Final Report Summary - PEGASO (People for Ecosystem Based Governance in Assessing Sustainable Development of Ocean and Coast)
PEGASO (People for Ecosystem based Governance in Assessing Sustainable development of Ocean and coast) is a collaborative project between twenty-five partners that have co-worked over four years under the lead coordination of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) to develop common, novel approaches to support integrated policies for the coastal, marine and maritime realm of the Mediterranean and Black sea basins.
- The PEGASO final conference took place in Antalya (Turkey), from the 14th to 17th of January 2014 gathering a wide range of institutes and networks from the Mediterranean and Black Sea and representatives from Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) initiatives in other regional seas.
- According to the lead partner from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Françoise Breton, "the PEGASO project has supported the implementation of the ICZM Protocol in the Mediterranean, and has contributed to the development of similar policies in the Black Sea; it has bridged science and decision-making process along a collaborative process of work".
- The ICZM Protocol to the Barcelona Convention has been the main driver of the PEGASO project. The PEGASO community; ICZM researchers, producers and technicians in different economic sectors, practitioners and decision-makers, NGOs, have worked together to achieve as main outcome a shared ICZM Governance Platform as a bridge between communities of scientists and End-Users, far beyond conventional bridging. The PEGASO ICZM Governance platform has been established as a human network and a forum where people with deep interest in effectively implementing ICZM have shared knowledge and experience, and tested new assessment and management tools. This kind of joint effort based on the ecosystems approach and a collaborative work allows the best options to achieve adaptive management.
- PEGASO has also developed tools to better appraise conflicting issues, responding closely to different articles from the Protocol, focusing on the balance between urban developments versus natural capital maintenance. This reflexion has included the analysis of cumulative impacts of climate change and human activities, risk vulnerability and adaptation (indicators, Land and sea use maps, accounting methods, models and scenarios). Tools have been tested and validated in a multi‐scale approach for integrated regional assessment through a number of relevant Collaborative Application Sites for Assessment (CASES). All the tools and methods are fully accessible at the PEGASO website and have served to produce indicators factsheets at different places, and an atlas for the Mediterranean and Black seas.
- Tools are very useful per se, but they have also served to develop participative methods for supporting decision making, facilitating a common understanding of the coastal and marine processes, getting a common understanding of which issues are manageable (or not), and in which way they should be managed, how stakeholders have to collaborate and at which scale, including cross-boundary collaborations. In brief, to assess what are the main priorities today, establishing road maps for actions towards a co-constructed desired future.
- To support the whole PEGASO process, a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI), following the INSPIRE Directive, has been implemented to organize and standardize spatial data, that can be shared on an interactive visor, to make it available to the ICZM Governance Platform, and to disseminate all results of the project to the End-Users and interested parties.
- Furthermore, PEGASO has made efforts to establish and strengthen durable mechanisms for networking and capacity development so as to promote knowledge transfer and dissemination (N-S; S-N; N-N and SS). Special effort has been done for the South and the Eastern Mediterranean and for the Black Sea countries that are extremely motivated and would like to see the PEGASO project continuing, to support their ICZM needs.
- Over the lifespan of PEGASO, the project has mobilised in a successful collaborative-work around a thousand of Mediterranean and Black Sea scientists and stakeholders, both at regional and at CASE levels. PEGASO ends up as an innovative and creative project, which has provided exploratory ways to stakeholders to share common knowledge with scientists. This practice has given a new know-how on exchanging data and speaking together among scientists, decision makers, national and local managers, making these different professional spheres collaborating in a common direction. Demands to continue PEGASO work and spirit from stakeholders are very high. This continuous interaction has created a social energy in PEGASO. The human aspect, the relation between people, motivated to learn from each other, has boosted a creative human, trans-disciplinary and trans-cultural unforgettable experience that has reinforced friendship, confidence and cooperation linkages, named by its partners the PEGASO family. All these PEGASO products, process and spirit have been recognised and this social energy especially appreciated. They should be capitalised in the post PEGASO as the most important human, technical and shared knowledge legacy of the project.
List of Websites:
http://pegasoproject.eu/
- The PEGASO final conference took place in Antalya (Turkey), from the 14th to 17th of January 2014 gathering a wide range of institutes and networks from the Mediterranean and Black Sea and representatives from Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) initiatives in other regional seas.
- According to the lead partner from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Françoise Breton, "the PEGASO project has supported the implementation of the ICZM Protocol in the Mediterranean, and has contributed to the development of similar policies in the Black Sea; it has bridged science and decision-making process along a collaborative process of work".
- The ICZM Protocol to the Barcelona Convention has been the main driver of the PEGASO project. The PEGASO community; ICZM researchers, producers and technicians in different economic sectors, practitioners and decision-makers, NGOs, have worked together to achieve as main outcome a shared ICZM Governance Platform as a bridge between communities of scientists and End-Users, far beyond conventional bridging. The PEGASO ICZM Governance platform has been established as a human network and a forum where people with deep interest in effectively implementing ICZM have shared knowledge and experience, and tested new assessment and management tools. This kind of joint effort based on the ecosystems approach and a collaborative work allows the best options to achieve adaptive management.
- PEGASO has also developed tools to better appraise conflicting issues, responding closely to different articles from the Protocol, focusing on the balance between urban developments versus natural capital maintenance. This reflexion has included the analysis of cumulative impacts of climate change and human activities, risk vulnerability and adaptation (indicators, Land and sea use maps, accounting methods, models and scenarios). Tools have been tested and validated in a multi‐scale approach for integrated regional assessment through a number of relevant Collaborative Application Sites for Assessment (CASES). All the tools and methods are fully accessible at the PEGASO website and have served to produce indicators factsheets at different places, and an atlas for the Mediterranean and Black seas.
- Tools are very useful per se, but they have also served to develop participative methods for supporting decision making, facilitating a common understanding of the coastal and marine processes, getting a common understanding of which issues are manageable (or not), and in which way they should be managed, how stakeholders have to collaborate and at which scale, including cross-boundary collaborations. In brief, to assess what are the main priorities today, establishing road maps for actions towards a co-constructed desired future.
- To support the whole PEGASO process, a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI), following the INSPIRE Directive, has been implemented to organize and standardize spatial data, that can be shared on an interactive visor, to make it available to the ICZM Governance Platform, and to disseminate all results of the project to the End-Users and interested parties.
- Furthermore, PEGASO has made efforts to establish and strengthen durable mechanisms for networking and capacity development so as to promote knowledge transfer and dissemination (N-S; S-N; N-N and SS). Special effort has been done for the South and the Eastern Mediterranean and for the Black Sea countries that are extremely motivated and would like to see the PEGASO project continuing, to support their ICZM needs.
- Over the lifespan of PEGASO, the project has mobilised in a successful collaborative-work around a thousand of Mediterranean and Black Sea scientists and stakeholders, both at regional and at CASE levels. PEGASO ends up as an innovative and creative project, which has provided exploratory ways to stakeholders to share common knowledge with scientists. This practice has given a new know-how on exchanging data and speaking together among scientists, decision makers, national and local managers, making these different professional spheres collaborating in a common direction. Demands to continue PEGASO work and spirit from stakeholders are very high. This continuous interaction has created a social energy in PEGASO. The human aspect, the relation between people, motivated to learn from each other, has boosted a creative human, trans-disciplinary and trans-cultural unforgettable experience that has reinforced friendship, confidence and cooperation linkages, named by its partners the PEGASO family. All these PEGASO products, process and spirit have been recognised and this social energy especially appreciated. They should be capitalised in the post PEGASO as the most important human, technical and shared knowledge legacy of the project.
List of Websites:
http://pegasoproject.eu/
