There is a growing understanding that stakeholder engagement is necessary for good decision making in all areas of governance. This is particularly true of coastal management and climate change adaptation. Government and its agencies are responding with new guidance for engagement, but there still appears to be a fundamental gap of understanding that will not be solved by ad hoc consultation exercises.<\/p>\n
Part of the Coastal Change Pathfinder project was delivered by the charity CoastNet in the form of an educational programme\u00a0under\u00a0the title Coastal Literacy. The programme aimed to provide a framework to fill that gap. The anticipated results were:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Less conflict and more timely adoption of policies<\/p>\n
\u2022 More efficient and cost effective policy delivery regarding both coastal and marine activity<\/p>\n
Coastal Literacy is about equipping the public, politicians and technicians with the knowledge and understanding required to\u00a0take\u00a0an active and meaningful\u00a0place in coastal decision-making. This participation\u00a0should be be good for democracy, good for decision-making, and good for empowering for communities.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0most significance\u00a0outputs under Coastal Literacy were an information leaflet,\u00a0a number of\u00a0films\u00a0looking at\u00a0the Manhood Peninsula coastline and two reports concerned with Coastal Literacy.<\/p>\n
The films are about the special nature of the peninsula coast, and\u00a0coastal governance locally. They\u00a0can be viewed in the Coastal Change Films <\/a>section at the bottom of this page.<\/p>\n The purpose of the Coastal Change Leaflet was to distil aspects of the Coastal Literacy concepts formed through a number of expert panel workshops, and turn them into public information. CoastNet tested this approach in local schools \u2013 Seal, Medmerry and East Wittering. Click the title to download the Coastal Change Leaflet<\/a>.<\/p>\n