MUSSEL FARMING ACTIVITY IN THERMAIKOS GULF: AN OVERVIEW FOCUSING ON THE CHALLENGES OF STAKEHOLDERS' PARTNERSHIPS AND INTERDISCIPLINARITY IN THE FRAMEWORK OF ICZM Konstantinou Z.I., Krestenitis Y.N. Division of Hydraulics & Environmental Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, 54124, Greece Abstract This paper attempts to deal with two main categories of challenges faced in any ICZM attempt: (i) those created during the interface of different stakeholders (administrators, private investors, public, scientific community, etc.) and (ii) those created during the interface between experts from different fields (for instance between environmentalists and engineers or sociologists, etc.) during the drawing up of integrated management plans. The issue is very crucial regarding the acceptance and development of integrated coastal management but it is also strongly related to the area of implementation, as the unique cultural and circumstantial characteristics are important parameters of influence. More specifically this paper will focus on the aforementioned elements regarding the sustainable management of the mussel-farming activity on Thermaikos gulf, trying to identify and highlight the reasons determining the interrelationships between different stakeholders and the ways that they affect the implementation of coastal management in the area regarding this issue. Keywords: stakeholders, interdisciplinarity, mussel farming, Thermaikos gulf. 1. Introduction The basic concept of Integrated Coastal Zone Management is utterly related both to (i) the comprehension of the stakeholders in the decision-making process and also to (ii) the collaboration of multidiscipline experts to the plan and implementation procedure (Tett et al.2011). Those fields can provide a range of opportunities for collaboration and development yet they can also prove to be handicaps of ICZM when the interaction procedure is not kept clear and transparent through all of its stages. The literature provides a range of examples about the importance of stakeholder involvement in the success of ICZM planning deriving from case-studies through the entire world. Yet those cases often reveal the importance that the different cultural and circumstantial characteristics play in the implementation of participatory approaches in management and decision making. In this paper an effort will be made in order to identify the aforementioned “hot spots” regarding stakeholders’ participatory approaches and interdisciplinarity in science in the area of Thermaikos gulf and particularly in the field of mussel-farming activity. More specifically, the paper will provide an overview of (a) the way mussel farming activity is organised in Thermaikos gulf, occupationally, institutionally and legally, (b) the problems that have been encountered, (c) the ways in which the interrelationships of the stakeholders have been affected and (d) the role of scientists and their interrelationships in the overall situation. Those elements were initially 1 identified during the implementation of the System Approach Framework (Hopkins et al.2011) in the framework of the EU project SPICOSA, and are still under study. 2. Overview 2.1 THE ACTIVITY The issue of sustainable management of the mussel farming activity in the area of Thermaikos gulf, Northern Greece, have been raised more than 10 years ago. The activity is taking place in 7 different areas in the gulf: 2 major sites in the areas of Chalastra and Loudias, at NW Thermaikos, responsible for approximately the 60% of the national mussel production, 3 slightly smaller sites in the areas of Kitros and Klidi, W Thermaikos, and 2 minor sites with few farming units in the areas of Aggelochori and Nea Michaniona, E Thermaikos. The mussel farming activity of the area is responsible for approximately the 90% of the overall national mussel production (NCMR,2001). The cultivated organism is the Mediterranean mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis that due to the climatologic conditions presents very good quality (high condition index) and two production cycles annually (NCMR,2001;Galinou-Mitsoudi et al.2006). Fig. 1: Thermaikos gulf & the mussel farming areas. The importance of the activity is multiple: the two major cultivation sites are inside the zones of Axios – Loudias – Aliakmonas, areas protected under the Ramsar convention, yet mussel farming is one of the few activities compatible to the protection status as it is non invasive and can 2 actually enhance the water quality as it have been proved from several studies (indicatively Lindahl et al.2005). The activity provides employment to a sufficient number of people from the contiguous communities, both directly and indirectly. Additionally, most of the mussel production is exported to Europe, contributing to the GDP of Greece. Although the activity was highly promising in the past and thus attracted many investments from the local communities, the last ten years a number of unresolved issues have occurred transforming the socio-economic profile of mussel farming. Under a more careful observation one realises that these issues existed from the beginning, but were only revealed when the mussel production started to decline. Further explanation will follow. 2.2 THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK The internal structure of the Greek Laws and legislations is very complicated and dysfunctional. For one issue, different legislations are applied, with multiple authorities sharing responsibility. This causes organizational problems, like overlaps or vacancies of responsibility, discomfort to the citizens, and great delay referring to the processes that are related to the public sector. In Table 1 are indicatively presented some selected legal acts referring to aquaculture in Greece. Most of the times the new legal acts are modifying certain parts of the previous ones creating confusion to the responsible authorities as well. Table 1: Indicative legal framework applied for Greek mussel-farming Legal Act Description M.D. 46399/1352/1986 Required water quality for bivalve cultivation G.G. 207/1999 L.2742 Spatial planning and sustainable development G.G. 1784B/2005 Water use license categories EU D. 2006/113/EU On the quality required of shellfish waters P.D. 79/2007 Hygiene regulations for animal deriving food J.M.D. 121570/1866/2009 Regulation of issues regarding aquaculture units G.G. 374/2009 License regulation of aquaculture units P.D. 28/2009 Sanitary controls for aquaculture products G.G. 210/2011 Legal framework for the operation of producers associations G.G. 1440B/2011 Presuppositions for the granting of water use licenses G.G. 31722/2011 Special framework of spatial planning for aquaculture development 2.3 THE STAKEHOLDERS The stakeholders implicated to the management of the mussel farming activity belong to three major categories: • The people working at the sector of mussel farming. This category incorporates the owners of the mussel farms, the employees in the sector, the employees in related activities (mussel processing, etc) and the mussel dealers. • The representatives of the public institutions. These institutions were separated until recently into central, regional, prefectional and municipal levels, but other sub-categories also existed inside these levels. Changes in the legal framework regarding the prefectional and regional administrative management of the country have altered the authorities and responsibilities of several public institutions in ways that are not yet sufficiently defined. 3 • The scientists that are working in aspects of the mussel farming activity. These are almost exclusively experts of different environmental fields, i.e. biologists, ichthyologists, geochemists, environmentalists, veterinarians, engineers, etc. The fields of economic and social sciences are underrepresented in this category and there was little research activity carried out in these sectors until now. The people working at the mussel farming sector are not a homogenous group. First of all every mussel farming area in Thermaikos gulf has its own association of mussel farmers. Until today this was rather necessary as every area belongs to different municipality and it was probably facilitating several issues connected to bureaucracy. In some cases, for reasons that will be presented below, the mussel farmers retain more than one association per area, i.e. Chalasta has four (4) different associations (totally 200 members). The employees in the sector are seasonal, most of the times low paid immigrants that are working without receiving health insurance and working benefits. They are not represented in any way in any of the areas of mussel farming. The mussel-dealers in most of the cases are mussel farmers that retain large industrialized farm units and process centers. They are very few, but they have a lot of power, as they basically merchandise all the production of Thermaikos to foreign markets. The core of the management issues of the mussel farming activity in Thermaikos gulf lays in the complication around the institutional management of the area. The 7 mussel farming areas until recently belonged to three (3) prefectures1 and to five (5) municipalities2. The procedure of management is very complicated as it implicates twelve to fourteen institutional entities, as listed below: • Local Municipality. • Authority for the Management of the Protection Area of Axios – Loudias – Aliakmonas estuaries (for Chalastra and Loudias). • Regional Directorate of Environment and Land