By Claire Warmenbol of IUCN's Water Programme in Stockholm for World Water Week.
Luis Manuel Maier works for IUCN Member 'Fundacion Vida' in Honduras and is coordinating the IUCN BRIDGE project on the Goascaran, a river forming the border between Honduras and El Salvador.
Much is being said about water governance and collaboration at the Stockholm World Water Week this year, particularly in view of next year's UN International Year on Water Cooperation. But putting it all into practice and making things happen in the field, is what Maier is all about.
BRIDGE stands for Building River Dialogue and Governance; or Maier’s ambition and goal for the Goascaran. Over the past few decades, the Goascaran basin had suffered the consequences of a dysfunctional management system with many willing actors involved, yet unable or lacking the funds to tie their work together with all stakeholders, for the health of the river basin and well-being of people and livelihoods.
This is where the project’s main goal lies and needless to say, Mr Maier is a busy man these days.
Maier started his career in architecture at the University of Los Andes in Colombia, which landed him his first job in Urban Planning at the Ministry of Honduras. He soon realised there was an element missing in his degree — regional planning. A city cannot thrive without a strong resilient surrounding region. This second degree led him to become a Professor in Regional Planning at the University of Honduras and Nicaragua.
Seeing the environmental