Since the 1990’s, the Rhône River Restoration Programme has been supporting a large diversity of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) along its course of 520 km on the French territory. They aim to restore more natural fluvial processes (hydrological, morphological and ecological) and to improve the resilience of the Rhône fluvial socio-ecosystems. 

This programme, characterised by a long duration and a large geographic extent, led to a large number of valuable past and ongoing NbS projects from which practitioners have gained experiences in stakeholder involvement. Stakeholder involvement has been identified as a major challenge for the success of such projects from their design stage to their implementation. However, no formal feedback has been drawn from them while NbS are increasing in number, have become more ambitious, are being implemented on larger scales and consequently involve a growing number of diverse stakeholders. 

The stakeholder involvement processes attached to these past and ongoing NbS constitute our pilot study. Their analysis will give insights into the involvement processes at play, understand their evolution, adaptation and improvement in long-term programmes, highlight failure or success. This operational feedback could then be shared with practitioners. The overarching aim of this pilot study is to improve existing guidelines and produce policy recommendations on stakeholders’ involvement for NbS.