Effective environmental management should be marked by public participation, collaborative working and decentralised modes of assessment, planning and decision making. Both, community-based catchment management groups as well as existing statutory groups require a catchment management for water resources and protection of water quality of such characterization.

An expansion of both community-based and state-led initiatives in order to meet these requirements has been evident in the United Kingdom. The paper reports survey findings of such initiatives to illustrate the situation in England and Wales. Catchment management groups are profiled in terms of various categories and the results are interpreted in terms of their potential sustainability, effectiveness and impact of groups and environmental governance challenges.