Over the last 20 years a number of the Agencies in the North East of Scotland have worked together to establish projects and initiatives that help to improve the local environment.

In 1998/99 Aberdeenshire Council and Scottish Natural Heritage began to consider ways of improving the management of freshwater systems (rivers and burns) across Aberdeenshire. This led to the establishment of the North East Rivers Project (NERP) in September 1999. The project was funded by Aberdeenshire Council, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency with matched funding from the European Regional Development Fund (Objective 5b).

The NERP ran till 2001 and a substantial part of the project was to raise awareness both with organisations and with the local communities in the North East of good river/riparian management.

NERP did this by assisting demonstration projects, running workshops and producing Guidance notes.

Following the completion of NERP in September 2001, Aberdeenshire Council and the associated agencies were keen to continue to encourage better river/riparian management through local involvement and so other funding opportunities were investigated including Heritage Lottery and other European funds.

Meantime a number of other river based initiatives were evolving, one of which was the development of a catchment management plan for the River Dee. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) had already produced a draft Catchment Management Plan and the river was also being considered as a Special Area of Conservation.

In 2002 the opportunity to become involved in NOLIMP-WFD arose which required partner countries to focus on a “water body” and develop a project that would look at the implications of the forthcoming Water Framework Directive.

The catchment of the River Dee therefore was the ideal “water body” for the Aberdeenshire partnership to consider.