Paper for the conference. INTEGRATED WATER MANAGEMENT OF TRANSBOUNDARY CATCHMENTS: A CONTRIBUTION FROM TRANSCAT March 2004, Venice, Italy

Transcription

1 Margit SÄRE, Gulnara ROLL Peipsi Center for Transboundary Cooperation Aleksandri Tartu, Estonia Tel: ; margit@ctc.ee Paper for the conference INTEGRATED WATER MANAGEMENT OF TRANSBOUNDARY CATCHMENTS: A CONTRIBUTION FROM TRANSCAT March 2004, Venice, Italy Empowerment of Public Participation in Management of Transboundary Waters in Countries in Transition: Lake Peipsi (Estonia-Russia) Case Study Keywords: Transboundary water management in transition countries; new EU external border areas; public participation methods: focus groups, citizen jury; Lake Peipsi (Estonia-Russia) case study Public participation in transboundary water management Last decade has been for decision makers an intensive period for exploring new directions and instruments aimed to increase public participation in environmental matters on the global scale. A rapid growth of interest in public participation has been seen in a wide range of sectors air and water protection, biodiversity, etc. Today there is a great number of examples 1, which prove that public participation strengthens democracy by showing stakeholders that they can have influence over what decisions are made. Public participation creates awareness and ownership of decisions, which is in turn essential for their successful implementation. Public participation is an investment into social structures, institutions and relationships that contributes to sustainable development on the river basin, national and local scales. It is worth to note that public participation in water management in Europe enjoys today a particular attention not only from the side of stakeholders themselves but also from the side of national governments in Europe and European institutions; this occurred with the entrance into force of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) and preparation of the WFD Common Implementation Strategy (CIS). As a part of the CIS, guidelines for public participation in implementation of the WFD were elaborated. A wide group of water officials, experts and stakeholders all over Europe are involved in the debates on public participation in water management. This discussion has created a good momentum for further more detailed discussion on when and how the public, including the stakeholders should be involved in the political process of the water management planning and implementation. At the same time, in this Pan-European discussion on public participation, there was little attention dedicated to issues of public participation in management of transboundary waters and especially in those transboundary water basins, shared by 1 See for example public participation examples in the Global Water Partnership Toolbox at

2 the EU member/accession states with the countries neighbors of the European Union, i.e. located on the external EU borders. This discussion of approaches to public participation in transboundary water management demands more attention on the both scientific and political/administrative levels. There is a need in elaborating guidance on European level on management of transboundary waters, which should also include guidance for participatory approaches in water management. Water management in the transboundary context is much more complex and political rather than water management within one nation state where management measures are usually implemented in a homogeneous socio-economic, cultural, institutional and political context. Management of transboundary waters becomes even more complicated when the transboundary waters are located on the EU external borders, where differences between different sides of water basins in terms of the legal frameworks or specific management practices are becoming great. For example, in the new EU external border regions - between the European Union and Russia, EU and the New Independent States or EU and Balkan countries the legal framework and institutional arrangements for the cooperation is still under development. New EU external border areas are often new emerging or reconstructed borders, as it is in the Estonian Russian case, where the border was re-established only in In these regions institutions, including procedures for communication and cooperation are still in transition and transboundary stakeholder networks are still weak and are not yet institutionalized. In addition, in several international water basins shared by transition countries, differences in the institutions and politics, in social and economic development, are striking. These complexities and uncertainties connected with the transboundary dimension of water management, especially in transboundary water basins on the EU fringes, should be taken into account when designing participatory approaches to management of transboundary waters. This paper presents first results of the testing of specific public participation techniques such as focus groups and citizens juries as a part of the participatory water management planning process in the transboundary Lake Peipsi Basin. The testing exercises were organized within two EU FP5 projects, including MANTRA East ( and partly within the ongoing River Dialogue project ( conducted in a transboundary water basin of Lake Peipsi/Chudskoe shared by Estonia, an EU accession country, and Russia. The paper also formulates recommendations for the involvement of local stakeholders in water management on a transboundary water basin level. Management of Transboundary Waters in Countries in Transition: Lake Peipsi (Estonia-Russia) case study Two thirds of the Estonian-Russian border is covered by the Lake Peipsi/Chudskoe, which is the fourth largest lake and the biggest transboundary lake in Europe. Lake Peipsi is connected with the Baltic Sea, through the Narva River. In May 2004, when Estonia will become a member of the European Union, the lake will be a water body in the EU external border. Thus, environmental issues in this transboundary water region are of major impact for the whole EU. The lake basin s major environmental problems are connected with water eutrophication and reduced fish stocks. Eutrophication, due to significant nutrient loads in Lake Peipsi/Chudskoe, represents a major threat for water quality of the lake.

3 Legal and institutional framework for transboundary water management In the Estonian-Russian interstate relations there are still several unsolved problems, such as a missing state border treaty, disputes on minority issues and economic barriers of Estonian export to Russia. The solution of water management problems, especially at the beginning and in the middle of 1990s, was hampered by a lack of cross-border co-ordination but also by financial constraints, differences in monitoring methodologies as well as problems of communication and language. The main international conventions in Europe regulating transboundary water management and public and stakeholder participation in water management are UN ECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, UN ECE Aarhus Convention and the EU Water Framework Directive. Estonia has adapted its laws and the administrative system to the requirements of the EU and our Water Act was revised to harmonize with the EU Water Framework Directive. According to the EU Water Framework Directive requirements, the Estonian part of Lake Peipsi drainage basin is defined as one river basin. The other half of Lake Peipsi/Chudskoe is located in the Russian Federation. Although Russia is not obliged to implement principles of the Water Framework Directive, the Russian Water Code the main legal act of the Russian federal water legislation is in overall based on the same ecosystem and basin management principles used in the EU Water Framework Directive. At the World Summit for Sustainable Development in 2002, the EU launched a Strategic Partnership on Water with States of Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia where also Russia will implement some of the requirements of the EU Water Policy. (Roll at al 2003). Within EU TACIS projects on transboundary waters shared by Russia with Estonia and Finland, Russian government agencies and research organizations are already involved in pilot activities aimed to implement the WFD requirements in the transboundary water basins. Legal basis of management of transboundary waters in the Lake Peipsi basin started to develop already in the early of 1990s and today there are four main international agreements, regulating use and protection of natural resources in the transboundary context between the two countries in this water basin. In 1997 an intergovernmental Agreement on the Protection and Sustainable Use of Transboundary Water Bodies was signed between the Republic of Estonia and Russian Federation. The agreement was signed in accordance with the UN ECE Convention on Transboundary Waters (1992). It is important that the agreement also established a Joint Commission on Transboundary Waters for coordination of activities on implementation of the agreement. The Estonian-Russian intergovernmental transboundary water commission organizes exchange of monitoring data between countries, agrees on common indicators of quality for water, facilitates cooperation between different agencies and ensures publicity of discussions of questions related to the use and protection of the transboundary waters.

4 Approaches to participatory management of transboundary waters applied in the Lake Peipsi/Chudskoe Basin Studies of theories and practices of public participation in the region showed (Roll at al., 2004) that in the transboundary context public participation has different character depending on a level of management of transboundary waters. At the international level, national agencies set up coordination mechanisms, including signing transboundary water agreements, establishing transboundary water commissions or secretariats that develop on a bi- or multilateral basis joint approaches and actions between cooperating parties on the shared waters. Public and stakeholder involvement on the national and international basin levels usually remain limited to a few large (international) NGOs and well-organized interest groups. In the Lake Peipsi basin, the transboundary water commission is a mechanism for organization of the formal cooperation across the borders between local stakeholders on one hand and the two governments on the other hand. The civil society organizations are also involved in the work of the commissions, such as Peipsi Center for Transboundary Cooperation (ww.ctc.ee), which works already for 10 years to promote sustainable development and cross-border cooperation in the Lake Peipsi basin. The experience has shown that in the situation of a non-formalized or weak intergovernmental cooperation, which was the case between Estonia and Russian during the 1990s, the role of NGOs could be very important. Peipsi CTC was involved in work of a specialized expert group under the intergovernmental water commission, which worked to implement participatory water management approaches in this transboundary water basin. This experience demonstrated that non-governmental actors can play an important role of a mediator in helping to build trust between partners, in bringing together different stakeholder groups across borders. At a sub-national level, the participation of local governments, private sector, nongovernmental organizations, civil society institutions and various stakeholders is necessary to translate these policies and programs into actions and provide feedback. However, studies of practices of public participation on the local level showed that for the local stakeholders is extremely difficult to get a grasp of regional water management issues in transboundary water basins and get involved in implementation of transboundary water policies. To overcome this problem, Peipsi CTC within the EU FP5 projects, Peipsi CTC tested different innovative public participation methods in the Lake Peipsi Basin, including group interviews, focus groups and citizens juries, to bring the voice of local stakeholders to the respective governments and to make sure concerns of local people are incorporated in water management plans on national and transboundary water basins levels. Focus groups determining issues of concern on regional scale On the regional/basin level organization of focus groups showed to be an effective approach that could be used on the water management planning stage to collect opinions of stakeholders about major issues in a river basin that could be an additional source of information for decision-makers in the process of identification of major problems and priorities in managing a river basin. A focus group is a planned discussion among a small group of people on a specific topic. For the participants this methodology offers an excellent possibility to learn from the experience of the other group members, group work enables people to use the ideas of others to express their own opinion more clearly. Another advantages of focus groups over one-on-one interviews is that information obtained is asked on social interaction, and the group

5 setting allows individuals to use the ideas of others as allows to more fully express their own views. In summer 2003, Peipsi CTC conducted 9 focus groups on water management issues with the all major stakeholder group in the Emajõgi river basin (located in the Lake Peipsi Basin): with environmental organizations, schoolchildren, owners of the recreation homes, fishermen, farmers, officials from local authorities, water recreation groups, NGOs and with people from the water tourism companies. The interviews concentrated on understanding and possible influence of different stakeholders on water management issues. Organizing focus groups in a whole transboundary water basin helps to map major water management issues for the basin. Citizens juries public input into developing solutions of water management problems Based the identified water resource management issues and conflicts using literature sources, environmental investigations, etc., and focus groups, there is further a need to develop strategies to address water management issues in a river basin. Application of a citizens juries approach introduced in the Lake Peipsi area with in the River Dialogue project, should to be a good tool on this stage of water management planning. A citizen s jury is a randomly selected panel of citizens, which meets for a couple of days for a careful examination of an issue of public significance in the locality. The idea of a citizens jury is to get a small group of citizens together and present them with a certain question. They hear evidence, question witnesses and then discuss the issues raised amongst them selves and make an informed judgment. The important aspect of this public participation method is that it promotes political dialogue aimed at mutual understanding, which does not mean that people will agree, but rather that they will be motivated to resolve conflicts by argument rather than other means (Huitema 2003). Citizens juries were organized on different sides of the transboundary Lake Peipsi in a synchronized way and using the same methodology. In Estonia citizens jury was organized on a topic Water transport on River Emajõgi in the Alam-Pedja Nature Reserve. What would be the compromise between the interests of environmentalists, entrepreneurs and local inhabitants? On the Russian side, the study was organized about major water management issues on River Velikaya, the main tributary on Russian side of Lake Peipsi. Important methodological aspect in organizing a citizen jury is a random selection of participants rather than voluntary involvement, thus everybody living in the locality has a chance to participate. During the citizens jury participants listened to presentations of witnesses from different sectors from a river port, public authority, environmental NGOs, local businessman on the same issue and at the end of the day jury compiled their recommendations on water transportation issue. This method proved to be very successful. Several witnesses mentioned that this was the first time for them to listen to the opinions of local people, regarding the issues of water transport, and that they were surprised to see the extent of people s awareness. The citizens jury proved very well that also ordinary people are able to discuss complex environmental management issues after presentation and possibilities for give questions. We witnessed that discussion in a pleasant constructive atmosphere, prevent conflicts and, by way of compromises, reach solutions. To make voices of local stakeholders heard on the transboundary basin level, it is planned to organize as a next stage a transboundary citizen jury. However, here

6 several problems arise in connection with high expenses of the event (visa and travel expenses), working language (in the case of interpretation of the whole process, we loose in direct communication). Concluding remarks Management of transboundary waters is complicated as it is faced with the task of successfully solving complicated problems dependent on the specific conditions created by the interaction of different political systems. The neighboring countries in regions in transition often have lots of differences between each other in the institutions, social and economic development; and are in a process of economic and political transition. Experience of different theoretical and practical projects show that transboundary water basins should be managed interactively, i.e. through regular communication and consultation among all major stakeholder groups. On the transboundary river basin management level, only few organized groups of interests and environmental groups are able to participate in the discussion of water management issues with the respective governments and international organizations. However, on this level also involvement of local stakeholders is important. Peipsi CTC gained a valuable experience through testing innovative public participation approaches that can effectively help water managers make voices of these local stakeholders heard also on a transboundary water basin scale. Both focus groups and citizens juries demonstrated to be effective public participation approaches in this respect. This experience is planned to be discussed and applied in other transboundary water basins. Specifically, Peipsi CTC has started cooperation with researchers and water managers in other transboundary water basins shared by countries in transition, for example in Chu - Talas transboundary rivers area shared by Kyrgyzstan and Kasakhstan; River Daugava shared between Latvia, Byelorussia, and Russia, and Lake Ohrid between Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, where the mentioned approaches to promoting public participation could be also applied. It is important to have a balance between working transboundary, nationally and subnationally while elaborating water management measures for a transboundary water basin. Involvement of local stakeholders, such as local authorities, schools, grassroot NGOs, in developing a shared vision and shared water management policies for transboundary water basins is a prerequisite for the long-term sustainable development. This requires taking into use of new innovative methods of public participation. List of references Ehin P, Roll G., Uus, P. (2003). Recommendations for public participation in management of transboundary waters in Europe. Gooch, G. (2002.) Review of Existing Management Structures, Models and Practices for Transboundary Water Management Huitema, D. (2003) Organizing a citizens jury.issues and recommendations for the River Dialogue Project. Amsterdam (

7 Roll, G., Säre, M., Uus, P. (2003) Strategies for public participation in the management of transboundary waters in countries in transition in Proceedings of Conference Sustainable Management of Transboundary Waters in Europe Poland, Roll, G.; Sults, U; Uus, P.; Ehin P.; Andersen, D. H Approaches to public participation on different scales of water management: theory and empirical analysis. In Monitoring Tailor Made IV. Proceedings of the Conference, RIZA, The Netherlands (In print). Säre, M. (2002) Encouraging water oriented civil society in international lake basins in countries in transition, presentation made at European Water Forum, Prague November 9, 2002.