This study illustrates how integrated river basin management can conflict with our increased emphasis on decentralizing water resources decision making. For over a decade, water and environmental decision making in many countries has been shifting from national levels to state/province and local levels. At the same time we have increasingly found that it is critical to consider how individual water resource decisions impact the river basin. We provide detailed examples of this incompatibility dilemma from the United States and Turkey as well as smaller examples from Japan and Macedonia. We argue that new institutional models are required for effective river basin management and that implementation of such models can be evaluated through the use of transaction costs. This study concludes with examples of institutional arrangements that can help bridge the incompatibility gap.

Recommended Citation Gottgens, Johan F.; Perry, James E.; and al, et, "The Paraguay-Paraná Hidrovía: Protecting the Pantanal with Lessons from the Past: Large-scale channelization of the northern Paraguay-Paraná seems to be on hold, but an ongoing multitude of smaller-scale activities may turn the Pantanal into the next example of the “tyranny of small decisions”" (2001). VIMS Articles. 1475. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/vimsarticles/1475

In l996, at the request of then-president of SWS Bill Mitsch, a small group of SWS members formed the ad-hoc Pantanal Committee with the goal of exploring an issue of international importance to wetland science. This issue involved the proposal to develop a 3,440-km long navigational transport artery through the heart of South America and the impact of this waterway ( Hidrovia ) on the Pantantal,140,000 km2 of tropical flood-pulse environment famous for its abundance and diversity of flora and fauna. Committee members met with NGO's, government organisations, scientists, and others knowledgeable about the Pantanal, the Hidrovia, and related matters. We collected scientific information on the issue, and reviewed the proposed project activities in light of our best understanding of wetland hydrology and wetland functions. This article to the SWS membership summarizes the history surrounding this waterway project, a turbulent case of large-scale wetland protection and management ruled by a battle of information and disinformation. The text of this summary, both in English and Portuguese, will be submitted to the different parties involved in the issue of the Hidrovia.