Improving management tools to increase environmental quality of coastal habitats in Europe

Across Europe, natural habitats have been exploited declining their distribution and environmental quality. In the last decades, the enhancement of environmental policies has allowed a growth in the number of projects whose goals were increasing the range of natural habitats, especially in mountain and rural areas. However, coastal habitats could be the most difficult habitats to be recovered due to the over pressure they still suffer. In these areas, outdoor activities, tourism, infrastructures, etc., are being carried out limiting their appropriate conservation and functioning of their ecosystems. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the knowledge of these habitats as a means to comprehend better their problems as well as the know-how of the diverse management tools applied in different countries by the implementation of pilot projects and the raise of awareness in order to make human activities compatible with the conservation of habitats and species that thrive in them.