The new generation of watershed management

Micro-macro linkages

Even in programmes that cover large land units, such as river basins or administrative regions, collaborative watershed management focuses on intensive interventions in small geographical areas, often corresponding to sub-watersheds. Major watershed management programmes are “federations” of site-specific micro-interventions within a common institutional, methodological and operational framework.

The rationale for this micro-approach to large-scale programmes is twofold: (1) the complexity and specificity of watershed hydrogeological, ecological and socio-economic processes are best captured at the local level; and (2) implementing intensive watershed management interventions in critical locations, such as upland catchments or areas exposed to human-induced hydrogeological degradation, is more cost-effective than trying to control extended systems, such as river basins.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) has recently compared the potential impacts at the global level of different development scenarios, including collaborative watershed management, which is referred to as the “adapting mosaic” scenario. Compared with other scenarios considered by MEA, the adaptive mosaic is a more cost-effective way of controlling critical environmental variables, such as water availability and quality, soil erosion, genetic resources, pest diffusion, extreme climatic events and cultural adaptation.

However, these mosaics of self-contained, watershed-level efforts embedded in local societies and cultures need policy support, if they are to restore and improve environmental goods and services at the national, regional or global level. Governments need to link decentralization policies to national frameworks that mobilize the central-level inputs required to implement sound territorial watershed governance. Flexible and adaptive national guidelines should define the autonomy of local initiatives and the support they can expect from central government and higher-level institutions. International organizations and donors should make technical expertise and resources available for linking and scaling-up local initiatives.