What water stewardship can do for corporates

It appears that more has been said than done about meeting South Africa’s water challenges; with the 2030 timeframe for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) looming, the country needs a new urgency on its water stewardship responsibilities.

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• Water Stewardship

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1. Hi,

   Intriguing topic ‘environmental stewardship’.

   I first learned and heard more of this topic from All Appleton who was one of the first (?) to come up with the concept ‘farmers as environmental stewards’. Together with farmers in the New York Catskills he – as the in that time director of NY‘s drinking & waste water – managed to come to a turn-around (80’s previous century) in water management at catchment scale. 

   Jointly with All I prepared a brief presentation (can share if interested) on the key-success factors in his case, and later compared these to two European cases. The key-factors applied remarkably well and can be summarized as:

   Not the use of the right wordings (definitions, semantics) but applying of common sense is the prerequisite for successful application of ecosystem services-based approaches in support of participatory water resources management:

   • Spend ample time in framing and thereafter communicating the need for water resources management to those whose stakes are affected by that management. Take the time to understand from stakeholders how they are affected;

   • Take an entrepreneurial approach: Leave comfort zones, take an adventurous road; Learn together to manage together; Regard the environment not as a cost but as a profit center; and Consider other than only command and control solutions;

   • Spend ample time to define SMART formulated targets that can be explained and thus understood by all the stakeholders involved (realizing that different stakeholders have different targets). Make sure to stick to these targets. Thus it should also be clear what the consequences will be, and for whom, if the targets are not met;

   • Provide facilitative leadership. Here authorities can play a key-role by acting less as ‘controller or regulator’ and more as ‘enabler, persuader, motivator or mediator’.

   Furthermore, be aware of the miss-understandings around the use of economics; the absolute need for ecosystem services-based spatial planning and try to speak the language of the stakeholders.

   Or all can just be summarized to (again) “apply common sense”.

   This case analysis – with All as well as the facilitative leaders in the two European cases can be read in the book chapter “Key-factors for successful application of ecosystem services-based approaches to water resources management: The role of stakeholder participation” (see PS).

   Happy readings & kind regards,

   Jos Brils

   Brils J, Appleton A., van Everdingen N., and Bright D., Key-factors for successful application of ecosystem services-based approaches to water resources management: The role of stakeholder participation., In: Martin-Ortega J, Ferrier RC, Gordon IJ, Khan S (eds)(2015) Water Ecosystem Services - A Global Perspective, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK  138 – 148, doi:10.1017/CBO978131617890