Økosystembasert forvaltning og miljøforsvarlig drift av vannkraftanlegg i et EU-perspektiv

A sequence of key management principles are incorporated in the Norwegian Nature Diversity Act and the Norwegian version of the EU Water Frame-work Directive as complementary regulations to ensure sustainable use of rivers and lakes modified e.g., for hydropower regulations. Relevant knowledge about ecological conditions and possible cumulative impacts from multiple stressors, adaptive management, and pressure-pays principles are essential components in ecosystem-based management. In order to reach these objectives, best available mitigation measures for all rivers and lakes need to be implemented and regularly updated and revised in the river basin management plans, in line with EEA-relevant frameworks and regulations. Updated knowledge about environmental effects and documentation of the ecological mitigation effects from measures are essential. Several Norwegian hydropower schemes have included many emerging best-mitigation measures. We also exemplify, however, that several recent revisions of hydropower licenses lack key measures to meet the expectations for best practise, in particular related to ecological continuum. In most cases we have evaluated, the main focus has normally been on ecological mitigations of downstream impacts from hydropower operation, while upstream impacts, e.g., with lack of ecological flow, seem to be the case in many bypassed rivers.