The conditions of emergence of cooperation to prevent the risk of diffuse pollution from agriculture: a case study comparison from France

Abstract

Groundwater resources are essential for the supply of drinking water in the European Union but significant uncertainties surround their quality. In this context, our article analyzes the factors that influence the cooperation of key stakeholders to prevent the risk of diffuse pollution from agriculture. We built on the institutional rational choice approach and the social-ecological system framework to design our analytical framework and hypotheses. We applied this analytical framework to two cases of cooperation involving drinking water suppliers and farmers in the management of the risk of non-point source pollution from agriculture in France. Our results show that cooperation emerges when the water resource is important for water suppliers to take on the leadership. Our results also characterize the role played by uncertainties and risk in getting stakeholders involved, and finally, suggest that cooperation depends on the size and predictability of the resource system.

Keywords:

• collaborative environmental governance
• institutional rational choice approach
• social-ecological system framework
• France
• water pollution
• preventive management

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental data

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Notes

1 The Volvic case was studied in the frame of the EU research project PEGASUS (http://pegasus.ieep.eu/). The Val-de-Reuil case was documented in the research project “Cooperation between drinking water suppliers and agricultural stakeholders in France” (2013-2015) funded by the Office National de la Biodiversité (OFB).

2 http://www.life-semeau.eu/

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Office français de la Biodiversité (OFB), formerly the Office National de l’Eau et des Milieux Aquatiques (ONEMA), in the frame of the Irstea-ONEMA 2013-2015 research agreement and by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme PEGASUS under grant agreement No. 633814.