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consolidated their efforts, forming the Rivers Trusts
movement. Participation of the public beyond the
local site scale of river rehabilitation and restoration
has burgeoned and become the focus of attention
in academic topics and journals ( Aberg and Tapsell,
this volume). It has become an exemplar for
stakeholder engagement and has found its way into
the literature of politics and social science (e.g.
Warner, 2007).
My own involvement with stakeholders began
with two memorable experiences — attending an
early meeting of the River Restoration Project
(RRP) Steering Group for the River Skerne
(Holmes and Janes, this volume), which included
a contribution from the Community Police Officer
on cross-river crime patterns; and participating in
a room-sized board game designed by Kettlewell
School as part of the Upper Wharfedale Project.
This project came as a revelation to a number of
river scientists (notably MacDonald et al. , 2004) by
exposing the synergies and commitment achieved
by working in the broadest possible networks from
the earliest opportunity.
'Rivers of Dreams' (MacDonald et al ., 2004) are
essentially what the Rivers Trusts movement is
working for in England and Wales in partnership
with other organizations and funders. These
funders are often distanced from stakeholders by
virtue of their regulatory role, vested economic
interest or uncertainty about how hydrology,
geomorphology and ecology 'work'. The rate of
growth in numbers, influence, responsibility and
achievements in the Rivers Trusts movement has
been spectacular. However, pertinent questions
raised by outside observers include 'Whose dreams
are built into the river?' and 'Do the Trusts ever
really look beyond the river?' The charitable status
and associated objectives of the Trusts are largely
educational, with a focus on 'the river and its
basin' but also practical ways 'to protect, conserve,
rehabilitate and improve'. Those Trusts with the
latter approach have the most distinguished record
of success. Generally, there is no specific reference
to stakeholders or constituencies or best practices of
involvement but the Tyne Rivers Trust has carried
out considerable analysis of these aspects (Newson,
2010). Perhaps the most acute concern of Rivers
Trusts is not to become the voice of recreational
angling, a popular and influential pastime in
the UK. Angling generates substantial economic
benefits but its participants are often inclined to
pass over action on 'fisheries' (ecosystem health
values)
and
lobby
for
better
'fishing'
(today's
catch).
The EC Water Framework
Directive: triumph or tragedy?
In 1990 a major revolution in the European
Union's approach to environmental management
was emerging. Water policy was the focus of
attention and achieving ecological objectives
the basis of action. Scientific advice to the
EU Council of Ministers recommended, in
uncompromising fashion, that a completely new
set of principles should underpin the consolidation
of fragmented legislation to encourage the
sustainable management of land and water on a
river catchment basis, and that the environmental
quality of water should be based on biological
rather than solely chemical metrics (Moss, 2008).
Those in the vanguard of providing the scientific
advice and expert opinion for river conservation
in 1990 have experienced the development and
implementation of the WFD in rather the way
that parents experience their first newborn baby
- unbounded joy followed by harsh practicalities.
The harsh realities have included the protracted
development of practical survey and classification
methods (Boon et al ., 2010), grappling with
biological uncertainties, and understanding the
practical means of trying to achieve ecological
objectives in the most cost-effective way. As a
matter of necessity, inter-disciplinary international
forums and working groups have, over time, been
able to provide the basis for defining standards and
assessing 'good ecological status', departure from
the natural state and guidance about maintaining
and restoring it (Boon et al ., 2010). In many ways,
implementing the WFD has been characterized by
'adaptive management' (Hamill and Melis, this
volume) - incidentally, another new term that has
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