Managers, policymakers, non-government organizations and community groups are increasingly relying on stakeholder participation to bolster lake management efforts. The growing portfolio of lake-focused stakeholder engagement cases offers valuable information about the efficacy of alternative stakeholder engagement strategies. While attention has been devoted to inventorying these instances, lesser emphasis has been given to evaluating the effectiveness of different participation and engagement approaches. There is arguably no panacea for involving stakeholders in lake and basin management. Lake management challenges in distinct natural and human systems necessitate diverse approaches for interacting with stakeholders. As calls for stakeholder participation increase and management budget constraints tighten, the urgency of exploring and documenting the effectiveness of alternative approach rises. This paper examines lake-focused stakeholder participation activities targeting individuals and households, summarizes and shares recent findings from research of knowledge–action processes and pro-environment behaviours, and offers encouragement and guidance for lake managers to create opportunities for improving lake-focused stakeholder engagement.
The historical lack of classification and legislative control on lake quality has previously prevented these complex water bodies from being adequately protected until the European Water Framework Directive became operative. Their increasing importance for all their values and the sensitivity of many lakes to climate change, however, has heightened their profile. Their relative importance has recently been lifted further by the development of the ‘ecosystem services’ approach to recognize multiple values. This report discusses initiatives taken to address problems outside the legal frameworks, provides an analysis of the processes involved and outlines where improvements can be made and where the present arrangements are vulnerable. It identifies the need for all ‘players’ to have a common agenda and use a common language to aid consensus building and resource sharing. It also advocates that high-quality communications are the key to community stewardship of lake catchments and education is the foundation for changing the initiatives driven by individual champions to a position where protection of lakes is, through a cultural shift or establishing a new paradigm of community responsibility in protecting vulnerable lakes, wetlands and their catchments.
The State of Wisconsin (USA) has 15 000 natural lakes. Many of these lakes are managed by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources pursuant to their mandate as the State's natural resources conservation agency. This level of management is primarily focused on issuance of hunting and fishing licences, boating licences and administration of relevant State regulations. Supporting this governmental function is a network of stakeholders who are organized under the auspices of various statewide programmes, such as the Citizen Lake Monitoring Network, or formed into local community-based organizations. These organizations include special purpose units of government, principally public inland lake protection and rehabilitation districts, as well as private associations, some of which might be incorporated under Wisconsin law and/or granted federal non-profit status. This article describes the various organizational options open to lake stakeholders and outlines the types of activities in which they engage. Lessons learned through this active programme of stakeholder participation are used to illustrate the value of this range of organizations.
The emergence and behaviour of local institutions are of increasing interest as managers, policy-makers and communities assess the potential for these institutions to supplement conventional resource management approaches. Lake associations are local organizations that address management issues using informal and voluntary strategies and stress stakeholder participation. Insights from the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) Framework are applied to advance our understanding of the capacity of these local institutions to contribute to lake management. The lake associations of Maine, USA, are the focus of our empirical work. A database describing natural and human features of 2602 Maine lakes was assembled to support a probit model of lake association presence/absence. The lake database was combined with a survey-based database to develop ordered probit models of success at managing five issues. Lake association presence was positively correlated with resource characteristics, including prior lake impairment, presence of public boat launches and recreational fisheries, and lower levels of surrounding forest and agricultural land cover; and institutional characteristics, including multiple political jurisdictions and organized territories and participation in collaborative lake monitoring programs. Across multiple issues, lake association management success was positively correlated with the level of attention given to a specific issue. These results offer guidance on how to better integrate the informal approaches of local institutions with more formal, regional government-based management approaches and reveal the need for further research of what issues these stakeholder-engaged institutions are best suited to address.
An ecological survey was carried out for the Iriyawetiya freshwater wetland in Sri Lanka. The goal was to characterize this unique wetland, about which little ecological information was available. The areal extent of the wetland was 87 ha, with a marshy cover of approximately 52 ha. Water samples to assess physico-chemical parameters were collected at monthly intervals for six months from four study sites along the stream length through the wetland. A 1 m × 0.5 m quadrat was used for vegetation sampling at 5 m intervals along a 50-m transect, aligned perpendicular to a reference shore line. Constituent plant species of each quadrat, both floating and attached, were identified and enumerated. Multivariate analysis using PC-ORD4 software (MJM software, Gleneden Beach, Oregon, USA) was performed to identify plant associations. Four distinguishable clusters of plant associations were identified using a TWINSPAN analysis; namely (i) bank side floral community, (ii) dense marginal stand, (iii) graminoid and (iv) reed cyperous communities. The water in bank side floral association had a high biological oxygen demand (BOD). The reed plant community was confined to stream outlet and exhibited high dissolved oxygen (DO) levels. The two stream inlets displayed high nitrate concentrations, whereas the outlet and mid-wetland sampling sites exhibited low nitrate levels. In this study, the DO concentrations increased downstream, while the phosphate, nitrate and BOD concentrations, and turbidity gradually declined towards the outlet, indicating the purifying effect of the wetland. In this preliminary analysis, it was ascertained that the proximity of this wetland to an urban area is propitious, as the wetland could be ecologically engineered to provide water that would need less treatment.
This report summarizes the role and function of river organizations in the southeast region of the State of Wisconsin (USA) by comparing the history of lake and river organization formation within the State and aspects of successful public involvement/engagement as examples in protecting and enhancing water resources in the southeastern region of the State. Review of the history of lake organization vs. river organization formation from years 1895 to 2011 demonstrates that Wisconsin has a long and stable history of stakeholder participation in watershed-based resource management activities. The changes over time also demonstrate that lake association formation became consistent on an annual basis by about the mid-1930s, followed by lake districts (special purpose units of government) in the early 1970s and river organization formation by the mid 1980s. Hence, the emergence of stream-based watershed groups as partners in stream-based watershed protection and management is a relatively new phenomenon statewide, as well as in the southeastern region, especially in the period since the year 1990 when these organizations exhibited the greatest increase in their rate of formation. Comparison of lake organization vs. river organization formation over time also exhibited similarities amongst the timing of formation, rates of development and peaks of formation at the State level that seems to be associated with, or partially explained by, ongoing state programmes and funding. This recent timing of increase in river group popularity in the southeastern region is coupled with an increase in understanding and importance of expanding the focus of management issues, beyond the specific surface water lake or river itself, to the watershed scale. This has set-up an interesting dilemma amongst river and lake organizations, particularly within the Fox (Illinois) River watershed, as they attempt to identify their respective roles and work together to meet stakeholder demands into the future.
The Wisconsin (USA) Lakes Partnership is a coalition of academic, advocacy and regulatory entities focused on ensuring effective conservation of the State's natural and water resources. This report summarizes a successful application of the Partnership concept through a case study describing the process that led to the development and implementation of a River Protection Plan for the Mukwonago River Watershed. In addition to the actions of individual landowners, a planning programme sponsored by special purpose units of government, funded in part by the State of Wisconsin and in part by non-governmental organizations, and conducted by a regional planning authority in partnership with local universities and governmental agencies led to the development of the Mukwonago River Watershed Protection Plan, the contents of which were validated and guided by stakeholders through a Watershed Team and ad hoc Advisory Group. The Watershed Team secured and provided in part the necessary financial support for the conduct of the planning programme, while the Advisory Group identified concerns and validated recommended responses to address the shared issues of concern. The resulting watershed protection plan sets forth a strategy for the maintenance and protection of the high-quality water resources of the Mukwonago River Basin.
This study discusses some fundamental institutional rationales to support the participatory approach of integrated lake basin management (ILBM). Based on five propositions for institutional change embodied within evolutionary economic thinking, an institutional change pathway (ICP) framework is constructed composed of eight institutional factors and four socioeconomic constraints. By merging the ILBM governance themes with the ICP institutional factors and socioeconomic constraints, an ILBM-ICP matrix is developed. The ILBM-ICP matrix indicates ILBM has focused on institutional factors of (i) opportunities, (ii) choices and (iii) incentives, with lesser emphasis on (iv) competition, (v) investment and (vi) payoff. For a more balanced institutional foundation for ILBM, incorporation of the financial mechanism of payments for improving ecosystem services at the watershed scale (PIES-W) forms an effective complement to the ILBM concept. PIES-W features the rationale of coordinating human stakeholders’ conservation services (CS) for improving ecosystem services with human stakeholders’ needs for ES as a basis for survival. This study calls upon the political and scientific communities to merge their visions and coordinate their actions in leading institutional improvement of ILBM so as to contribute to sustainable ecosystem governance.