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Wetland Futures Report 2013: The Value of Healthy Wetlands
Working with wetlands: achieving catchment benefits for wetlands
and land managers on Tweed
Professor Chris Spray, University of Dundee and Tweed Forum
The presentation covered five main areas where direct
experiences have given us insights in to the development
and challenges of working with water and wetlands,
particularly at a catchment scale. Chris began by placing
this in context, highlighting what he saw as recent key
changes including:
•
the need to take a catchment approach to river
management that transcends individual state and
regional laws & policies;
•
the need to base decisions on sound science
•
the need to understand catchments as sources –
pathways – receptors, with water flows connecting up
and down stream
•
the realisation of multiple benefits, increasingly
around delivery of ecosystem services to multiple and
different stakeholders
•
the need to involve people with different skills and
knowledge - economists, biologists, planners, land
managers, policy-makers, regulators, governments,
farmers, foresters, anglers;
•
the importance of local communities and the rise of
stakeholder participation
From this, Chris went on to develop five themes arising
from direct experiences of working in partnership
with others on the Tweed which is one of UNESCO’s
international HELP Basins:
1.
The rise of the multi-catchment landscape approach
to wetland conservation and use
Based on work by Chris & others where they reviewed
all the river restoration projects carried out in Scotland
over the past 20 years & the changing drivers for river
restoration;
2.
Big issues, wicked problems and integrating
systems
The recognition that catchment management is not
a ‘simple’ problem, but one with multi-faceted issues
that must involve different and varied stakeholders,
multiple issues, disciplines, scales, perceptions, time
horizons, knowledge systems, etc – and need to
come up with integrated solutions;
3.
Leadership and the role of the ‘trusted
intermediary’
Using
Tweed Forum
as an example, there is a clear
need for a body to ‘operate’ in that space between
government (and their agencies) and individual
land managers (and communities). Tweed Forum,
established some 20 years ago and operating as an
NGO across the Scottish/English Borders, are a prime
example of how such a Participatory Catchment
Organisation can gain trust and thrive. It has been
able to work and deliver across a multiple agenda,
often in areas where other, statutory agencies would
struggle to achieve impact;
4.
The emerging science evidence base
Some of the science evidence for improving
catchment management is not easily accessible,
or indeed there yet. On Tweed, partnerships have
formed to help deliver elements of this - for example
the
Eddleston Water Restoration project
where
detailed investigations are ongoing on habitat
restoration and natural flood risk management
techniques;
5.
Ecosystem services and the new Scottish rural
land use pilots
Taking this to a much larger scale, the Scottish
Government is now funding a pilot for 2 years in the
Scottish Borders to investigate the implementation of
the
Scottish Land Use Strategy
using an Ecosystem
Approach. Along with Scottish Borders Council,
Tweed Forum and University of Dundee are leading
this work.
The River Tweed.
photo: David Ward/HLF
