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The IPCC 1.5°C Report lists identifying local capacity needs as key for enabling multi-level governance to effectively respond to climate change. Mauritius, as a Small Island State, is disproportionately affected by climate change, primarily due to its exposure to impacts, as well as various constraints in size and resources. Identifying and integrating local capacity needs into recommendations for policy measures is therefore urgently required to support the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its National Adaptation Plan process. This study carries out a local governance assessment based on evaluative criteria to identify local capacity needs for implementing climate change adaptation in Mauritius. Results from the assessment indicate that local governance suffers from issues inherent to Small Island States, such as lack of technical know-how, financial and human resources, stringent legislation and effective monitoring mechanisms, preventing effective climate change adaptation. Through participatory, bottom-up stakeholder engagement with local and national government representatives, eight recommendations for policy formulation were then co-developed to address the identified capacity needs, and to improve cooperation between local and national institutions for more effective implementation of climate change adaptation. Key policy insightsLocal climate change adaptation needs have to be integrated into policy formulation for an effective response to climate change impacts.Roles and responsibilities of government levels for climate change adaptation in Mauritius are currently in need of clarification.Capacity building measures at the local level for implementing climate change actions from national government are urgently required.Stringent legislation and effective monitoring mechanisms need to be implemented to ensure planning regulations are adhered to.Increased collaboration between local and national levels of government in Mauritius is necessary for synthesizing a common approach to climate change adaptation. Local climate change adaptation needs have to be integrated into policy formulation for an effective response to climate change impacts. Roles and responsibilities of government levels for climate change adaptation in Mauritius are currently in need of clarification. Capacity building measures at the local level for implementing climate change actions from national government are urgently required. Stringent legislation and effective monitoring mechanisms need to be implemented to ensure planning regulations are adhered to. Increased collaboration between local and national levels of government in Mauritius is necessary for synthesizing a common approach to climate change adaptation.

Many countries are implementing Integrated Coastal Management (ICM, also known as Integrated Coastal Zone Management or ICZM) as a means to promote the sustainable use, development and protection of coastal environments. It has also been shown that there is a policy and institutional relationship between ICM and climate change adaptation. This paper examines the relationship between ICM and climate change preparedness of local government with reference to empirical studies conducted in two developing nations, Mozambique and South Africa. Using a mixed-methods approach (content analysis of local government planning documents and semi-structured interviews with key informants), results demonstrate the level of integration of coastal management, disaster management and climate change adaptation in local development planning; and assess the state of implementation of ICM and climate change adaptation by selected local governments in the two countries. The paper makes recommendations on how to improve ICM development and implementation for coastal adaptation. The results suggest the need for closer integration between coastal management, disaster management and climate adaptation frameworks; highlight the need for enhanced support for local governments from provincial and national government; and greater clarity with regards to the coastal management mandate of local government (especially in Mozambique).

The coastline of Kenya already experiences effects of climate change, adding to existing pressures such as urbanization. Integrated coastal management (ICM) is increasingly recognized as a key policy response to deal with the multiple challenges facing coastal zones, including climate change. It can create an enabling governance environment for effective local action on climate change by facilitating a structured approach to dealing with coastal issues. It encompasses the actions of a wide range of actors, including local governments close to people and their activities affected by climate change. Functioning ICM also offers opportunities for reducing risks and building resilience. This article applied a modified capitals approach framework (CAF), consisting of five “capitals,” to assess the status of county government capacity to respond to climate change within the context of coastal governance in three county governments in Kenya. The baseline was defined in terms of governance relating to the implementation of the interrelated policy systems of ICM and coastal climate change adaptation (CCA). The CAF framework provided a systematic approach to building a governance baseline against which to assess the progress of county governments in responding to climate change. It identified gaps in human capacity, financial resource allocation to adaptation and access to climate change information. Furthermore, it showed that having well-developed institutions, including regulatory frameworks at the national level can facilitate but does not automatically enable adaptation at the county level.

This study applied the social&ndash, ecological systems framework (SESF) to six fishing communities in northern Mozambique where marine resource management is being implemented through the Our Sea Our Life project. Data on 11 variables and 27 indicators were organised using the SESF to represent the key system dimensions (Governance system, Actors, Resource units and Resource system). Variables within each dimension were weighed to a cumulative score of one. High scores (&gt, 0.50) for Governance system occurred where communities had fisheries management rules and good knowledge of fishing gear regulations. High scores for Actors were evident in communities with few migrant fishers and high participation in village savings and loans associations. Elevated scores of the Resource units occurred where fishers targeted a variety of fish taxa. A healthy Resource system was found in communities neighbouring highly productive and resilient reefs, characterised by high fish biomass and diversity. The status of social and ecological conditions coupled with initial levels of project support and quality of technical support were linked with project achievements. Application of the SESF is therefore valuable in understanding interdependent linkages between social and environmental conditions to inform the design of localised management interventions for social&ndash, ecological sustainability.

The importance of local government for addressing environmental change, including climate change, was recognized at the 1992 Earth Summit. More so, coastal governance encompasses not only the actions of the state (which includes local governments), but also of other actors such as communities, businesses and civil society organizations. Solutions to improving coastal governance include the implementation of Integrated Coastal Management which also serves as means to plan and achieve climate change adaptation. This paper proposes the establishment of a framework and methodology to assess local coastal governance based on a composite of hierarchical metrics formed by different forms of capital and associated factors and indicators. The application of this methodology resulted in the description of a baseline for local coastal governance. This baseline is useful for informing different functional levels within local government, e.g. technical, managerial and political. The baseline consisted of a comprehensive assessment of the different forms of capitals furthered categorized by factors and measured by indicators of local coastal governance. The capitals approach and method for measuring governance is potentially repeatable and can identify progress towards longer-term coastal management and climate adaptation goals as well as areas requiring improvements. Ultimately, it can be developed into a self-assessment tool to help local government to think reflexively about how they are managing the coast and the climate risks impacting on coastal assets and people.

Conservation planning of coastal ecosystems is improved by quantitative data on human activities and marine habitats, though is challenging in artisanal fisheries due to their characteristics of multiple species, gears and landing sites. Small-scale coastal fisheries in northern Mozambique were quantified using a multi-faceted approach, to inform area-based conservation and fisheries management. Fishers captured 153 taxa using eleven different fishing gears with a high proportion of gleaning. The most prevalent gear was the mosquito net (27%), largely used by women, followed by gleaning, handline and spear (12–15%), but with high inter-fishing ground variability. Median (interquatile range) catch rates ranged from 7.0 (3.4, 15.1) kg fisher−1 trip−1 (handlines) to 2.3 (1.6, 4.5) kg fisher−1 trip−1 (mosquito nets), which represent relatively high catch rates for eastern Africa. Knowledge of the complex spatial variability in these fisheries can contribute to conservation planning by minimizing opportunity costs while maximizing conservation benefits.

UID/SOC/04647/2013; Transformations in social-ecological systems to overturn poverty and ecosystem degradation require approaches to knowledge synthesis that are inclusive and open to creative innovation. We draw on interviews with participants and in-depth process observation of an iterative knowledge cocreation process in Kenya and Mozambique that brought together scientists, community representatives, government representatives, and practitioners who had expertise or experience in poverty and/or coastal natural resource use and management. We analyze the communicative spaces opened by techniques of system diagrams and future scenarios, and provide a rich account of the emergent process of developing a “shared conceptual repertoire” as a basis for effective communication and knowledge synthesis. Our results highlight the difficulties of challenging dominant narratives and the creative potential that exists in reflecting on their underpinning assumptions. In our analysis, stories and lived experiences emerged as key means shaping the construction of shared concepts and ideas. We conclude by outlining the implications of designing knowledge cocreation processes that support the task of devising systemic interventions that are robust for a range of future scenarios. This includes embracing the role of stories in generating shared meanings and opening up spaces for exploration of knowledge assumptions that are embedded in intervention narratives. publishersversion published

Integrated coastal management (ICM) has been developing concomitantly with the realisation of the severity of the potential impacts of climate change. The discourse on climate change and adaptation has also included the awareness that adaptation must take place at all levels of government, particularly local government. Climate change is expected to have significant impacts on the physical, social, environmental and economic environments of coastal cities and towns, and in particular on the poor and vulnerable communities within these cities and towns. The crucial role that local government can play in climate protection and building cities' and communities' resilience to climate change is widely recognised at the global level. This paper explores the legal and policy connexion between ICM, local government and climate change in Mozambique and South Africa, two developing countries in Africa. The state of institutionalisation of coastal management at national through to local government is also examined. The authors contend that the state, character and maturity of the ICM policy domain can create an enabling environment within which local government agencies can prepare for future impacts of climate change. Conversely it can also limit, delay and hinder climate change adaptation. The paper concludes with the identification of some key success factors for assessing the effectiveness of the existing policy and legal frameworks to respond to the challenges of climate change. It also identifies some key principles to be included in future legislative reform to promote ICM, cooperative governance and greater preparedness for climate change at local government level.

Although ecosystem services are increasingly recognized as benefits people obtain from nature, we still have a poor understanding of how they actually enhance multidimensional human well-being, and how well-being is affected by ecosystem change. We develop a concept of “ecosystem service elasticity” (ES elasticity) that describes the sensitivity of human well-being to changes in ecosystems. ES Elasticity is a result of complex social and ecological dynamics and is context dependent, individually variable, and likely to demonstrate nonlinear dynamics such as thresholds and hysteresis. We present a conceptual framework that unpacks the chain of causality from ecosystem stocks through flows, goods, value, and shares to contribute to the well-being of different people. This framework builds on previous conceptualizations, but places multidimensional well-being of different people as the final element. This ultimately disaggregated approach emphasizes how different people access benefits and how benefits match their needs or aspirations. Applying this framework to case studies of individual coastal ecosystem services in East Africa illustrates a wide range of social and ecological factors that can affect ES elasticity. For example, food web and habitat dynamics affect the sensitivity of different fisheries ecosystem services to ecological change. Meanwhile high cultural significance, or lack of alternatives enhance ES elasticity, while social mechanisms that prevent access can reduce elasticity. Mapping out how chains are interlinked illustrates how different types of value and the well-being of different people are linked to each other and to common ecological stocks. We suggest that examining chains for individual ecosystem services can suggest potential interventions aimed at poverty alleviation and sustainable ecosystems while mapping out of interlinkages between chains can help to identify possible ecosystem service trade-offs and winners and losers. We discuss conceptual and practical challenges of applying such a framework and conclude on its utility as a heuristic for structuring interdisciplinary analysis of ecosystem services and human wellbeing., This paper results from the project Sustainable Poverty Alleviation from Coastal Ecosystem Services (SPACES) project number NE-K010484-1, funded by the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme. The ESPA programme is funded by the Department for International Development (DFID), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). W

SUMMARYThe concept of ecosystem services (ES), the benefits humans derive from ecosystems, is increasingly applied to environmental conservation, human well-being and poverty alleviation, and to inform the development of interventions. Payments for ecosystem services (PES) implicitly recognize the unequal distribution of the costs and benefits of maintaining ES, through monetary compensation from ‘winners’ to ‘losers’. Some research into PES has examined how such schemes affect poverty, while other literature addresses trade-offs between different ES. However, much evolving ES literature adopts an aggregated perspective of humans and their well-being, which can disregard critical issues for poverty alleviation. This paper identifies four issues with examples from coastal ES in developing countries. First, different groups derive well-being benefits from different ES, creating winners and losers as ES, change. Second, dynamic mechanisms of access determine who can benefit. Third, individuals' contexts and needs determine how ES contribute to well-being. Fourth, aggregated analyses may neglect crucial poverty alleviation mechanisms such as cash-based livelihoods. To inform the development of ES interventions that contribute to poverty alleviation, disaggregated analysis is needed that focuses on who derives which benefits from ecosystems, and how such benefits contribute to the well-being of the poor. These issues present challenges in data availability and selection of how and at which scales to disaggregate. Disaggregation can be applied spatially, but should also include social groupings, such as gender, age and ethnicity, and is most important where inequality is greatest. Existing tools, such as stakeholder analysis and equity weights, can improve the relevance of ES research to poverty alleviation.

Coastal areas, and their small-scale fisheries, are important targets for both internal and transboundary migration partly because high mobility is an inherent feature of many artisanal fisheries livelihoods. As climatic changes are forecast to occur, environmental changes may trigger increased flows of migrant fishers. Policies that seek to promote development in ways that do not extensively degrade natural resources will thus have to deal with likely increases in flows of people across administrative boundaries. However, to date little attention has been directed at this issue and little is known about how policies related to coastal resources and development address these issues. This paper addresses this knowledge gap by analyzing policies and legal documents related to coastal resource management and development to examine the extent to which they recognize and integrate fishers' migration in their provisions. Migrant well-being and vulnerabilities are also addressed by examining the extent to which existing policies dealing with socio-economic development and environmental management address migrants and their needs. The analysis shows that policies related to governance of marine resources and coastal development lack an acknowledgment of fishers' migration issues and suggests that this signals an important gap in policy. The implications of this are discussed. The paper also highlights the fact that the invisibility of the issue in policy means that institutions developed to deal with coastal management at the community level may not have sufficient support from legal and policy documents, and may not be developed or equipped to handle the possible conflicts and difficult trade-offs that need to be addressed as a result of current and potentially increasing fishers’ mobility.

Many developing countries are expanding their network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to meet ambitious marine conservation targets set globally and to develop tourism nationally. This study explores the human dimensions of MPA planning in Mozambique by engaging local resource users in a series of structured discussions about marine resource use, pressures on marine resources, ways to address such pressures, and the potential positive and negative impacts of MPAs on the management of marine resources and livelihoods, from a community perspective. Findings show that the groups and communities interviewed are at best ambivalent towards MPAs while at the same time supporting increased government regulation, including conventional fisheries management measures. The study suggests that without significant community involvement in the choice of marine conservation tools, the drive to establish MPAs to achieve biodiversity conservation and tourism development goals may be counterproductive, at least in terms of poverty alleviation and sustainable resource use. It argues that a wider range of marine conservation approaches and tools needs to be considered in addition to MPAs, taking into consideration local views and institutional capacities.

Coastal social ecological systems in eastern Africa are subject to a range of environmental, social and economic changes. They are already vulnerable to these multiple stressors, and the impacts of climate change are likely to further exacerbate their vulnerabilities. Some of these impacts may be observed and experienced already. The analysis presented in this paper is based on mixed methods empirical research exploring local perceptions of recent changes at four sites in coastal Tanzania and Mozambique. People recognise and rank a number of climate and non-climate stressors which have contributed towards more risky and less diverse livelihoods. Importantly, regional and international policy initiatives – in the form of river basin management in Mozambique and South Africa, and development of a Marine Protected Area in Tanzania – are perceived to further erode resilience and exacerbate vulnerabilities. We suggest this is a form of policy misfit, where policies developed to address a specific issue do not take account of cross-scale dynamics of change, the interactions between multiple stressors, nor longer term climate change. This policy misfit may be remedied by a move towards adaptive forms of governance, and necessitates an explicit focus on building the adaptive capacity of the poor and most vulnerable in society.

Studies of multiple stressors in Africa often focus on vulnerable inland communities. Rising concentrations of the world’s poor live in coastal rural–urban areas with direct dependencies on marine as well as terrestrial ecosystem goods and services. Using participatory methods we elicited perceptions of stressors and their sources, impacts and consequences held by coastal communities in eastern Africa (Mtwara in Tanzania and Maputo in Mozambique). Respondent-informed timelines suggest wars, economic policies and natural increase have led to natural resource-dependent populations in marginal, previously little-inhabited lowland coastal areas. Respondents (n = 91) in interviews and focus groups rank climate stressors (temperature rise/erratic rain) highest amongst human/natural stressors having negative impacts on livelihoods and wellbeing (e.g., cross-scale cost of living increases including food and fuel prices). Sources of stress and impacts were mixed in time and space, complicating objective identification of causal chains. Some appeared to be specific to coastal areas. Respondents reported farms failing and rising dependence on stressed marine resources, food and fuel prices and related dependence on traders and credit shrunk by negative global market trends. Development in the guise of tourism and conservation projects limited access to land–sea livelihoods and resources in rural–urban areas (coastal squeeze). Mental modelling clarified resource user perceptions of complex linkages from local to international levels. We underline risks of the poor in marginal coastal areas facing double or multiple exposures to multiple stressors, with climate variability suggesting the risks of climate change.

There is more to sustainable forest management than reduced impact logging. Partnerships between multiple actors are needed in order to create the institutional context for good forest governance and sustainable forest management and stimulate the necessary local community involvement. The idea behind this is that the parties would be able to achieve more jointly than on their own by combining assets, knowledge, skills and political power of actors at different levels of scale. This article aims to demonstrate by example the nature and variety of forest-related partnerships in Brazilian Amazonia. Based on the lessons learned from these cases and the authors¿ experience, the principal characteristics of successful partnerships are described, with a focus on political and socioeconomic aspects. These characteristics include fairly negotiated partnership objectives, the active involvement of the public sector as well as impartial brokers, equitable and cost-effective institutional arrangements, sufficient and equitably shared benefits for all the parties involved, addressing socioeconomic drawbacks, and taking measures to maintain sustainable exploitation levels. The authors argue that, in addition to product-oriented partnerships which focus on sustainable forest management, there is also a need for politically oriented partnerships based on civil society coalitions. The watchdog function of these politically oriented partnerships, their awareness-raising campaigns regarding detrimental policies and practices, and advocacy for good forest governance are essential for the creation of the appropriate legal and political framework for sustainable forest management.

Environmental decisions made by individuals, civil society, and the state involve questions of economic efficiency, environmental effectiveness, equity, and political legitimacy. These four criteria are constitutive of the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, which has become the dominant rhetorical device of environmental governance. We discuss the tendency for disciplinary research to focus on particular subsets of the four criteria, and argue that such a practice promotes solutions that do not acknowledge the dynamics of scale and the heterogeneity of institutional contexts. We advocate an interdisciplinary framework for the analysis of environmental decisionmaking that seeks to identify legitimate and context-sensitive institutional solutions producing equitable, efficient, and effective outcomes. We demonstrate the usefulness of our approach by using it to examine decisions concerning contested nature conservation and multiple-use commons in the management of Hickling Broad in Norfolk in the United Kingdom. We conclude that interdisciplinary approaches enable the generalisation and transfer of lessons in a way that respects the specifics and context of the issue at hand.

This paper examines the evolution and development of institutions involved in the establishment of extractive reserves. It focuses on the different actors, organisations and projects concerned with extractive reserves in Rondonia in western Amazonia, Brazil. Extractive reserves are supported by a wide range of different actors and agencies, within a rapidly evolving institutional context. Extractive reserves are widely seen as a means of integrating forest conservation and local socio-economic development. As such, they have gained the support to the international environmental movement, multilateral and state development organisations, and grassroots community and producer organisations. These institutions represent a vast array of diverse interest which range from conservation of biodiversity, economic and social cohesion, and regional and national development. Extractive reserves are promoted as a means to achieve each of these objectives. However these ends are not necessarily complementary or compatible, and the integration of conservation and development is by no means easy to achieve. Whilst the various actors and institutions claim mutual and complementary interest, they form shifting alliances and coalitions in order to further their interests. This paper maps these institutions and interests and describes how alliances have been formed and broken, and how this has contributed to the currently observed implementation of extractive reserves. It analyses how the evolving institutions have been able to forward sustainable development in Amazonia and who benefits from alliances and coalitions. The paper argues that extractive reserves are constrained by the dissonance or misfit in discourses and underlying worldviews, reflected by the aims and objectives of the institutions which promote, oppose and lose or benefit from their implementation. This misfit is overcome, in part, by alliances formed between the different institutions, and in part by the creation of new institutions and projects.

This chapter contributes to a political understanding of multi-sector partnerships based on a case study of extractive reserves in the Brazilian state of Rondonia in western Amazonia. It explores some of the more recent arguments that support multi-stakeholder arrangements for environmental management and the key issues that are likely to affect multi-sector partnerships. Next, the chapter describes and analyses three different processes which are essential for the setting up of extractive reserves and which guarantee their overall viability-the creation, the legal implementation and the development of extractive reserves, with the latter focusing on efforts to build management capacity and to improve economic viability. It concludes with some reflections on the role of partnerships in grassroots empowerment, the constraints on effective cooperation and coordination between stakeholders involved in sustainable forest management and the requirements for better integration between actors and institutions at different scales.Keywords: Brazilian Amazonia; extractive reserves; multi-sectorpartnerships; multi-stakeholder process; Partnerships; Rondonia; sustainable forest management

On the eve of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, it is timely to assess progress over the 10 years since its predecessor in Rio de Janeiro. Loss and degradation of remaining natural habitats has continued largely unabated. However, evidence has been accumulating that such systems generate marked economic benefits, which the available data suggest exceed those obtained from continued habitat conversion. We estimate that the overall benefit:cost ratio of an effective global program for the conservation of remaining wild nature is at least 100:1.

UID/SOC/04647/2013 SFRH/BPD/110975/2015 A participação pública tem vindo a assumir uma importância crescente no contexto dos processos de planeamento e gestão territorial. No caso específico das zonas costeiras, muitos países conferem um papel central ao envolvimento dos stakeholders nos processos de planeamento. Algo que envolve um elevado grau de complexidade, designadamente em resultado dos desafios inerentes à convergência entre as partes. Esta complexidad tende a exacerbar-se com o agravamento da vulnerabilidade das zonas costeiras a novos fatores de pressão, com destaque para os efeitos das alterações climáticas, nomeadamente a subida do nível médio do mar e à ocorrência de eventos climáticos extremos. É expectável que estas vulnerabilidades se traduzam num aumento e intensidade do risco de cheias, inundações e galgamentos costeiros, bem como da submersão permanente de áreas litorais de baixa altitude. Acresce que estes territórios se destacam pela atratividade que exercem, com elevadas concentrações populacionais e de atividades económicas, e pelo seu elevado valor ecológico, associado à biodiversidade destas áreas. Tais especificidades colocam um conjunto de novos desafios, incluindo no domínio do ordenamento do território. Neste contexto, a revisão de literatura e entrevistas a atores chave em questões ligadas ao ordenamento do território em zonas costeiras em Portugal Continental, revela que o reconhecimento destes riscos e vulnerabilidades tem dado origem à elaboração de agendas para a adaptação às alterações climáticas a diferentes escalas. Estas agendas visam a definição e implementação de diferentes medidas para a adaptação e resolução de conflitos decorrentes dos diversos usos, procurando promover o aumento da resiliência destes territórios. Os resultados apontam ainda para a emergência de novos conflitos decorrentes da aplicação destas medidas que se evidenciam nas várias escalas de governança e também entre os stakeholders com níveis de conhecimento, objetivos e interesse distintos. publishersversion published

Extractive reserves are important initiatives in tropical forest zones which seek to integrate conservation of natural resources with development and human welfare objectives. Increasingly in such initiatives empowerment of local communities is seen as both a means of achieving this integration and as an end in itself. This article presents a theoretically informed analysis of the interactions between rubber tappers and environmental organizations in the establishment and implementation of extractive reserves in Rondonia Brazil. It distinguishes two dimensions of empowerment--political and economic--and examines how the alliances between organizations have impacted differentially on the two dimensions. The analysis suggests that these alliances have so far been more successful in enabling political rather than economic empowerment. Advances in political empowerment are shown in the short-term at least not to have resulted in improvements in livelihood conditions of poor forest dwellers. (authors)

UID/SOC/04647/2013 SFRH/BPD/110975/2015 As zonas costeiras e, em particular, as regiões estuarinas apresentam-se particularmente suscetíveis aos efeitos das alterações climáticas, com destaque para os efeitos decorrentes da subida do nível médio do mar. Algo que coloca um conjunto de novos e complexos desafios em diferentes domínios, nomeadamente às políticas de ordenamento e planeamento do território. Neste contexto, procede-se a uma análise comparativa da abordagem dos instrumentos de gestão territorial com incidências em regiões estuarinas tendo por base os casos de Portugal (estuário do Tejo) e de África do Sul (estuário do Breede). Uma análise que permitiu identificar as seguintes orientações/boas práticas passíveis de transposição para Portugal: adoção de um pacote legislativo que estabelece um quadro de referência preciso para a elaboração de planos de estuário; determinação de zonas de proteção que visam garantir a resiliência territorial face aos efeitos das alterações climáticas; adoção de metodologias de participação que garantem uma efetiva participação dos stakeholders. publishersversion published

UID/SOC/04647/2013 Os efeitos das alterações climáticas em zonas costeiras têm colocado em evidência a necessidade de adoção de medidas de adaptação no contexto das agendas políticas, a várias escalas de governação. Destes efeitos destacam-se aqueles que decorrem da subida do nível médio do mar e ainda os que estão associados ao aumento da frequência e intensidade de eventos climáticos extremos, aumentando a vulnerabilidade destes territórios. Algo particularmente relevante, na medida em que, para além de distintos valores ecológicos, estas áreas apresentam elevadas concentrações populacionais, tendo subjacente um risco não despiciendo para pessoas e bens. Neste contexto, as medidas de adaptação, no domínio do planeamento e ordenamento do território em áreas litorais de baixa altitude, têm vindo a merecer cada vez maior atenção. Por um lado, devido à exposição direta a que estes territórios estão sujeitos e, por outro lado, devido à pressão exercida pelos stakeholders no sentido de se efetivarem estratégias de adaptação. Não obstante, a consensualização destas estratégias entre as partes interessadas tem-se demonstrando um processo complexo, colocando novos desafios à implementação de políticas de planeamento que visem o aumento da resiliência destes territórios. Com base nestas premissas, procedeu-se à revisão da literatura de forma a perceber as principais razões apontadas às divergências entre os stakeholders, passíveis de gerarem situações de conflito. Complementarmente a esta análise, foram ainda tidas em conta entrevistas a atores-chave no domínio do planeamento e ordenamento do território em zonas costeiras em Portugal. Os resultados obtidos com esta abordagem metodológica sugerem alguma resistência à mudança por parte das comunidades locais. Verificou-se ainda que os métodos associados aos processos participativos nem sempre são considerados os mais adequados. É ainda de referir que o acesso e qualidade da informação são igualmente mencionados como causas geradoras de conflito e, bem assim, de divergência entre as partes. The effects of climate change on coastal zones have highlighted the need for policy agendas, at various scales of governance, to adopt adaptation measures. Of particular importance are the effects associated with sea level rise, as well as those resulting from the increase in frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, increasing their vulnerability. This is particularly relevant since, in addition to the ecological values coastal zones, these areas have high population concentrations, with a substantial risk to people and property. In this context, adaptation measures in the domain of spatial planning have received increasing attention. On the one hand, this is due to the direct exposure to which these territories are subject to and, on the other hand, to the demands of stakeholders for adaptation strategies, which in some cases are merely limited to defensive measures. Nonetheless, securing consensus among stakeholders over adaptation strategies has been shown to be a complex process, posing new challenges to the implementation of planning policies aimed at increasing resilience. Based on these premises, we undertook a literature review in order to understand the main reasons for divergences between stakeholders which generate situations of conflict. Interviews were also conducted with key stakeholders in the field of planning and land use in coastal areas of Portugal. The results suggest some resistance to change by local communities. The research also found that methods associated with participatory processes are not always considered the most appropriate. Moreover, access to and quality of information were also mentioned as causes of conflict, and therefore, of divergence between the parties. publishersversion published