Sustainably managing freshwater resources

Abstract

The papers in this special feature have explored, documented, and demonstrated some of the changing decision-making paradigms for fresh water, providing a number of insights for researchers, practitioners, and decision makers. Some of the key insights include the following: · Values, what they are and who holds them, are an integral part of more collaborative and participatory approaches to freshwater management. · To effectively recognize the role of indigenous people in freshwater management requires building long-term relationships and embedding customary relationships within policy. · Capacity and resourcing is a constraint that often inhibits the ability of communities, indigenous and nonindigenous, to engage or manage freshwater resources effectively. · Community and cultural monitoring can play important roles in augmenting professional monitoring and articulating lesser documented indigenous values. · Partnership is an important aspect for effective freshwater governance and management regimes as well as research practice. · To increase the potential for success of collaborative processes, attention should be paid to the dynamic internal and external conditions to help adjust processes and outreach strategies, and to the nature of participants in the process. · The decisions of the past can create new social-ecological systems that should be acknowledged, considered, and accounted for in future freshwater regimes. · Avoiding the conflation of policy objectives and aligning policy choices with the behaviors that need to change can help decision-making processes and potentially reduce conflict. · Paying attention to the interlinked and iterative phases of cocreation and the ethical dilemmas that arise within each phase will lead to more effective and ethical researchpractice.