Local Environmental Governance in Dviete River Basin: Participatory Water Governance Targeting

The study explores challenges in Latvia’s environmental, particularly water governance system, including limited institutional capacities and resource constraints at all administration levels in parallel with comparatively low levels of stakeholders'/public engagement and collaboration, but exceptionally growing valuable elements of bottom-up participatory management. The EU HORIZON 2020 project BETTER LIFE based case study aims to explore current small river basin governance and practice management situation using a collaborative qualitative research approach (e.g., developing socially engaged research practice elements) within a research-and-development framework. Dviete River Basin (250 km²) case study area possessing Natura 2000 site and known by especial long-term spring flooding, was investigated using case study research methodology for performing environmental governance and communication audit, management monitoring evaluation, also stakeholder mapping and building a stakeholder consultation and collaboration platform, all assessments based on complementary document and data resources studies, site visits with photo documentation, semi-structured interviews with representatives of all main stakeholder groups. Results show that river basin management system has been not built and is very fractured content-wise with limited horizontal and vertical integration, and insufficient management instrumentation, and also, stakeholder groups are still in the self-establishment process and rarely interact or collaborate within and between the groups and with management. However, there are voluntary experienced non-governmental co-management deeds towards nature and also water management to be studied and disseminated. Three bottom-line preconditions for the participatory co-management are recognized: a complex environmental communication system; a set of national and local acknowledgement and support instruments; development of horizontal collaboration instruments group. Keywords: local river basins, participatory governance, communication, upgraded Helix stakeholders’ model.