing together competing interests and finding new solutions. Participatory tools became part of successful processes by building trust and knowledge based on commitment. However, proficient process design and facilitation make these tools more effective.
De Europese Kaderrichtlijn Water roept beheerders op stakeholders een actieve rol in het watermanagement te geven, maar geeft geen concrete handvaten om tot participatie te komen. In het Interreg project Water-Co-Governance for Suistainable Ecosystems zijn in 11 pilotgebieden in Zweden, Denemarken, Nederland, Duitsland en het Verenigd Koninkrijk experimenten uitgevoerd om participatie in watermanagement te bevorderen. Het doel van dit project was om te leren over hoe participatie in verschillende landen vormgegeven kan worden en hoe verschillende Europese Lidstaten van elkaar kunnen leren op het gebied van participatie in watermanagement. De Hanzehogeschool Groningen heeft binnen dit project in meerdere pilotgebieden meegeholpen aan stakeholdersparticipatie door de toepassing van tools als Climatecafé en Climatescan. Recent heeftde projectgroep van Water-Co-Governance haar lessen in een wetenschappelijke publicatie gedeeld, in dit artikel willen wij graag enkele van de lessen verder toelichten.
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