aspects, to jointly engage government and civil society as protagonists in water resources planning and management. In all three watersheds described in this paper, planning processes aimed to facilitate interactions among organizations and address information requirements and decision-making constraints. Although these processes had provided for social engagement from the start, they were still missing the required technical information to address uncertainty in order to define alternative water management options. The three cases pointed towards a generalization for the Andean region regarding the need for leadership from environmental authorities and for information to support decision making. An innovative example of with technical information and stakeholders’ involvement analysis within participatory processes is the identification of benefit-sharing mechanisms (BSMs). We define BSMs as collective actions that seek fair and equitable agreements or negotiations among watershed stakeholders to satisfy their common interests. Although BSMs have been applied traditionally in the context of transboundary rivers (McIntyre, 2015), they have potential to be applied at the sub-national scale. In fact, BSMs support and improve natural resource conservation practices by among stakeholders both the benefits of and the responsibilities for sustainable water management at the scale of Andean watersheds. Uniting technical aspects with the socio-economic considerations brought up by participatory processes within the definition of BSMs can better prepare basin managers to plan water resources allocation strategies under future uncertainty. In order to investigate the conditions required to define BSMs in the Andes, this study asked the following research questions about the relationships between organizations and the technical information required to design and implement BSMs:
aspects, to jointly engage government and civil society as protagonists in water resources planning and management. In all three watersheds described in this paper, planning processes aimed to facilitate interactions among organizations and address information requirements and decision-making constraints. Although these processes had provided for social engagement from the start, they were still missing the required technical information to address uncertainty in order to define alternative water management options. The three cases pointed towards a generalization for the Andean region regarding the need for leadership from environmental authorities and for information to support decision making. An innovative example of stakeholders’ involvement with technical information and analysis within participatory processes is the identification of benefit-sharing mechanisms (BSMs). We define BSMs as collective actions that seek fair and equitable agreements or negotiations among watershed stakeholders to satisfy their common interests. Although BSMs have been applied traditionally in the context of transboundary rivers (McIntyre, 2015), they have potential to be applied at the sub-national scale. In fact, BSMs support and improve natural resource conservation practices by among stakeholders both the benefits of and the responsibilities for sustainable water management at the scale of Andean watersheds. Uniting technical aspects with the socio-economic considerations brought up by participatory processes within the definition of BSMs can better prepare basin managers to plan water resources allocation strategies under future uncertainty. In order to investigate the conditions required to define BSMs in the Andes, this study asked the following research questions about the relationships between organizations and the technical information required to design and implement BSMs:
WI_14_032_review_copy_v6.docx