01/01/2022 -
31/12/2026
2024 – 2025 BiodivTransform
This loss affects some livelihoods and groups of people more than others. Pro-Coast aims to help local communities maintain and restore the riches and services of nature across Europe, by encouraging use of local knowledge and activities that benefit land, sea and species.
"What sort of Earth will our children inherit? Less pollution? Less plastic? Less over-fishing? Less warming? More nature? We need to change how we treat the planet and we need to do it together. Pro-Coast is part of a network of projects to rebuild nature."
The Pro-Coast project focuses on preserving and restoring biodiversity in European coastal ecosystems, particularly given that approximately 40% of Europeans live within 100 km of the coast, where there is an ongoing loss of natural services—food, water, health, and recreation. The main goal of the project is to help local communities make informed and nature-friendly decisions through a recurring “decision-making – implementation – evaluation” cycle, using a bottom-up approach based on civic participation and supported by state-of-the-art scientific methods.
With the participation of 20 partners from 14 countries, the project uses 10 case studies to examine how local communities aim to restore their various coastal ecosystems through collaboration between social scientists, ecologists, and technical experts. Expected outcomes include mobilizing local knowledge and community action for the benefit of terrestrial and marine wildlife, as well as disseminating the approach more widely in collaboration with other projects and organizations, encouraging governments to provide top-down support for nature restoration processes.
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