#89: Elbe-Lübeck-Kanal Süd sub-basin

Due to the EU Water Framework Directive, so-called working groups comprised by different

"[A]ny person, group or organisation with an interest or ‘stake’ in an issue, either because they will be affected or because they may have some influence on its outcome. Stakeholders may include other government bodies.” (Ridder et al. 2005).

groups were installed at the sub-basin level. The working group number 22 is overseeing the sub-basin (Elbe-Lübeck-Kanal Süd) since 2002. Members are eight stakeholder representatives of the local water authorities, fishery, agriculture, and nature conservation, among others. The group is chaired by a water board representative, which are associations mainly comprised by landowners in the area. All decisions for water resources management are taken in consensus, receive afterwards funding by the federal state, and are implemented predominantly by the water board. However, decisions addressing agriculture were mainly left out due to the benchmark of implementability for decisions and the reliance on voluntary agreements. The original plan of the federal state was to buy back land adjacent to rivers from the farmers, but the price of land increased drastically during the 2000s because of corn for biofuels, and did therefore not take place.