Constraints and Adaptations to Global Change at the Land-Sea Interface: For a Shared Ecological and Energy Transition

Coastal or semi-enclosed seas, coastal or interface zones between land and sea are areas widely coveted by numerous human activities. These activities do not assess the effects and impacts of their cumulative pressures on the natural environment: coastal development, tourism, terrestrial pollution, maritime transport, dredging and piling, extraction of marine aggregates and development or planned development of marine wind farms or tidal turbines. In this context and despite the high productivity of these ecosystems, fishing and shellfish farming, which also exert their own environmental pressures, have some difficulties in ensuring their sustainability in an increasingly man-made environment and generating increasingly exacerbated conflicts of use.

The symposium will address some aspects of resilience (via their capacity to adapt to global change) of these coastal ecosystems and adaptation of human communities to climate change in a context of full use of natural resources.

A more holistic approach to the impact of all uses on the environment to ensure a more optimal management of the Commons, needs to be implemented. In Japan, the concept of Sato-umi (harmony between the coastal sea and local communities) is being implemented and incorporates participatory science and active restoration projects in an integrated coastal zone management framework.