The Water Framework Directive (WFD) have generated increased requirements on member states to supervision and control the ecological status of our waters. In Sweden, this has lead to new demands on dams and hydropower plants to adapt their activity to reduce their impact on the local environment, or the dam will have to be removed. This has caused a conflict in Värmland as the many water currents and dams make the region particularly exposed to these changes. The conflict has since involved dam and hydropower plant owners, different interest organisations such as environmental and fishing interests, authorities and other actors.The aim of this thesis has been to highlight the different actors and their interests in an attempt to understand the reasons behind the conflict. The method hasbeen inductive through a grounded theory approach with semi-structured interviews. The respondents have been actors involved in the conflict in different ways and have been identified as the empiricaldata collection process has been ongoing. The results indicate that the conflict is mainly about different opinions on how these environments should be used (or not used) what is actually considered sustainable. There are different views on how ecological sustainable development andthe conflicthas been further exacerbated because of frustrating juridical processes and lack of systematic approach for solving these issues.