Engaging local communities in the process of participatory management in the coastal zone - the experience of the Region of the Vistula Lagoon

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Engaging local communities in the process of participatory management in the coastal zone - the experience of the Region of the Vistula Lagoon

Journal Title: Biuletyn Instytutu Morskiego - Year 2016, Vol 31, Issue 1

Abstract

Based on experience gained through the collaboration of two FP7 projects (ARCH and LAGOONS), a methodology used for stakeholders’ involvement in the management of lagoons under climate and anthropogenic pressures is discussed.The central objective of the ARCH project (Architecture and roadmap to manage multiple pressures on lagoons) was to develop participative methodologies in collaboration with the involved managers, policy makers and stakeholders to manage the multiple problems affecting lagoons in Europe (10 cases). Three main challenges for the improvement of sustainable lagoon management were supported by the ARCH, these include the transition: from segregated disciplinary scientific results to well integrated and usable scientific knowledge; from government to governance: from sectoral policies towards sustainable management; from an unaware and uninformed lagoon community towards an involved and well-informed community. The main objective of the LAGOONS project (Integrated water resources and coastal zone management in European lagoons in the context of climate change) was to contribute to a science-based seamless strategy – in an integrated and coordinated fashion – of the management of lagoons seen under the land-sea and science-policy-stakeholder interface; i.e., the project seeks to underpin the integration of the EU Water Framework Directive, Habitat Directive, the EU’s ICZM Recommendation, and the EU Marine Strategy Directive. An approach applied to the Vistula Lagoon stakeholders’ consultations process (collecting opinions from different groups of interests like public administration, researchers and experts as well as local citizens) was extremely well assessed by all participants. The role of local communities and their actual engagement in the management processes in the Vistula Lagoon Region is analysed in the paper, based on the author’s observations as a facilitator of the process. Creating positive and trustful relations is a prerequisite for successful consultations with local communities. An importance of the role played by local communities in the management process is still underestimated by both managers and the communities themselves. However, building trustful relations requires time and efforts from both sides and cannot rely on a ‘project to project’ basis. Local communities that once got involved in the participatory management process expect continuity and implementation of their ideas through rational and fair-minded debate. Public involvement in decision making processes, if managed properly, increases the legitimacy of decisions in the eyes of those affected by them, which makes it more likely that the decisions will be implemented effectively. There is an urgent need for a permanent consultation process built in a daily routine of managing organisations constituting, in a sense, their statutory task not resulting from different legislation, laws, obligations, etc. but from the will to build a participatory society.

Authors and Affiliations

Joanna Przedrzymirska

Keywords

EP ID EP78776
DOI 10.5604/12307424.1196267
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