1. The Future of Coastal Partnerships
Dr Steve Fletcher
Director, Centre for Marine and Coastal Policy Research, Plymouth University
steve.fletcher@plymouth.ac.uk Twitter: @drsfletcher
Co-authors: Ben Anderson, Caroline Salthouse, Niall Benson
“coastal partnerships will not survive if
things continue on the same path”
(Coastal Partnership Officer, May 2014)
Torcross, Devon

2. International, European and English legislation protecting the marine environment
(Boyes and Elliott, 2014).

3. Benefits of coastal partnerships (MMO, 2013): - stakeholder engagement and consultation - awareness-raising and networking - bringing sectors together at the land sea interface - provision of information and data; - neutral facilitation of fair and open debate - inform planning, policy and legislation; - effective dissemination of relevant information.

4. But it was also noted by MMO (2013) that: fragmented spatial coverage and diverse communication channels mean that no mechanism exists for coastal partnerships to communicate to all coastal stakeholders in a comprehensive and consistent manner, which would be important to support a national role (for example in marine planning).

5. Research approach
Survey of coastal partnership officers – context setting
•Invitations sent using CPN database
•36 partnerships represented
•UK coverage (mostly Scotland and England)
Workshop - testing ideas
•June 2014 , Plymouth.
•28 participants
•Local government, industry, research, regulators, UK/EU
Follow-up interviews - reality checking
•Ongoing

6. Partnership
Process
Economic
Environmental
External
The Future of Coastal Partnerships
Social
Themes within survey responses

7. Past
Successes
Current Challenges
Economic
Partnership
Process
External factors
Social
Environmental
Future Challenges
Future
Opportunities
Figure 1: Bubble schematic shows the relative percentage of occurrence, represented by the bubble diameter, of the five general themes identified by survey respondents through the Successes, Current Challenges, Future Challenges and Opportunities sections.

8. Successes of coastal partnerships
0
5
10
15
20
25
Project work
Collaboration
Profile raising of CP
CP development
Marine citizenship
Representation
Facilitation
Legislation involvement
Research
Funding Staff
Management plan
Resourcefulness
Neutrality
Project funding
Sustainable development
Recognition of CP
CPN
Marine conservation…
Number of Responses

9. Future opportunities for coastal partnerships
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
Legislation involvement
New funding streams
CP development
Project funding
Marine citizenship
Marine environment legislation
European driven
Recognition of CP
Collaboration with another CP
Continuity
Broader CP membership
Profile raising of CP
CPN
Increased private sector rep
Management plan
Environmental protection
Terestrial integration
Professionalism
Consultancy
Staffing funding
40
Number of responses

10. Future role of partnerships (from partnership officers):
•Take on the duties of partners (at lower cost) to deliver integration “taking on statutory and enforcement functions”
•Undertake more project-based work “that is where the funding comes from now”
•Reflect wider policy changes and objectives “any change will presumably be led by government and so we seem to be dependent on policy from above”
•Reflect local needs and financial necessities “partnerships may adjust to reflect changes in local issues” / “we need to become mini -consultancies”

11. Workshop results: role of coastal partnerships? Overcome fragmented governance “if there is a need for coastal partnerships, it is now”. Support marine planning strong “potential “role / current engagement limited (“insulting”) One stop shop single communication and information hub What’s in a label? It is the social and institutional capital that counts

12. What does all this mean for…
•integration across the land/sea interface?
•cross-border issues?
•co-location opportunities?
•managing conflicts for space?
•engaging in planning and policy processes?

13. Conclusion: role(s) for coastal partnerships
•Supporting the delivery of key legislation
•Sharing evidence to support shared decisions
•Managing networks that facilitate collaboration
•Providing open communication channels

14. Dr Steve Fletcher
Director, Centre for Marine and Coastal Policy Research
Plymouth University
steve.fletcher@plymouth.ac.uk
Twitter: @drsfletcher
Centre for Marine and Coastal Research:
Web: www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/marcopol
Twitter: @MarCoPolPU
Email: steve.fletcher@plymouth.ac.uk
Torcross, Devon