Addressing conflict over dams: the inception and establishment of the World Commission on Dams

Christopher Schulz; William M. Adams

doi:10.1007/s12685-022-00308-9

Addressing conflict over dams: the inception and establishment of the World Commission on Dams

Christopher Schulz^*, William M. Adams

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Geography & Sustainable Development

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The World Commission on Dams (WCD) was active between 1998 and 2000. Despite the Commission’s short life, it left a lasting mark on the global debate on large dams, one of the most intractable and conflicted issues in environmental governance. Existing accounts of the Commission focus chiefly on its recommendations and their influence on dam planners, or the novelty of making global environmental policy through multi-stakeholder dialogue, not intergovernmental negotiation. This focus on technicalities, results, and institutional design underplays the Commission’s political significance. It was a bold and innovative attempt to find common ground between promoters and opponents of dams on which a new way of thinking about and planning dams could be built. In this paper, we focus on the emergence of the Commission, in response to the evolving conflict over dams, particularly between the World Bank and its critics. We explore the processes that led to the establishment of the Commission and its role as an attempt to transform conflict into cooperation by bringing together pro- and anti-dam communities.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	289-308
Journal	Water History
Volume	14
Issue number	3
Early online date	1 Nov 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s12685-022-00308-9
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2022

Keywords

Development planning
Dam construction
Environmental movements
IUCN
Large dams
World Bank

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title = "Addressing conflict over dams: the inception and establishment of the World Commission on Dams",

abstract = "The World Commission on Dams (WCD) was active between 1998 and 2000. Despite the Commission{\textquoteright}s short life, it left a lasting mark on the global debate on large dams, one of the most intractable and conflicted issues in environmental governance. Existing accounts of the Commission focus chiefly on its recommendations and their influence on dam planners, or the novelty of making global environmental policy through multi-stakeholder dialogue, not intergovernmental negotiation. This focus on technicalities, results, and institutional design underplays the Commission{\textquoteright}s political significance. It was a bold and innovative attempt to find common ground between promoters and opponents of dams on which a new way of thinking about and planning dams could be built. In this paper, we focus on the emergence of the Commission, in response to the evolving conflict over dams, particularly between the World Bank and its critics. We explore the processes that led to the establishment of the Commission and its role as an attempt to transform conflict into cooperation by bringing together pro- and anti-dam communities.",

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note = "This work was supported by the UK Research and Innovation Economic and Social Research Council [ES/P011373/1] as part of the Global Challenges Research Fund.",

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N2 - The World Commission on Dams (WCD) was active between 1998 and 2000. Despite the Commission’s short life, it left a lasting mark on the global debate on large dams, one of the most intractable and conflicted issues in environmental governance. Existing accounts of the Commission focus chiefly on its recommendations and their influence on dam planners, or the novelty of making global environmental policy through multi-stakeholder dialogue, not intergovernmental negotiation. This focus on technicalities, results, and institutional design underplays the Commission’s political significance. It was a bold and innovative attempt to find common ground between promoters and opponents of dams on which a new way of thinking about and planning dams could be built. In this paper, we focus on the emergence of the Commission, in response to the evolving conflict over dams, particularly between the World Bank and its critics. We explore the processes that led to the establishment of the Commission and its role as an attempt to transform conflict into cooperation by bringing together pro- and anti-dam communities.

AB - The World Commission on Dams (WCD) was active between 1998 and 2000. Despite the Commission’s short life, it left a lasting mark on the global debate on large dams, one of the most intractable and conflicted issues in environmental governance. Existing accounts of the Commission focus chiefly on its recommendations and their influence on dam planners, or the novelty of making global environmental policy through multi-stakeholder dialogue, not intergovernmental negotiation. This focus on technicalities, results, and institutional design underplays the Commission’s political significance. It was a bold and innovative attempt to find common ground between promoters and opponents of dams on which a new way of thinking about and planning dams could be built. In this paper, we focus on the emergence of the Commission, in response to the evolving conflict over dams, particularly between the World Bank and its critics. We explore the processes that led to the establishment of the Commission and its role as an attempt to transform conflict into cooperation by bringing together pro- and anti-dam communities.

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KW - Environmental movements

KW - IUCN

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JO - Water History

JF - Water History

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Addressing conflict over dams: the inception and establishment of the World Commission on Dams

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Keywords

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