The director of the Biodiversity Foundation, a public foundation of the Government of Spain, under the Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs, Ana Leiva, today closed the summer course “Towards the governance of coastal marine areas”, which has been held in Palma de Mallorca from July 13 until today. Ana Leiva was accompanied by the Secretary General of the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), Federico Garau.

This course, organised by the Biodiversity Foundation at the UIB, brought together thirty experts from Europe, the United States and Latin America and sixty professionals from companies and public institutions involved in coastal management, as well as students from different disciplines, for a week to address, from a global perspective, the challenge of coastal sustainability.

The conference highlighted the need to respond to a new logic of relationship between the agents that affect the coastline and coastal marine ecosystems. In this sense, governance emerges as the most appropriate scenario to seek new formulas that link civil society, public administrations and the business sector to ensure integrated management of the terrestrial and marine coastline.

In a country like Spain, which has 8,000 km of coastline and almost 60% of the population is concentrated on the coast, coastal natural resources represent a strategic source of economic and social development. For this reason, the conservation and restoration of coastal maritime ecosystems is key to preserving their functionality and ecological balance, and thus achieving the sustainable development of coastal areas.

During this seminar, participatory coastal management policies and experiences were presented, as well as training and research initiatives that are contributing to setting new frontiers in the management of coastal marine resources. In this way, it has been analysed how coastal management is addressed in countries such as the United States, Brazil, China or Ecuador, as well as the scenarios drawn in Europe by the new European Marine Strategy. In addition, policies and strategies applied in Spain to ensure the sustainability of the marine coastal environment have been presented.

During the course, special attention has been paid to the role of knowledge and public participation in coastal governance. In this sense, the conditions that must be met to facilitate meeting points between the actors that affect the coast have been analyzed, and experiences of public-private participation in the integrated management of coastal zones have been presented. From the participation of fishermen’s guilds in the definition of marine protected areas, to the participation of users and NGOs in marine stewardship projects. These initiatives have shown that there is a basis for agreement on the importance of ensuring the sustainability of marine resources.

Likewise, the importance of generating scientific knowledge for decision-making has been highlighted. An example has been the work presented by researchers from the Balearic institute IMEDEA, which has been a good example of the application of this knowledge to marine coastal management in the Balearic Islands.

Although the progress made at the national level is recognized, there has been a need to promote and update the training of professionals involved in coastal management, both from the point of view of technical knowledge and the social skills necessary to facilitate public participation processes or to resolve conflicts. The Master’s Degree in Environmental Management and Administration that the Biodiversity Foundation teaches in collaboration with the UNED and the UIMP, the Master’s Degree in Integrated Management of Coastal Zones of the UCA or the Itinerant University of the Sea of the University of Oviedo, are some examples of academic initiatives developed to provide future professionals with the necessary skills to address an integrated and multidisciplinary management of the coast.

Today, and as a culmination of the course, the LIFE + INDEMARES Project was presented and analysed, an initiative that aims to contribute to the protection and sustainable use of biodiversity in Spanish seas by identifying areas of value for the Natura 2000 Network. The INDEMARES Project is a practical example of cooperation between public institutions and social agents to create the basis for an adequate conservation of marine resources in specific areas of the Spanish coast.

Among the conclusions obtained after the exchange of knowledge, experiences and debates, it is worth highlighting the opportunity that the concept of governance poses to coordinate public administrations, citizens and companies in the sustainable management of coastal areas.

Thus, the importance of promoting coastal marine policies from meeting spaces between the responsible administrations, which are the ones that can lead a process of change, has been underlined. The distribution of competences in our country implies an effort of coordination and cooperation between all the administrations involved.

Likewise, the considerable boost that the participation of society can give to the integrated management of coastal zones in Spain has been recognized. In this sense, the importance of promoting social participation in coastal management through the development of networks that contribute to valuing the knowledge and experiences and good practices that are being carried out in different parts of the territory has been highlighted.

There has also been agreement on the need to promote curricular designs adapted to the demands of the proposed changes in the governance of coastal areas, as well as on highlighting the importance of creating the necessary mechanisms so that the scientific and social knowledge generated feeds the political decision-making process.