Rights of rivers in practice: lessons for equitable river governance

Bobby Farnan; Dayoon Kim; Yesica Rodríguez Blásquez; Alison Dyke; Sushmita Mandal; Tania Santos

doi:10.51414/sei2026.028

On the far bank of a river, white, brown and tan buildings are punctuated by a aquamarine-green one, with grey, white and orange ships on the water's edge below, small boats, trees and people.

Rights of rivers in practice: lessons for equitable river governance

SEI brief / This brief is based on a report on implementation of rights of rivers in practice, with lessons from the Turag and Atrato rivers cases.

30 June 2026 / About Innovation

Blue grey clouds stretch to the yellow glow of the setting sun at the horizon, reflected in the river below, with several boats in the foreground and a quay, and small lights indicating houses and boats at the dark treelined bank on the far side.

Case study report on rights of rivers in practice in Bangladesh and Colombia

SEI report / This report examines how the rights of rivers are being implemented in practice through comparative analysis of the Turag and Atrato rivers cases.

29 June 2026 / About Innovation

Coffee drying station with long rows of raised beds covered in yellow and black tarpaulins, leading up to corrugated-roof warehouses and a forested hillside.

New digital Nature Tool for effective agricultural sourcing co-developed by Clarmondial and SEI

Press release / Development is underway for a digital version of the Nature Tool, designed to assess nature-related risks and opportunities across agricultural sourcing.

4 June 2026 / About Ecosystems, Food and agriculture and Water resources

Strengthening evidence on the outcomes of locally led adaptation

Project / This research agenda seeks to strengthen evidence on the outcomes of locally led adaptation to help bridge funding gaps and empower communities.

2026 - 2028 / About Adaptation, Disaster risk and Finance

Two people dressed in black walk away along a gravel road. On the left is fenced grazing land for animals, and on the right side of the road are trees.

Social Impact Framework for assessing the impacts of NBS on human well-being and justice and its relation to biodiversity

Other publication / This brief helps local planners and stakeholders understand how NbS can enhance wellbeing through effective design, governance, and impact assessment.

25 May 2026 / About Adaptation, Cities and Participation

A man on the right side of the image walks across a dry yellow and brown landscape, with occasional brown and green scrub brush and green trees at the horizon that stand among a cluster of clay brick houses, some square with flat roofs, some cylindrical with conical metal roofs.

Sanitation, soil and food security: insights from 20 years of productive sanitation in Burkina Faso

Perspective / Inherently connected, the nutrients needed on the fields are the same nutrients that sanitation systems could capture and reuse.

24 March 2026 / About Food and agriculture and Sanitation

A man renovating the roof of a house standing on scaffolding.

Local leadership is the key missing ingredient in the UK’s retrofit revolution

Perspective / The UK should shift from national, top-down retrofit schemes to locally led delivery, explains SEI’s Luke Gooding in an Inside Housing op-ed.

4 February 2026 / About Household energy and Wellbeing

Communal sustainable development goals, belonging and involvement: engaging with the SDGs

Journal article / This study investigates how Indigenous Peoples and other Traditional Communities in Western Bahia, Brazil, understand and practice sustainability in daily life.

3 February 2026 / About Sustainable Development Goals

Contested borders of fire and reindeer

Journal article / Official reports of Swedish wildfire impacts are compared with Sámi reindeer herders' own perception and navigation of the events.

16 January 2026 / About Adaptation, Forests, Land use and Mitigation

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