An online workshop held on 17 February 2026 brought together key environmental, scientific, and civil society actors to advance collaborative planning for improved marine governance and management. The online session gathered representatives from the Andalucian Government, IEO‑CSIC, ICMAN‑CSIC, the University of Seville, the Fisheries Producer Organization of Conil, WWF Spain, SOLDECOS, and HyT.
Participants provided detailed feedback on the draft tools under development, stressing the need for methodologies that reflect socioeconomic and environmental realities at local and regional scales. Discussions highlighted important gaps for target setting, including dynamic (as opposed to static) data to improve modelling capacity, and multicriteria spatial analysis – all crucial for building more robust, adaptive management approaches.
A central theme of the workshop was the exploration of co‑management and co‑ownership schemes. Stakeholders converged on the importance of an integrated, multilevel, ecosystem‑based co‑management framework, identifying it as the most suitable model for achieving long‑term governance effectiveness.
The workshop concluded with a shared commitment to maintain coordinated action, anchored by the decision to establish a Steering Group with thematic subgroups to guide the next phases of work. This structure will support the co‑development of a draft management plan by 2027, ensuring continuity and collective ownership of the process. Participants’ active engagement and willingness to collaborate reaffirmed the strong regional momentum toward more resilient, inclusive, and science‑based governance frameworks.
