cooperation and conflicts between stakeholders are common to all case studies. In
most of the COASTAL case study areas, the natural environment and its biodiversity
are under threat, and local authorities face difficulties related to the protection and
the management of these natural areas. The degradation of soil quality often related
to salinization is another concern. Finally, these regions have to deal with issues
related to the seasonality of tourism activity, waste management and coastal risk
management (sea-level rise, flood risk, coastal erosion). Climate change is identified
in all COASTAL case studies as a serious concern with the potential to exacerbate
these issues and create additional impacts on all sectors.
This begs the question: how can developing land-sea synergies provide solutions
to rural-coastal-sea issues? As demonstrated by the philosophy of the source-to-sea
concept, stakeholders from land and sea regions share the same natural resources;
mismanagement of inland natural ecosystems will inevitably affect ecosystem and
human activities related to these resources on the coast and at sea. Actors within
agriculture, energy, fisheries, cities, infrastructure and water management must all be
collectively engaged as stakeholders in planning, operations and management from
source to sea to protecting the natural resources and their related ecosystem services
and ensuring a sustainable development of the land-sea regions.
As part of the COASTAL project, an inventory of best practices, successes and
lessons learned related to business opportunities and policy alternatives has been
compiled. The inventory provides examples from all over Europe and beyond,
serves as a reference point for inspiring solutions to increase land-sea synergies
and coastal-rural collaborations (Akinsete et al. 2019). However, practices with the
main purpose of improving coastal-rural collaborations and land-sea synergies are
still few and far between and are not yet commonplace. In fact, the sector workshops
of the COASTAL project are one of the first attempts to identify the opportunities for
land-sea synergy and added value for specifically for rural development. Nevertheless, a few other EU-funded projects addressed this particular challenge in a systematic way (for instance, with the C-Scope project which aims at achieving an
integrated approach to management and planning within the land-sea interface
11 ) or
for a different domain (the ROBUST project fosters the development of rural-urban
synergies
12 ).
The scientific literature when analysing the socio-environmental and economic
land-sea interactions generally take a conceptual and academic approach with little
practical examples on how to increase synergies and collaborations. Despite international efforts to promote the idea of a coordinated global approach, local recommendations, practices and projects still generally take a sectoral focus, which at most
extends to consider either the rural, coastal or marine issues depending on the sector.
Recently, more initiatives have attempted to develop coastal-marine synergies
11 http://www.cscope.eu/en/
12 http://rural-urban.eu/
7 Increasing Land-Sea Synergies and Coastal-Rural Collaboration for a Healthy. . .
119
most of the COASTAL case study areas, the natural environment and its biodiversity
are under threat, and local authorities face difficulties related to the protection and
the management of these natural areas. The degradation of soil quality often related
to salinization is another concern. Finally, these regions have to deal with issues
related to the seasonality of tourism activity, waste management and coastal risk
management (sea-level rise, flood risk, coastal erosion). Climate change is identified
in all COASTAL case studies as a serious concern with the potential to exacerbate
these issues and create additional impacts on all sectors.
This begs the question: how can developing land-sea synergies provide solutions
to rural-coastal-sea issues? As demonstrated by the philosophy of the source-to-sea
concept, stakeholders from land and sea regions share the same natural resources;
mismanagement of inland natural ecosystems will inevitably affect ecosystem and
human activities related to these resources on the coast and at sea. Actors within
agriculture, energy, fisheries, cities, infrastructure and water management must all be
collectively engaged as stakeholders in planning, operations and management from
source to sea to protecting the natural resources and their related ecosystem services
and ensuring a sustainable development of the land-sea regions.
As part of the COASTAL project, an inventory of best practices, successes and
lessons learned related to business opportunities and policy alternatives has been
compiled. The inventory provides examples from all over Europe and beyond,
serves as a reference point for inspiring solutions to increase land-sea synergies
and coastal-rural collaborations (Akinsete et al. 2019). However, practices with the
main purpose of improving coastal-rural collaborations and land-sea synergies are
still few and far between and are not yet commonplace. In fact, the sector workshops
of the COASTAL project are one of the first attempts to identify the opportunities for
land-sea synergy and added value for specifically for rural development. Nevertheless, a few other EU-funded projects addressed this particular challenge in a systematic way (for instance, with the C-Scope project which aims at achieving an
integrated approach to management and planning within the land-sea interface
11 ) or
for a different domain (the ROBUST project fosters the development of rural-urban
synergies
12 ).
The scientific literature when analysing the socio-environmental and economic
land-sea interactions generally take a conceptual and academic approach with little
practical examples on how to increase synergies and collaborations. Despite international efforts to promote the idea of a coordinated global approach, local recommendations, practices and projects still generally take a sectoral focus, which at most
extends to consider either the rural, coastal or marine issues depending on the sector.
Recently, more initiatives have attempted to develop coastal-marine synergies
11 http://www.cscope.eu/en/
12 http://rural-urban.eu/
7 Increasing Land-Sea Synergies and Coastal-Rural Collaboration for a Healthy. . .
119