The new generation of watershed management

Participatory vs. collaborative watershed management

Along with integration, the participation of grassroots natural resource users has been another essential attribute of good watershed management practice for more than 20 years. It is now clear, however, that beneficiary people or communities are not the only important actors in watershed management. Many current watershed management initiatives involve legally recognized user or interest groups, unions, associations, cooperatives, local administrations, line agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and private companies. As these actors have diverse and sometimes conflicting interests and concerns, the main goal of participatory watershed management has shifted from awareness raising and social mobilization to negotiation and partnership building.

Moreover, other external actors, such as downstream people and institutions, national governments and regional organizations, can be affected by local watershed management decisions. Off-site problems and downstream impacts need therefore to be articulated within watershed management planning and weighted against local needs and priorities. Last but not least, expert opinion cannot be neglected: representatives of the scientific and practitioner communities are legitimate stakeholders in watershed management and should be involved in decisions.

According to review participants, an approach that is extremely bottom-up is not a recipe for success in watershed management. Local stakeholder participation, horizontal linkages between authorities and local organizations, and mutual agreements among local administration, government and the private sector are all needed. To this end, the new generation of watershed management programmes is shifting from a participatory to a collaborative management approach. Differences between these two approaches can be summarized as follows.