This paper develops a management perspective and sets out to throw into relief some difficulties inherent in the implementation of the concept of sustainable development. It aims to highlight certain aspects of the problems facing local authorities, on the basis of the analysis of a project bearing on the protection of watercourses and the promotion of fishing tourism in Normandy (France). This research demonstrates that equilibrium between the protection of natural milieus and economic development is dependent on the capacity of public and private stakeholders to establish appropriate methods of governance. The issues of the forms of organisation to be devised, and how they develop over time, are at the heart of the matter.