The importance of processes of social learning for transboundary water management - Perspectives from the HaminiCOP project

Integrated management of transboundary river basins poses major challenges to the integration of different administrative, legal, cultural, institutional and economic traditions. The development of a management plan requires that actors involved communicate and cooperate. Integrated models and DSS may be very useful in informing the development and implementation of management plans and new resource management regimes. However, their success depends on the process in which they are embedded. The current paper advocates the importance of stakeholder and public participation for the successful development and implementation of river basin management plans. The HarmoniCOP (Harmonizing COllaborative Planning) started October 2001. Its main objective is to increase the understanding of participatory river basin management in Europe. It aims to generate practically useful information about and improve the scientific base of social learning and the role of IC-tools in river basin management and support the implementation of the public participation provisions of the Water Framework Directive. Social learning is involves learning processes of the different groups about their biophysical environment and about the social interactions. Collective action and the resolution of conflicts require that people recognize their differences and learn to deal with them constructively.