Restoring Ecosystem Health in a Complex Policy Arena

Human life is characterized by activities that consume various resources and which take place in a variety of different landscapes such as nature parks, water bodies, residential areas, recreation fields and built up industrial areas. A combination of these activities are essential for human health which demonstrates clearly the human dependency on ecosystem health. A healthy ecosystem and attractive landscape belong to the natural resources that provide many goods and services upon which human health in turn depends on. An increasing population and fixed land area suggests that these activities, and as such their sustainability, will be dependent on the manner in which we agree to manage these various interests. Our governance of resource use has been slowly adapting over time as our population and its activities have evolved. Many studies have emphasized how institutional resource regimes with well developed property and use rights can guide people into responsible use of natural resources (e.g. Ostrom 1990). The resulting governance regimes attempting to better manage these resources have developed in different manners in different areas of the world. Often these regimes are not primarily property and use rights based, but in fact stemming from the various policies that are connected to the interests involved and have thus a multiple and complex character. Characterizing such (inter-)regimes in terms of which aspects improve their ability to provide for more sustainable resource use and consequently healthy ecosystems and attractive living environments is an important step for further improvements. The central question that this chapter seeks to answer is: to what extent do certain regime characteristics impact strategies used in renaturation processes of natural water resources? In light of the context of this book, the successful restoration of stream health provides more sustainable methods of flood protection, water quality management and reducing conflict between the activities of the different stakeholders. It is expected that impending impacts of climate change will only further increase the difficulty (and importance) experienced in the factors.