Co-construction of environmental solutions with environmental managers and researchers – Mediation and communication with stakeholders
Experience shows that :
1. research projects often follow one another without any operational “solution” enabling managers to improve the quality of coastal waters
2. for the general public, research remains a rather mysterious object, with little understanding of its mechanisms or usefulness.
The stakeholders
The communities of researchers and managers (administrations, government departments, public establishments, managers of protected areas, which we are extending here to include fisheries and shellfish committees) do not traditionally have the same goals or the same vocabulary. In RIOMAR, we are therefore going to multiply the number of workshops bringing together the research and management communities, so that each can appropriate the other’s vocabulary and issues, so that mutual training can be provided, and so that the project actually produces results that can be appropriated by the managers.
The general public
In addition to disseminating information on the life of the project via social networks, RIOMAR is teaming up with the NGO CliMates to raise public awareness of the effects of climate change on coastal waters, and is working with the science journalism program at the University of Versailles to disseminate the results, is committed to developing attractive media for disseminating results (e.g. TED Talks), and will address RIOMAR themes with elementary school children as part of initiatives supported by Ifremer (“Mon Lopin de Mer“, “Adopt a Float, “Débattre sans se battre“). A visual artist, Marie Lavault, will accompany the project, offering a sensitive interpretation of our research themes.