The seminar organized in July 2003 jointly by GWP-Poland and WWF-Poland “NATURA 2000 – chance or threat for water management in the river valleys” resulted in a letter inviting the Ministry of Environment to undertake a joint project for the solution of these problems. The discussion, whose participants included representatives of the water resources management and nature science communities, showed that reconciling economic and flood safety needs with nature conservation requirements in the Nature 2000 areas is difficult and complex, but possible.
A positive response of the ministry initiated the project named “Establishing water management rules in the river valleys declared as NATURE 2000 sites”. The Steering Committee includes representatives of two departments of the Ministry of Environment (Nature Protection and Water Resources), GWP-Poland and WWF-Poland. All three parties finance work.
The main objective of the project is to facilitate the process of consensus building between nature protection professionals and water managers. To achieve this objective, three small working groups were established for Water Resources, Nature Protection, and Consensus Building.
Work on the project, which was endowed with the patronage of the Secretary of State in the Ministry of the Environment responsible for water management, was executed in two stages. In the first, two independent papers concerning river valleys were prepared—one devoted to nature conservation; and the other, to water resources management. The next stage encompassed discussion and preparation of a joint position concerning the principles which should be in force in the Nature 2000 river valley areas. As could be predicted, work on the first stage was completed quickly and without any great difficulty. The second stage, on the other hand, lasted considerably longer than initially predicted. Agreement on positions required many working group meetings, during which much time was devoted to explanations and discussions concerning terminology; indeed, the key challenge turned out to be finding a common language.