During 2023 in total 231 stakeholders were consulted in 15 research areas (Fig. 1) within the MARBEFES and Marine SABRES projects on their viewpoints regarding the balance between the ecology, society and economy in their marine coastal environment, and the pressures acting on it. The research areas were distributed over 5 major regions: Macaronesia, Mediterranean, Atlantic Coast, Baltic, and Arctic. The stakeholders belonged to 4 major categories, i.e., public audience and NGOs, public authorities, industry and private sector, and academia and research.
A few variables were perceived by most stakeholders (>50%) to be highly important all over Europe. These were regarding the ecological environment the Nature and Biodiversity, in the socio-economic environment the Economy and Large-scale Tourism, and as a pressure Pollution.
Though Large-scale Tourism has a positive influence on the economy, it is often judged to have a negative impact on the society and coastal developments. Therefore, governance bodies should formulate stronger rules and regulations to control and balance this pressure, and to find alternatives through small-scale tourism and diversification of activities.
For most other environmental variables a clear north-south gradient in the importance or strength came to the foreground, with 1) Macaronesia and Mediterranean (south Europe) being similar, 2) the Atlantic Coast and Baltic being rather similar (called middle Europe), and 3) the Arctic (north Europe).
In south and north Europe a higher importance is given to ecological aspects, such as conservation, protected areas, and iconic or exotic species, than in the middle of Europe.
Several economic activities are valuated of higher importance In the middle of Europe, such as large-scale fisheries, harbour activities, infrastructure and transport, whereas, in the south and north of Europe less, and more small-scale and local, economic variables are judged to be more important, such as SMEs, small-scale tourism, and local fisheries.
Though governance, rules and regulations at the national and international level are fairly important all over Europe, especially local rules and regulation are more important in south and north Europe than in the middle of Europe.
Also socio-cultural variables, as the societal integrity, are viewed more important in the south and north of Europe than in the middle of Europe.
In the north of Europe the pressure by climate change is perceived as more important than in the rest of Europe. A negative influence of agriculture on the other variables, as e.g. water quality, came especially in the Baltic to the foreground.
The viewpoints among different categories of stakeholders hardly differed from each other. Only one remarkable exception was found – the public authorities in Macaronesia had similar viewpoints as those on the mainland and differed from the other stakeholder on the islands, as if these authorities are strongly connected, or act according, to the governance of the mainland (Portugal and Spain).
Several stakeholders indicated that the management and monitoring of the coastal zone should become more adequate and consistent. To this end, the collaboration between government bodies and stakeholders should improve, whereby the governance bodies and agencies should communicate more and improve their coordination.