WP2: Assessing multi-level activities in water and biodiversity governance. Report

This report constitutes the main deliverable of WorkPackage 2 of GoverNat, "Assessing multilevel activities in water and biodiversity governance", dealing with an assessment of state-ofthe- art European water and biodiversity governance, based on the analysis of a series of casestudies developed by GoverNat fellows. The cases, all dealing with participation in multi-level governance of water and biodiversity in Europe, were analysed with the support of the framework for analysis and evaluation of multi-level participatory processes developed in GoverNat. A free narrative, describing the main aspects of each case was also prepared. A total of 24 cases were analysed. Information for this analysis was gathered either directly by the fellows (e.g. through interviews) or relying on previously published materials. The cases should enable the test of the scientific hypothesis and the fundamental premises of the GoverNat project: that participatory processes are positive elements in new modes of environmental multi-level governance. The cases described showed a high degree of variability in several aspects such as geographical location, territorial scale, characteristics of the resource at stake, typology of problem described, and characteristics of the decision-making process and corresponding outcome. The different backgrounds of GoverNat fellows, which lead them to use different "lenses" when looking at the cases, introduced yet another level of variability in the analysis of the cases. [...]