Scottish Experiences: Lessons to learn for stakeholder involvement in River Basin Planning

River Basin Management is a central aspect of the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) (EC, 2000). Active involvement by stakeholders is advocated in order to achieve sustainable river basin management. This paper reports on the process used to develop the Spey Catchment Management Plan (SCMP), using interviews with participants involved in the process of preparing the plan. The research was designed to help those involved learn from this experience and to draw out lessons for future catchment-level planning processes, relating these to the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) in Scotland. The discussion is organised around the substantive, instrumental and normative reasons for engaging in a deliberative inclusive process. Our findings suggest that the development of the SCMP does illustrate the substantive, instrumental and normative benefits of such approaches. However, they also highlight important challenges, such as managing conflicting perspectives; ensuring trust between partners and managing expectations, that have to be considered when planning and managing river basins. Blackstock, K. and Richards, C