Learning outcomes

After going through this Module, you will ...

  • ... understand the importance of engaging diverse societal actors in planning and implementing nature restoration, including the rationale for such engagement.

  • ... be able to apply key concepts such as Nature-based Solutions, mainstreaming, and upscaling in the context of stakeholder engagement and restoration planning.

  • ... be able to identify, prioritise, and map stakeholders using tools such as stakeholder analysis, Value Chain Analysis, and the ladder of participation.

  • ... be able to design inclusive engagement strategies that align stakeholder interests with restoration goals and are informed by real-world case studies.

  • ... be able to navigate policy frameworks and institutional settings to build or adapt partnerships, addressing potential barriers and identifying opportunities to enable restoration.

What this Module is about

Watch the introductory video for Module 2.

Course curriculum

    1. The MERLIN Learning Module on “Stakeholder engagement and governance in freshwater and wetland restoration"

    2. General introduction

    3. Module 2 – Figure overview

    4. Module 2 – Terminology

    1. Sub-Module 2.1 – Overview

    2. What do mainstreaming and upscaling mean?

    3. IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions (NbS)

    4. Types of Nature-based Solutions interventions

    5. Business as usual vs. broader thinking

    6. Importance of NbS in broader stakeholder engagement

    7. Role of restoration managers

    8. Sub-Module 2.1 – Summary

    9. Sub-Module 2.1 – Test your knowledge

    10. Sub-Module 2.1 – Further reading

    1. Sub-Module 2.2 – Overview

    2. Look at the broader mix of stakeholders

    3. People and resources, expect the unexpected

    4. The necessity of engaging non-environmentalist groups

    5. Introduction to the Stakeholder Analysis Tool

    6. Value Chain Analysis I

    7. Value Chain Analysis II

    8. Sub-Module 2.2 – Summary

    9. Sub-Module 2.2 – Test your knowledge

    10. Sub-Module 2.2 – Further reading

    1. Sub-Module 2.3 – Overview

    2. Ladder of participation

    3. How restoration helps the value adding procedure for business

    4. How restoration helps the value adding procedure for business – cases from Germany

    5. Tzipori catchment

    6. Forth catchment

    7. Sub-Module 2.3 – Summary

    8. Sub-Module 2.3 – Test your knowledge

    9. Sub-Module 2.3 – Further reading

    1. Sub-Module 2.4 – Overview

    2. The EU Nature Restoration Law

    3. Why think about multiple policies?

    4. Protected species and temporary nature

    5. Why involve non-environmental policies

    6. MERLIN Case Study 09: Tisza

    7. Introduction to partnership working

    8. Example Forth Rivers Trust and MERLIN Case Study 17 (Charlotte Neary, Forth Rivers Trust)

    9. Sub-Module 2.4 – Summary

    10. Sub-Module 2.4 – Test your knowledge

    11. Sub-Module 2.4 – Further reading

    1. Summary

    2. Other resources – overview

    3. MERLIN webinar – Joshua L. Royte (The Nature Conservancy): Freeing rivers – restoration strategies in the state of Maine & implications for expanding the movement in Europe

    4. MERLIN webinar – Luis Costa (MAVA foundation): Corporate and private funding - Its value for conservation

    5. MERLIN webinar – Kirsty Blackstock (James Hutton Institute): Transforming Freshwater Restoration through Nature-Based Solutions - working with six economic sectors

    6. MERLIN webinar – Chris Spray (Tweed Forum/UNESCO Centre of Water Law, Policy & Science at the University of Dundee): The Eddlestone Water project – Natural Flood Management

    7. MERLIN webinar – Leonard Sandin (Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Oslo): Working with Nature-based solutions in the Nordics – going from words to actions

    8. MERLIN webinar – Mike Vice & Rob Cunningham (The Nature Conservancy): Upscaling Nature-based Solutions: TNC's Nature for Water program and how it can support your project

    9. MERLIN webinar – Ben Delbaere (Delbaere Consulting): Removing barriers: how to engage policymakers In ecological restoration

    10. MERLIN Podcast #06 – Water, climate and farming: making space for stream restoration in Portugal

    11. MERLIN Podcast #08 – Stories from the water’s edge: getting freshwater restoration done in Europe

    12. MERLIN Podcast #09 – Why community matters to freshwater restoration

    13. MERLIN Podcast #11 – Communicating why freshwater restoration is vital

About this course

  • Free
  • 57 lessons
  • 2 hours of video content

And here are your instructors

Module 2 Manager Kerry Waylen

Kerry is a senior social researcher, working on natural resource management at the James Hutton Institute. She builds understanding of how to achieve more 'joined up' approaches to natural resource management - i.e. working holistically and inclusively to consider multiple issues and interests in interconnected systems. She has experience of working on catchment management, and in working with project managers and public sector staff in Scotland, Europe and beyond.

Module 2 Manager Kirsty Blackstock

Kirsty is a senior social researcher, working on connections between land and water with a focus on governance and policy processes. She works at the James Hutton Institute, based in Aberdeen. She has worked on Scottish and European policy design and implementation processes at many levels from working with farmers, to members of policy directorates. Currently she is working in projects focused on transformational change in land use and freshwater restoration.

Module 2 Manager Jianyu Chen

Jianyu is a social science researcher with background of social psychology and environmental geography. Apart from his work in MERLIN at the intersection of Value Chain Analysis, stakeholder engagement, and Nature-based Solutions he also focuses on pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours, circular economy and social simulation.

Anna Bérczi-Siket

Anna is a senior environmental lawyer and sustainability policy advisor, with a demonstrated history of working in the public administration and civil sector, currently working as an international project lead in the Living Rivers Program at WWF in Hungary. She is engaged in environmental educational exchange programs mainly for judges and skilled in international and European relations, public administration, communication, and negotiation. Anna is also experienced in representing leading sustainability large-scale projects.

Miriam Colls

Miriam is a freshwater ecologist from the University of the Basque Country, interested in the relationships between structure and function of stream ecosystems, the linkages of the stream with its catchment, and the effects of natural and man-made disturbances on streams.

Eva Hernandez Herrero

Eva is a conservation expert with extensive experience in freshwater and wetland management. She currently works with Wetlands International, and previously worked with WWF Europe on water and climate policy. Her expertise lies in river restoration, wetland conservation, and integrating ecological knowledge into policy and practice at European and international levels. She is particularly interested in promoting Nature-based Solutions for climate resilience and biodiversity.

Lea Ilgeroth-Hiadzi

Lea is Value-Chain expert and policy consultant at Naturland, a German association of organic producers with a global presence.

Péter Kajner

Péter is an economist and human ecologist. He is the Living Rivers Program Project Manager for Tisza River Area at WWF Hungary Foundation. He is a lecturer of Sustainable Rural Development at the Master Studies of Human Ecology at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE). He has previously worked as a researcher, in several other NGOs and in public administration.

Svenja Karnatz

Svenja works as a biologist and river basin manager for the water association Emschergenossenschaft/Lippeverband. She is particularly interested in the interaction between water management and nature conservation. For example, she creates flowering meadows along watercourses and switches to extensive mowing for maintenance. In addition, she coordinates citizen participation projects and supports the implementation of concepts to increase biodiversity.

Tom Mitschi

Tom is a trained hydraulic engineer at Naturland, a German association of organic producers with a global presence. In this role, he controls and develops Naturland standards to promote the sustainable use of water in agriculture.

Charlotte Neary

Charlotte joined Forth Rivers Trust as a permanent staff member in 2023 to manage the EU Horizon Project MERLIN. She is an experienced river restoration practitioner and conservationist with 24 years of experience working with landowners, stakeholders and volunteers to enhance biodiversity in rivers in the Forth Catchment. Currently Charlotte is managing 5 projects on the River Devon and the Allan Water – funded through public grants and private investments – to achieve a catchment management approach to river restoration.

Tomasz Okruszko

Tomasz is professor at Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW), Poland. His research explores hydrology, wetland ecosystems, and integrated water resources management, with a particular focus on river basin planning and restoration. He has coordinated and contributed to numerous European and international projects on freshwater ecosystems, and is active in advising on water and environmental policy.

Tal Ratner

Tal is the Head of Community and Society Division at the Kishon River and Drainage Authority in Israel. She has extensive experience leading river restoration with communities and brings deep expertise in ecological restoration, environmental leadership, and multi-stakeholder collaboration. Her work focuses on engaging government ministries, public institutions, municipalities, academia, and civil society to promote sustainable watershed management and community-driven environmental initiatives.

Andrea Samu

Andrea is a freshwater expert working for WWF Hungary, based in Budapest. She coordinates projects connected to the Danube. The main topics she is working on is the floodplain restoration with Nature-based Solutions, thus adapting to climate change and extreme weather events. She is working also on cooperation possibilities of different sectors and bringing together stakeholders, landowners and managers.

Leonie Schulz

Leonie is an environmental social scientist, working across human-environment geography and conservation social science. Her research explores people-nature relationships, behaviour change, and stakeholder dynamics, for example in natural and protected areas. She is particularly interested in Nature-based Solutions, ecological restoration, Green Finance, and the social dimensions of sustainability, climate action, and environmental justice.

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