Climate change has already had a visible impact on coastal areas: rise in sea level, extreme weather events, erosion and so on. The Adapto project is now in its second phase and, with the support of TotalEnergies Foundation, is aiming to develop solutions grounded in adaptive coastline management.
The Conservatoire du littoral, a public organization, acquires natural areas on the coast with the aim of protecting them from artificialization and preserving their ecological and patrimonial abundance, while leaving them accessible to the public.
In 2015 as part of the European LIFE program, the Conservatoire launched the Adapto project. Adapto explores solutions to the impacts of climate change, based in particular on adaptive coastal management. It’s an approach that aims to restore and/or preserve the natural balance, mobility and protective capabilities of this contact zone between land and sea.
Experimental actions have already been taken on about a dozen pilot sites distributed over the entire French coastline and representative of the diversity of coastal ecosystems. In the long term, more effective solutions can then be reproduced on other coastal sites, both in France and abroad.
As part of its focus area Climate, Coastal areas and Oceans, TotalEnergies Foundation has supported the implementation of the projects since 2017. As the first phase of the Adapto project ends, the TotalEnergies Foundation has renewed its support to the Conservatoire du littoral, so that it can take things a step further, through Adapto+.
To begin with, the support will help the Conservatoire du littoral to put together a new LIFE application for the European authorities.
Further down the line, the aim is to extend the scope of the original program to two more sites. In Brasinvert, in the Parc Naturel Régional de Camargue, new monitoring programs and studies will be conducted to ramp up the protection of natural habitats (beaches, dunes, riverbanks) and the resident species (tortoises, birds, flora, etc.). Educational packs will also be offered to young people to raise their awareness of the importance of preserving this environment.
In the Hérault region of France, the first phase of the Adapto project focused on a part of the Lido de l’Or, and the aim now is to extend the actions to the entire site. A change in scale that is based in particular on building effective coordination among the different stakeholders in land use planning and development: local authorities, State services, financial backers, etc.
