watershed agencies are not without their flaws and have been criticised for embracing a topdown approach driven by experts and lacking in transparency in addition the prioritisation of holistic management often typical of watershed management agencies has resulted in conflicts of interest in which regulatory ownership and service provision functions overlap sometimes with negative consequences at the initiative of brazil it was later restmctured and in institutions from countries gathered to agree on common principles a major feature of lac countries as compared to oecd countries is the preponderance of conflict resolution mechanisms of countries surveyed and informal cooperation around projects