About the Project
Coasts are more than places of recreation. They are shared spaces, natural ecosystems and common goods connected to environmental protection, accessibility, citizenship and community life.
- Programme
- Erasmus+ KA210-ADU
- Field
- Adult education & capacity building
- Host organisation
- Fotoessa
- Partners
- Aequalitas | Impactrip
- Geographical focus
- Greece / Saronic Gulf · Portugal
Guardians of the Coasts is an Erasmus+ project that places citizens at the centre of coastal protection.
Through non-formal education, participatory workshops, dialogue with experts and local stakeholders, and practical tools for collective action, the project strengthens people’s ability to understand the challenges affecting their coasts and to take informed and constructive action.
The challenge
For years, a critical and intensifying issue has been unfolding in Greece around free access to the coastline and citizens’ right to the sea. This right is guaranteed by the Greek Constitution and by the legal framework for the foreshore and the beach, which defines coasts as a public common good.
Yet reality on the ground often departs from the law. Mass tourism, large-scale tourist investment, private business activity and the commercialisation of coastal space have in many cases restricted — or indirectly abolished — free public access to the sea. Unauthorised occupation of beaches, extensive placement of leisure equipment, fencing or blocked access points have become almost the norm in many places.
What we do
The project brings together:
- citizens and active community members,
- environmental and civic organisations,
- local authorities,
- researchers and experts,
- legal professionals,
- young people,
- volunteers,
- local businesses and other coastal stakeholders.
Its approach moves from knowledge to participation and from participation to action. Participants explore coastal environmental challenges, citizens’ rights and responsibilities, advocacy, collaboration, stakeholder engagement and the practical steps required to transform concern into collective action.
Greece and Portugal, together
The partnership unites Fotoessa in Greece with Aequalitas and Impactrip in Portugal: research on legal frameworks and good practice, skills development for citizens, exchange of innovative practice between the two countries, and an open dialogue on overtourism, public space, environmental protection and sustainable coastal management.
Our beaches: a common good.A shared responsibility.A common future.
