The European project PRO-COAST concludes three years of research and work with coastal communities with a set of tools, methodologies and policy recommendations aimed at better integrating biodiversity conservation and human activities.
Ibercivis has taken part in the project by contributing its experience in citizen science and participatory methodologies, supporting the work carried out in the case studies and the involvement of local communities in knowledge generation and decision-making processes.
The European project PRO-COAST reaches the end of its three years of work with one central idea. Conserving coastal biodiversity depends not only on having better scientific data, but also on involving the people who live and work in these areas.
Funded by Horizon Europe and UKRI, PRO-COAST has brought together organisations from 14 countries and people with backgrounds in ecology, the social sciences, technology and citizen science. Over the course of the project, different European coastal communities have been studied to understand how environmental, social, economic and political factors interact, and to explore ways of fostering sustainable change adapted to each context.
The project closed this stage with a conference held on 13 October at the European Parliament, under the title “How can coastal communities be better supported in driving sustainable change?”. The event brought together project partners, policymakers and other stakeholders involved in the management and conservation of coastal ecosystems.
During the day, MEPs André Rodrigues and César Luena highlighted the need to move from policies designed for coastal communities towards policies developed with them, drawing on their knowledge, experience and participation.
Three years of work that leave open tools
One of the main achievements of PRO-COAST has been to turn the research and experimentation carried out over these three years into tools that can continue to be used beyond the project. The main results include the following.
- Deep Change Manual, a methodology based on the behavioural sciences to guide collaborative transformation processes in socio-ecological systems.
- CHUI (Conservation & Human Use Index), a diagnostic tool for analysing ecosystem conservation and human uses of an area together.
- REDS (Reciprocal Environmental Decision Support), a decision-support approach that incorporates citizen science and makes it possible to progressively adapt responses to the needs of communities.
- 17 policy recommendations addressed to the European Commission, national governments and local administrations to foster transformation processes through governance coordinated across different levels.
- CUSP (Community Sustainability Platform), a multilingual platform designed to keep communities connected and provide access to the resources developed in PRO-COAST once European funding has ended.
These results aim to ensure that the methodologies tested in PRO-COAST are not limited to the participating areas, but can be adapted and reused by other communities facing conflicts or challenges related to biodiversity conservation.
Citizen science to connect knowledge and action
Citizen science has been one of the cross-cutting components of the project. PRO-COAST has worked with participatory approaches in which citizens and other local stakeholders can take part not only in collecting information, but also in identifying problems, designing methods, analysing data and defining possible actions.
This approach brings in knowledge and perspectives that rarely emerge when research is carried out solely from scientific or administrative institutions.
Ibercivis has contributed particularly to this methodological dimension of the project. Although the Foundation has not coordinated a territorial case study of its own, it has worked across the project with the partners responsible for the different areas, contributing experience in citizen science, participation and the evaluation of the processes carried out.
Its contributions include support for establishing the baselines of the case studies and for applying participatory methodologies that made it possible to compare how they evolved over the course of the project. This work has also served to analyse how citizen participation and observation activities can generate new evidence about ecosystems while strengthening the involvement of local communities.
From local cases to European policy
PRO-COAST starts from the premise that problems such as biodiversity loss, intensive tourism, pressure on natural resources or conflicts between conservation and economic activities cannot be tackled with a single solution.
For this reason, the case studies have served as spaces for experimentation, combining scientific knowledge, information provided by communities, digital tools and co-creation processes.
The final challenge has been to translate the lessons learned in local contexts into instruments that can be used in other areas and into useful recommendations for public policy.
The conference at the European Parliament served precisely to present this step from local experimentation to a European scale. As MEP César Luena pointed out during the event, transforming coastal societies requires combining science and European policy with “the knowledge, experience and participation of the people who live and work on our coasts”.
A legacy beyond the project
Although PRO-COAST funding ends in October 2026, a significant part of its results will remain available.
The European Sustainable Use Group (ESUG), which coordinates the project, has committed to maintaining the Community Sustainability Platform (CUSP) until 2033, so that new communities can access the resources, share experiences and adapt the methodologies developed.
PRO-COAST thus closes its three years of activity leaving not only scientific results, but also practical tools and a network committed to continuing to explore how citizen participation can contribute to more sustainable and resilient coastal communities.
