After completing his university studies, extensive travel and field experience convinced Berkamp that successful “ecosystem management” did not depend on managing ecosystems. To the contrary, it meant managing humans, empowering communities, making people the principal actors of the change they need and seek in every level in society, from the local farmer to transboundary river basin negotiators.

Not long after becoming IUCN's water advisor, he began to quietly test his hypothesis. He prepared a background study for the United Nation's Commission on Sustainable Development, defining ecosystems through their basic services to humanity, and putting people at the centre of water governance. He then began to advise governments and NGOs on how to translate this approach on the ground, and where to bring environmental sustainability into their own water management practices.

Bergkamp's quest for people-centered, community-empowered water management led him first to become an active governor of the World Water Council, and in June 2008 he was appointed director general of the same organization.