The Andalusian Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FAMP) held last Tuesday 26th November in Níjar (Andalusia, Spain) a co-creation and capacity building day on the concept of coastal stewardship and sustainable coastal management. This event was organised in direct collaboration with the Town Council of Níjar, whose municipality has been selected by FAMP as a pilot area for the implementation of COASTRUST in Andalusia.
The main objective of the sessions was to present the project to a wide range of entities present in the territory whose activity is linked to the issues addressed by COASTRUST, including representatives of local, regional and state administrations, universities, business associations, sectoral agencies, non-profit organisations and other civil society agents, such as neighbourhood associations and environmental organisations, some of which have experience in the development of stewardship actions.
The need to convene this diversity of actors is based on the governance approach of COASTRUST and in line with the very nature of the concept of stewardship. In this first face-to-face event in the pilot area, the project has analysed the main challenges and opportunities that could potentially arise in the process of local implementation of COASTRUST.
After the presentation of the project, a space was dedicated to the training of the attendees on coastal stewardship, in which specific cases of stewardship agreements were presented. The methodology aroused the interest of the entities that were invited, who expressed several doubts related to procedural and regulatory issues.
This was followed by a participatory session aimed at designing a strategic plan for sustainable coastal management in the municipality. Group dynamics were used to identify the main problems and threats, proposals for intervention and solutions, opportunities and projects already underway, as well as possible zones and areas for intervention in the territory.
With this meeting, not only the local action group for the implementation of COASTRUST in Nijar was established, but also the next steps.
