MANABAS COAST workshop focused on salt marsh management in a changing climate
From 7-11 October 2024, project partners of the INTERREG North Sea Programme project MAinstreaming NAture BAsed Solutions through COASTal systems (MANABAS COAST; 2022-2027) met in Groningen, Netherlands. The meeting, organised by Rijkswaterstaat, NLWKN, and the Common Wadden Sea Secretariat (CWSS), included multiple excursions: to the Afsluitdijk, the Dutch and German sides of the Ems estuary, and to sites along the Wadden Sea coast near Groningen. The excursions provided valuable input to working group discussions on salt marsh management, sandy coasts, monitoring, and the legal framework of salt marsh management.
Climate change is becoming a significant threat to World Heritage sites and the Wadden Sea is no exception. The Trilateral Wadden Sea Cooperation (TWSC) is working to address these impacts through its Climate Change Adaptation Strategy (CCAS), which aims to enhance the resilience of the Wadden Sea ecosystem. An important element for climate change adaptation is the management of salt marshes, which provide essential ecosystem services like carbon storage and coastal flood defence. Salt marsh management varies across Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands, with a mix of passive and active strategies employed for multiple purposes: enhance biodiversity, support coastal flood defence (Nature based Solution, NbS), agriculture, etc. However, sea level rise driven by climate change poses a growing risk to these habitats.
The MANABAS COAST project aims to develop an accessible and evidence-based framework for large-scale implementation of NbS in coastal areas, addressing climate impacts while enhancing biodiversity and human well-being. A side event was a workshop on 10 October, titled "Nature Conservation and Coastal Flood Defence: How Much Salt Marsh Management Do We Want and Need in a Changing Climate?", organised by CWSS, the trilateral Expert Groups Climate Change Adaptation, Salt Marshes and Dunes, and partners of the MANABAS COAST project. Over 60 participants from from Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and France discussed salt marsh management in the context of climate adaptation.
The workshop emphasised the importance of natural dynamics – the guiding principle of the TWSC – and of system-wide understanding for salt marsh management and highlighted the role of historical data in informing future strategies. Participants also discussed the restoration of salt marshes – a topic with growing importance also in the light of the EU nature restoration law. Overall, the workshop reinforced the need for a collaborative approach to ensure the Wadden Sea remains resilient in the face of climate change.