Exploring selected issues of governance in the grand river watershed

Abstract

The Grand River watershed, like other regional ecosystems, is overlain by a complex set of political bodies, administrative agencies, and private sector organizations which collectively constitute the organizational arrangements for governance. There is no built-in assurance that their collective activities will lead towards ecological sustainability of human uses. In this paper, the changing situation in the Grand River watershed is described, and exploratory studies addressing both theoretical issues, and issues having more immediate and practical implications, are summarized. The insights gained on complex systems and sustainability, common property-like arrangements for environmental stewardship, consensual decision making, devolution of governmental responsibilities, and governance for groundwater may help to develop a collaborative approach for shared management of the Grand River watershed. © 1996 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.