From revindication to proposition: Capacity building in negociation about water management in perirurban areas. The "teraguas" approach in Sao Paulo, Brazil

The continuous growth of Brazilian cities is resulting in increased pressure on their periurban catchments as in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo. In the southern Guarapiranga catchment the spreading of illegal settlements without sanitation is affecting the quality of one of the water drinking reservoir that supply water for a third of the city population. During the last decade a new water policy based on the integrated water management principles has being implemented to promote more participative management of the resource at catchment level, but the functioning of the discussion bodies are weakened by the limited representation of local communities, high social inequalities and asymmetry of information and decision power. When there is any contact with the public sector, the role of residents' representatives is generally limited to listening to presentations of existing plans or explanations from the water company or the municipality. Paternalism is typical of the government's approach and local residents' associations for their part have little interaction among them and severely compete with one another to get more material advantages from the municipality. In such a context, promoting a real dialogue between these actors on a complex issue is particularly challenging. The aims of this contribution is to present how an adapted companion modeling approach based on participative modeling can help to strengthen negotiation capacity of the local representatives, build a joint representation of the issues of water and land management between actors and contribute to explore new solutions. The methodology is based in a companion modeling approach that was applied in two steps. The first one was for the development of tools integrating the interests and point of views of the different actors. In particular a computerized role playing games named Ter'Aguas was developed and tested with a focus group. This focus group also contributed to test other tools and dialogue supports for mapping land and water issues or actors. Based on these tools, a simplified companion modeling process was developed to be implemented with local stakeholders in order to prepare them for negotiations related to land and water management in the area with other actors. The process was implemented twice : once to prepare some communities in participating in municipal land planning and secondly, on demand of one municipality, to contribute to negotiations about the implementation of a controversial sanitation infrastructure. Both processes were monitored and a ex-post assessment has been implemented. The assessment indicates that the process did contribute to individual and collective learning process about water management issues. It also contributed to change representations about the system as a whole including about the interests of actors, to the rapprochement of the different actors and to explore alternative solutions. The methodology thus offers interesting potentialities for capacity building, empowerment and mobilization of the different actors at local level of catchment management. The difficulty for the institutionalization and dissemination of such an intervention is discussed

Applications of Negotiation Theory to Water Issues

The purpose of the paper is to review the applications of non-cooperative bargaining theory to water related issues – which fall in the category of formal models of negotiation. The ultimate aim is that to, on the one hand, identify the conditions under which agreements are likely to emerge, and their characteristics; and, on the other hand, to support policy makers in devising the “rules of the game” that could help obtain a desired result. Despite the fact that allocation of natural resources, especially of trans-boundary nature, has all the characteristics of a negotiation problem, there are not many applications of formal negotiation theory to the issue. Therefore, this paper first discusses the non-cooperative bargaining models applied to water allocation problems found in the literature. Particular attention will be given to those directly modelling the process of negotiation, although some attempts at finding strategies to maintain the efficient allocation solution will also be illustrated. In addition, this paper will focus on Negotiation Support Systems (NSS), developed to support the process of negotiation. This field of research is still relatively new, however, and NSS have not yet found much use in real life negotiation. The paper will conclude by highlighting the key remaining gaps in the literature.Negotiation theory, Water, Agreeements, Stochasticity, Stakeholders

What futures for Eastern Africa highlands under threat of climate change? Exploring alternative pathways in two traditional farming communities through participatory scenarios.[ID354]

Climate change is amongst the greatest future challenges and threats to food security for millions of people across the African continent. Tackling climate change effects and designing transformative pathways for adaptation requires accounting for climatic and non-climatic conditions and their interactions with the human communities; these interactions are particularly acute in mountain areas due to steep environmental gradients, dense populations and often isolated geography. As a result, the capacity of local stakeholders to anticipate future changes and assess their potential impacts is key for enhancing adaptation and resilience in mountain ecosystems. We applied a participatory scenario development framework to explore adaptation strategies to modelled climate changes by mid-21stcentury in the Taita Hills, Kenya, and a mountain site northwest of Jimma in Ethiopia. Potential socio-economic and consequent land use and cover changes scenarios were developed for three alternative pathways: opportunistic coping strategy (business as usual); and two alternative integrated adaptation scenarios. In the Taita Hills, communities rely mainly on farming and non-timber forest products. Under a business-as-usual scenario, human population and activities were projected to concentrate at high elevation, triggering cascade effects on remnant forest cover, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. Alternative adaptation scenarios envisaged reforestation combined with either improved agricultural practices or with a strong focus on ecosystem restoration and relocation of human activities. In the Jimma area, coffee production is an important income source. However, rising temperatures are expected to disrupt traditional coffee production under a business-as-usual scenario, resulting in the loss of coffee-forest canopies and a reduction in forest-dependent biodiversity. To address this, the envisioned alternative adaptation scenarios included the expansion of either commercial coffee plantations or agroforestry, including traditional coffee farming. In both Taita and Jimma, adaptation pathways trade-offs between provisioning, supporting, and regulating services are expected, as well as between livelihoods and biodiversity conservation

The countryside in urbanized Flanders: towards a flexible definition for a dynamic policy

The countryside, the rural area, the open space, … many definitions are used for rural Flanders. Everyone makes its own interpretation of the countryside, considering it as a place for living, working or recreating. The countryside is more than just a geographical area: it is an aggregate of physical, social, economic and cultural functions, strongly interrelated with each other. According to international and European definitions of rural areas there would be almost no rural area in Flanders. These international definitions are all developed to be used for analysis and policy within their specific context. They are not really applicable to Flanders because of the historical specificity of its spatial structure. Flanders is characterized by a giant urbanization pressure on its countryside while internationally rural depopulation is a point of interest. To date, for every single rural policy initiative – like the implementation of the European Rural Development Policy – Flanders used a specifically adapted definition, based on existing data or previously made delineations. To overcome this oversupply of definitions and delineations, the Flemish government funded a research project to obtain a clear and flexible definition of the Flemish countryside and a dynamic method to support Flemish rural policy aims. First, an analysis of the currently used definitions of the countryside in Flanders was made. It is clear that, depending on the perspective or the policy context, another definition of the countryside comes into view. The comparative study showed that, according to the used criteria, the area percentage of Flanders that is rural, varies between 9 and 93 per cent. Second, dynamic sets of criteria were developed, facilitating a flexible definition of the countryside, according to the policy aims concerned. This research part was focused on 6 policy themes, like ‘construction, maintenance and management of local (transport) infrastructures’ and ‘provision of (minimum) services (education, culture, health care, …)’. For each theme a dynamic set of criteria or indicators was constructed. These indicators make it possible to show where a policy theme manifests itself and/or where policy interventions are possible or needed. In this way every set of criteria makes up a new definition of rural Flanders. This method is dynamic; new data or insights can easily be incorporated and new criteria sets can be developed if other policy aims come into view. The developed method can contribute to a more region-oriented and theme-specific rural policy and funding mechanism

Natural resources governance scales and social learning approaches in peri-urban areas: Contribution experience in Bolivia and Brazil

Competition for water, often associated with a struggle for land, tends to be exacerbated in pen-urban areas because of the conflicting interests of the users, a dynamic land use pattern and specific hydrological functions provided to the city. The variety of stakeholder processes dealing with water often puts local nested approaches fully taking into account local strategies into opposition with basin-scale approaches able to engage in broader issues such as sustainability or global pressure. Assistance to multi-stakeholders' processes using simulation tools such as role playing games were tested in the metropolitan areas of two South American cities: 1) in the periphery of Cochabamba, to facilitate conflict resolution stemming from thé impact of urbanisation on the irrigation infrastructure, and 2) in the peri-urban areas of São Paulo to assist in negotiations on land and water management in a protected catchment. Both interventions designed to broaden the stakeholders' perspectives and facilitate the exchange of the different actors' views of water and land management by participation in role-playing activities. Both acknowledged the need to bridge to the gap between local-level management and regional-level management. This paper discusses the problems encountered by these two interventions to bridge local-level and regional-level land and water management needs. Both experiences underlined how different the issues at stake for the same problem were between local and regional management, thus limiting direct appropriation and integration at regional-level social leaming processes initiated at the local level (or vice-versa). Bridging the gap between these management levels was more complex than simply integrating stakeholders in the discussion process and developing better communication. The need for the development of a specific approach to facilitate interaction mechanisms between the two management levels or to creatively use the tensions between the different levels of management is highlighted. (Résumé d'auteur

Engaging stakeholders in research to address water-energy-food (WEF) nexus challenges

The water–energy–food (WEF) nexus has become a popular, and potentially powerful, frame through which to analyse interactions and interdependencies between these three systems. Though the case for transdisciplinary research in this space has been made, the extent of stakeholder engagement in research remains limited with stakeholders most commonly incorporated in research as end-users. Yet, stakeholders interact with nexus issues in a variety of ways, consequently there is much that collaboration might offer to develop nexus research and enhance its application. This paper outlines four aspects of nexus research and considers the value and potential challenges for transdisciplinary research in each. We focus on assessing and visualising nexus systems; understanding governance and capacity building; the importance of scale; and the implications of future change. The paper then proceeds to describe a novel mixed-method study that deeply integrates stakeholder knowledge with insights from multiple disciplines. We argue that mixed-method research designs—in this case orientated around a number of cases studies—are best suited to understanding and addressing real-world nexus challenges, with their inevitable complex, non-linear system characteristics. Moreover, integrating multiple forms of knowledge in the manner described in this paper enables research to assess the potential for, and processes of, scaling-up innovations in the nexus space, to contribute insights to policy and decision making