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Water
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Stakeholder Engagement and Governance Arrangements in Agricultural Catchments
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Stakeholder Engagement and Governance Arrangements in Agricultural Catchments

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water, Agriculture and Aquaculture".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 July 2022) | Viewed by 12773

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Frode Sundnes

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), Oslo, Norway
Interests: political ecology; water governance; participatory research; environmental history; resource conflicts
Dr. Sindre Langaas

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), Oslo, Norway
Interests: Water Governance; River Basin Management; Public and Sector Participation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Public participation and stakeholder involvement are considered key for integrated water governance arrangements and have increasingly become prerequisites for decision-making processes in water management. The European Water Framework Directive is a case in point, where the inclusion of interested parties in decision-making processes is a central tenet of river basin planning. The promotion of stakeholder engagement is also at the core of the OECD water governance principles. Despite the general agreement on the importance of participation, its optimal form and function are still an issue that engages scholars and practitioners.

Much of the focus on public participation and stakeholder involvement has centered upon the involvement of representatives from the agricultural sector, a sector essential for achieving water of good ecological or chemical status in large parts of Europe and elsewhere. Additionally, the governance contexts of such participatory engagement activities are attracting academic attention. In its Horizon 2020 program, the biggest EU Research and Innovation program, the so-called multi-actor approach has been a prerequisite in most research and innovations under the work program targeting the rural sectors. A research and innovation project funded under Horizon 2020 is the “Farm systems management and governance for producing good water quality for drinking water supplies” (FAIRWAY) project. One of its objectives is to identify and further develop innovative governance approaches for a more effective drinking water protection. The Special Issue is a deliverable from within FAIRWAY.

Contributions to this Special Issue of Water should be devoted to the role of actors and stakeholders, and their participation in decision making pertaining to water quality, and the place of participatory processes in water governance. We are particularly interested in contributions that can advance our understanding of stakeholder engagement within the agricultural sector. We foresee paper contributions that analyze different takes on multi-stakeholder and multi-actor arrangements within a multi-level governance context. While welcoming theoretical contributions, we especially hope for submissions that can generate insights into key dimensions of successful (or unsuccessful) engagement processes, especially targeting the rural and agricultural dominated river basins, from the local to the national level.

Dr. Frode Sundnes
Dr. Sindre Langaas
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Stakeholder engagement
  • Stakeholder involvement
  • Multi-actor approaches
  • Water governance
  • Agricultural sector involvement

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 550 KiB  
Article
Agricultural Pollution and Waterways on the Island of Ireland: Towards Effective Policy Solutions
by Adrienne Attorp
Water 2022, 14(4), 528; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14040528 - 10 Feb 2022
Viewed by 2438
Abstract
In the UK, Ireland and Europe generally, much attention has been devoted to understanding how the agri-food sector has leveraged disproportionate focus and support through its influence in the policymaking area. What has received less focus is how power is distributed within the [...] Read more.
In the UK, Ireland and Europe generally, much attention has been devoted to understanding how the agri-food sector has leveraged disproportionate focus and support through its influence in the policymaking area. What has received less focus is how power is distributed within the agriculture sector, i.e., why/how some agricultural industries are more ‘successful’ or receive more focus than others, and what this means for policy. Researchers typically treat ‘farmers’ as a monolith, for example, focusing on the power of the ‘farming lobby’ versus that of other interest groups such as environmentalists. This tells us only part of the picture; power distributions within the agriculture industry itself also have implications for policy. Using empirical qualitative research (interviews, focus groups) conducted on the island of Ireland, this paper shows how some agri-food sectors (e.g., dairy) hold more power than others meaning they can resist important regulation such as water pollution initiatives. This renders such regulation ineffective. Meanwhile, other sectors (e.g., beef and sheep) are left out of the conversation, which compromises potential policy solutions. It argues that for future policies to adequately address the challenge of agriculture-related environmental degradation and support the resilience of the ecosystems upon which food production depends, agri-food system governance must become more equitable and nuanced, allowing for tangible consideration of the challenges that different agriculture sectors face. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Stakeholder Engagement and Governance Arrangements in Agricultural Catchments)
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26 pages, 703 KiB  
Article
The Role of Stakeholder Engagement in Developing New Technologies and Innovation for Nitrogen Reduction in Waters: A Longitudinal Study
by Kenneth Nygaard, Morten Graversgaard, Tommy Dalgaard, Brian H. Jacobsen and Stefan Schaper
Water 2021, 13(22), 3313; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13223313 - 22 Nov 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3412
Abstract
Better nitrogen management, technologies, and regulation are required to reduce nitrogen losses in the aquatic environment. New innovative technologies can support farmers in a more targeted planning of fertilizer application and crop management at the field level to increase the effect of measures [...] Read more.
Better nitrogen management, technologies, and regulation are required to reduce nitrogen losses in the aquatic environment. New innovative technologies can support farmers in a more targeted planning of fertilizer application and crop management at the field level to increase the effect of measures when reducing nitrogen losses. However, if farmers do not perceive the need for such a concept, the demand (market pull) will be minimal, making the implementation of such a technology difficult. The lack of this market pull could, however, be counterbalanced by a market push from research or requirements from public sector stakeholders (regulators). Within this domain, the main objective of this paper was to study technological change over time and identify and understand the crucial stakeholder involvement using the Functions of Innovation Systems Approach. This article shows how stakeholders’ perceptions and participation evolved over a 10-year period. It examines the interplay between technology readiness and the perceived readiness and acceptance by affected stakeholders. We demonstrate how stakeholder engagement was crucial to ensure the development of the technologies by creating marketable options for their future implementation. A key dynamic that emerged in this process was the transition from a research push to a regulator pull. We demonstrate the fact that without the regulatory requirement linked to changes towards more targeting of measures, the technology would not, on its own, be a business case, although it would provide new knowledge, thus representing a gain for society. The specific findings can be used in countries where new technologies need to be developed, and where a link to the regulation can ensure the active use of the new technology and, therefore, make their implementation worthwhile. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Stakeholder Engagement and Governance Arrangements in Agricultural Catchments)
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23 pages, 1860 KiB  
Article
Effectiveness of Voluntary Measures to Reduce Agricultural Impact on Groundwater as a Source for Drinking Water: Lessons Learned from Cases in the Dutch Provinces Overijssel and Noord-Brabant
by Cors van den Brink, Marije Hoogendoorn, Koos Verloop, Alma de Vries and Peter Leendertse
Water 2021, 13(22), 3278; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13223278 - 19 Nov 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2562
Abstract
Agricultural practices cause diffuse water pollution issues, which is a policy concern across the globe. This paper addresses the reduction in agricultural impact on groundwater as source for drinking water with a governance approach based on a mutual gains approach (MGA) using voluntary [...] Read more.
Agricultural practices cause diffuse water pollution issues, which is a policy concern across the globe. This paper addresses the reduction in agricultural impact on groundwater as source for drinking water with a governance approach based on a mutual gains approach (MGA) using voluntary measures only. We performed case studies in Overijssel and in Noord-Brabant, both located in the Netherlands, to study the effectiveness of the governance approach on nutrients and pesticides, respectively. The effectiveness was studied by analyzing the engagement process qualitatively and by analyzing the impact of measures at farm scale as quantitative indicators. For nutrients, the effectiveness is expressed in the N-surplus at farm scale and the realization of groundwater quality objectives in groundwater protection areas (GWPA). For pesticides, the effectiveness is expressed in environmental impact points (EIP) at farm scale and the level of groundwater protection areas (GWPA). The results indicate that the engagement process based on voluntariness creates a platform for meaningful engagement, adds to the economics of the farm and reduces the agricultural impact on groundwater quality. However, the nitrate objectives of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) are not met at the level of GWPAs in Overijssel. Due to the voluntariness of the approach, the participation rate relies on the farmers’ expectation of the costs and benefits of the process, and diminishing economic returns prevent the further improvement of efficient nutrient use. Although an enforceable objective and strict deadline for pesticides is missing, the objective has been met at the level of GWPAs using voluntary measures only in Noord-Brabant. An important driver for this effectiveness is the fact that these results can be obtained without incurring economic losses, which may tie into the high participation rate of farmers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Stakeholder Engagement and Governance Arrangements in Agricultural Catchments)
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20 pages, 689 KiB  
Article
Multi-Actor Platforms in the Water–Agriculture Nexus: Synergies and Long-Term Meaningful Engagement
by Ingrid Nesheim, Frode Sundnes, Caroline Enge, Morten Graversgaard, Cors van den Brink, Luke Farrow, Matjaž Glavan, Birgitte Hansen, Inês A. Leitão, Jenny Rowbottom and Linda Tendler
Water 2021, 13(22), 3204; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13223204 - 12 Nov 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3277
Abstract
Solutions to current complex environmental challenges demand the consultation and involvement of various groups in society. In light of the WFD’s requirements of public participation, this paper presents an analysis of the establishment and development of nine different multi-actor platforms (MAPs) across Europe [...] Read more.
Solutions to current complex environmental challenges demand the consultation and involvement of various groups in society. In light of the WFD’s requirements of public participation, this paper presents an analysis of the establishment and development of nine different multi-actor platforms (MAPs) across Europe set up as arenas for long-term engagements to solve water quality challenges in relation to agriculture. The MAPs represent different histories and legacies of engagement; some are recent initiatives and some are affiliated with previous government-initiated projects, while other MAPs are long-term engagement platforms. A case study approach drawing on insights from the nine engagement processes is used to discuss conditions for enabling long-term multi-actor engagement. The perceived pressure for change and preferred prioritization in complying with mitigating water quality problems vary within and among the MAPs. The results show that governmental and local actors’ concern for water quality improvements and focusing on pressure for change are important for establishing meaningful multi-actor engagement when concerns translate into a clear mandate of the MAP. Furthermore, the degree to which the MAPs have been able to establish relationships and networks with other institutions such as water companies, agricultural and environmental authorities, farmers, and civil society organizations influences possibilities for long-term meaningful engagement. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Stakeholder Engagement and Governance Arrangements in Agricultural Catchments)
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