SUMMARYThe Integrated Coastal Zone Management protocol of the Barcelona Convention sets governance objectives for countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. This protocol emphasizes collaborative approaches to acknowledge the role of local people in coastal management. Evaluating the quality of governance processes is critical if coastal zone values are to be effectively managed in times of global climate change. This study examined the structure and attributes of collaborative governance networks in two Mediterranean deltas, the Camargue (France) and Gediz Delta (Turkey). A deliberative social catchment sampling was used to target actors with physical, cultural, social or economic ties. Forty-five different organizations/professions were interviewed using a standardized questionnaire to identify the frequency and quality of contacts, information flows, and subject matter relevant to natural resource management. There were higher levels of degree centrality and reciprocal ties in the Camargue, while the Gediz Delta had a greater homogeneity of actors, with one centralized influential actor. Civil society played a greater role in the Camargue network, and government organizations were more central in the Gediz Delta. The differences between the two sites call into question the use of the same integrated management strategies and suggest the need to acknowledge the importance of existing governance models and relationships within local contexts.

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Participatory mapping provides a way to collate a wide range of landscape values providing a visual representation to inform conservation planning. We tested the use of an iconic species, the Greater Flamingo, as a lens for participatory mapping to render explicit the socio-cultural values attributed in a landscape. Spatial information on six landscape values in a biodiversity hotspot, the Camargue Biosphere Reserve (southern France) was collected from 113 participants through surveys, interviews and workshops. This data was geolocated through a SoftGIS methodology to map and quantify the overlap of bivariate hotspots identifying value concurrence. The most frequent values recorded through total number of polygons and surface areas were wilderness and recreation. The least frequently mapped values were economic loss and biodiversity. There was frequent concurrence between biodiversity and aesthetic values especially in wetlands (lagoons, salt flats and sea). There was also frequent concurrence between biodiversity and recreational values with more overlap in sites with easy access (along roads and public areas). Our results show that using an iconic species is an effective way to render explicit spatial variations in the values attributed to a landscape and to identify concurrence of values, thus enabling integration of multiple landscape values in conservation planning how to cite :