Implementing Integrated River Basin Management in China

Abstract

ABSTRACT. This paper examines the role of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature China as policy entrepreneur in China. It illustrates the ways in which the World Wildlife Fund for Nature is active in promoting integrated river basin management in the Yangtze River basin and how the efforts at basin level are matched with the advice of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development task force on integrated river basin management to the national government of China. This article demonstrates that the World Wildlife Fund for Nature uses various strategies of different types to support a transition process towards integrated river basin management. Successful deployment of these strategies for change in environmental policy requires special skills, actions, and attitudes on the part of the policy entrepreneur, especially in China, where the government has a dominant role regarding water management and the position of policy entrepeneurs is delicate.

Policy Entrepreneurs and Change Strategies: Lessons from Sixteen Case Studies of Water Transitions around the Globe

“…In both the Chinese and Indian transitions, support from high political leaders was present and important for creating changes on the workshop floor level (Narain 2009, te Boekhorst et al 2010), but the Chinese institutional structure is more centralized and thus offers greater chance of actual implementation once such support is guaranteed. It should be noted, however, that even under the most favorable conditions, most policy changes remain "partial transitions" in the sense that old and new policies tend to coexist in most countries.…”

“…Successful change agents clearly have an eye for the preferences and desires of other parties and try to meet their demands, winning support for their proposals in the process. For example, WWF managed to gain support for ecosystem restoration projects in China by addressing the economic needs of the local population at the same time (te Boekhorst et al 2010). Coalition building among parties with different value priorities and policy objectives often entails processes of negotiation and compromise, similar to the formation of a coalition government in a multi-party system.…”

“…One of the lessons from the 16 case studies, however, is that even though such radically new policies may have been adopted, they have neither replaced existing policies entirely nor have they been implemented fully. te Boekhorst et al (2010), analyzing the introduction of integrated river basin management (IRBM) in China, conclude that "The introduction and implementation of IRBM as a new paradigm can be regarded as the emergence of resistance to the Chinese hydrological mission and its unintended consequences. However the ongoing execution of large hydro-engineering projects indicates a competition between two paradigms and an outcome that has still to be determined."…”

“…Small-scale pilot projects are often used to demonstrate the feasibility and benefits of their newly proposed approaches. Examples include the Bokartisz coalition of municipalities and pilot sites for floodplain rehabilitation in the Bodrogköz area in Hungary (Werners et al 2010), WWF and wetland restoration in Dongting Lake in China (te Boekhorst et al 2010), and the authors of the Plan Stork and nature development along the Dutch main rivers (Huitema and Meijerink 2009b). Policy entrepreneurs in these cases used the media to communicate the results of such projects, to disseminate their ideas, and to change people's perceptions and mental models (Olsson and Galaz 2009).…”

Spatial Preference Heterogeneity for Integrated River Basin Management: The Case of the Shiyang River Basin, China

“…However, river basin restoration valuation studies based on a limited set of ecological issues, or a sub-basin or single watershed, provide incomplete or inadequate information, especially in the context of IRBM [21,22], and will lead to bias in the WTP estimation [23]. Indeed, including the entire basin in a valuation study fosters public participation in the decision making process which in turn enhances the sustainability and accreditation of the program [24].…”