On 11 October 2022, on the premises of the Provveditorato Interregionale alle Opere Pubbliche and CORILA, in Palazzo X Savi, Venice, Italy, the first stakeholder meeting, organised within the REST-COAST project, took place.

The aim of the Restoration Platform (the so called "CORE-PLAT"), that involves Public Administrations, Trade associations and Enterprises experts in nature-based solutions (NbS) techniques application, NGOs and other associations, is to overcome barriers, promote synergies among the different entities (i.e. the scientific world and the relevant stakeholder and experts of the sector) and to discuss the quantification of the Ecosystem Services provided by a healthy lagoon ecosystem. Moreover, the focus of the CORE-PLAT is to utilise innovative restoration techniques to obtain an improved and long-term maintenance of the benefits provided by the large-scale restoration. 

The objectives of the Venice stakeholder meeting was to identify the main challenges in the Venice Lagoon, to discuss the environmental restoration actions necessary to contrast them and to point out best practices, that will enable the lagoon governance to be more participatory with regards to the decision making, planning and management processes of such interventions.

The newly established local community will meet regularly, not only during REST-COAST's project duration, but also beyond its end, in order to facilitate long-lasting results in terms of coastal restoration.

Below you can watch the summary video of our stakeholder meeting in Venice, Italy.

Photo: REST-COAST stakeholder meeting in Venice, Italy (credit to CORILA).