CoLab: Coastal Laboratories Connecting People and Nature

“In the end, we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand and we will understand only what we are taught.” ― Baba Dioum

Coastal and maritime tourism is identified as a key area for sustainable growth and jobs in the blue economy, supported by UN SDGs and EU strategies. The UN Oceans Decade additionally aims to protect ecosystems, develop a sustainable ocean economy, and change our relationship with the ocean, with tourism playing a vital role. The Kunming-Montreal 30x30 Global Biodiversity Framework also promotes nature-based solutions to safeguard oceans and leverage tourism to achieve these goals sustainably. The question is how we can do this in a sustainable manner.

We will apply the concept of Nature-Positive Economy (NPE), which emphasizes ecological restoration while supporting economic prosperity to tourism activities. This means deploying nature-based solutions (NbS) that contribute ecosystem services, support local economies, and attract travelers who are eco-conscious. A shift to regenerative tourism models can prevent habitat destruction and overexploitation while making tourism offerings more attractive.

Under these frameworks, the purpose of the project is to co-develop a bottom-up blue bio-economy solution that can be applied to various local contexts in the Atlantic-Baltic region. The solution will connect local ecological and cultural knowledge, green processing techniques and apply them to eco-tourism and local product production. Eco-tourism will become a means to promote local culture and importance of biodiversity, and increase economic prosperity of the region. From that, we will build a publicly accessible toolkit to guide business planning, focusing on the importance of stakeholder and community engagement, sustainable practices in resources utilisation, local culture and identity, inclusion, and steering towards regenerative tourism efforts.

The outcome from the project is expected to foster connection to nature, encourage regenerative-outcomes from ecotourism, inclusive development and sustainable production. It will be a resource that is adaptable for diverse communities and all.