The new generation of watershed management

Conflict management

The big challenge for collaborative watershed management is strengthening social ownership of watershed management and local capacity to use natural resources in a sustainable manner. By involving social actors and local institutions in this endeavour, watershed management can no longer be seen as a neutral or purely technical exercise; any collaborative watershed programme takes place within the local political arena.

Watershed programmes often intervene in local politics as independent and external regulatory bodies. They are there to assist stakeholders, not to impose their own views or agenda. Stakeholders often have different and conflicting interests, however. Moreover, power imbalances among stakeholders should not be neglected, nor the existence of “voiceless” groups forgotten. Collaborative watershed management is therefore embedded in political and social conflicts.

Awareness raising, capacity building, mediation, provision of incentives and other actions may help to manage some of these conflicts (i.e., by identifying solutions that every stakeholder can live with). Many successful watershed processes have evolved from identifying acceptable solutions to long-standing conflicts rooted in competition among individuals and groups over forests and water resources. Anticipating and managing conflicts are therefore critical ingredients of collaborative watershed management.

Nevertheless, conflicts that are rooted in tenure systems and access rules also need legal and legislative action to define and accommodate contrasting claims and rights. Enabling policies on land and other natural resources are needed to deal with these conflicts.