Coastnet Special, Summer 2008

CoastNet Special S

ince its beginnings in 1995, CoastNet has been championing long term solutions to coastal problems, working with all coastal interests for a truly sustainable coast that benefits both people and wildlife. Our long term vision of a thriving coast that supports the many communities of people and wildlife that depend upon it, requires local, national, regional and international action – all areas we work in to realise our long term goals.

Local Empowering local voices CoastNet has been involved in a number of different projects, supporting and running local events related to Low Tide Day as well as supporting local coastal professionals through various public engagement workshops. Now CoastNet is running an exciting project ‘Holding back the tide’ which will span 2008 and 2009 and collect coastal stories from people around the East Anglian coastline – see page 7-9.

Understanding industry CoastNet works with a wide network of coastal interests including those representing various coastal industries. See our report, Offshore Development – new frontiers of opportunity on our website. Look out for an APPG on energy at the coast and read about our fisheries work on P10.

6 The Edge Summer 2008

National Coastal and marine education network From its inception 13 years ago, CoastNet has been involved in coastal education and now we are setting up a coastal education network, a chance for those professionals to share information and discuss issues in a new coastal and marine education forum, see p12.

All Party Parliamentary Group on Coastal and Marine Issues (APPG) We recognise the need to influence and maintain avenues of communication with those political decision makers who are able to bring about real change. That is why in 2006 we helped set up the APPG, recognising a clear gap in communication channels and a clear aim to debate and recommend coastal and marine solutions to Members.

Governance consultancy Good governance lies at the core of integrated coastal zone management. CoastNet supports organisations by providing advice and access to good practice. In North West Wales we are supporting CCW and other stakeholders to integrate the management of the Menai Straight and Conwy Bay marine conservation area with regional regeneration programmes. In the East of England, with partners in the EU Interreg IM-

CORE project, CoastNet will be developing scenarios to guide the development of future policies for the region’s coast.

European Involvement in European programmes European coastal programmes with broad

based

project

partnerships

present a unique opportunity for coastal managers everywhere. They offer a chance to share approaches to coastal management and learn from systems elsewhere to take back and adapt to a local/national scenario. CoastNet is currently involved in the delivery of two European projects: Imcore and Encora, both of which are discussed in the context of communications on p13.

A varied conference programme CoastNet has taken its rich conference programme to a European audience, holding eight conferences in venues across North West Europe.

International African scoping study At the international level, CoastNet has recently undertaken a Moroccan and African scoping study and is now seeking funding to run a full scale project supporting fishermen and their families and ecotourism in Northern Morocco. See p15 for more details.