In April, Saskia van Gool became the project manager of MANABAS COAST. A good fit, since she is specialized in the topic of water safety issues, has a background in biology, and manages a knowledge program on sea level rise for the Dutch government. Read along as Saskia shares more about the current progress of MANABAS and the steps ahead!
A new nature-based perspective
Given her interest in the topic, Saskia is excited about being involved. MANABAS focuses on finding solutions for the problems we face at the coast, such as such as sea level rise and coastal erosion. It also aims to make Nature-based Solutions (NbS) a more standard approach to these coastal problems. Saskia: “Doing this in a nature-based way is very interesting and a further improvement to our way of working. And it fits very well with my background, too.”
To find and test these solutions, the six countries that take part in MANABAS are actively working at fifteen different pilot sites. These are used for experimenting, but also for defining specific barriers and learning how to overcome them.
Midway on the road to mainstreaming
The project recently reached its halfway point. “We are now halfway, and we have a lot of lessons learned”, Saskia shares. This marks a shift within the project. “It is time to take the next step. We want to use all the information we have gathered so far and work towards mainstreaming NbS.” That means the focus of the pilots is also moving from gathering information and learning, to creating ways for upscaling NbS and making it more the standard approach. “What mainstreaming means exactly can differ per country or partner”, Saskia emphasizes. “That is why I find it very important to learn from each other and support one another.”
To help the pilots make the shift to mainstreaming, the project is working on providing tools. “Think of tools such as the Theory of Change, questionnaires or formats that help pilots make a strategy towards mainstreaming, and tools for defining a circle of influence”, Saskia explains. When asked what next step she looks forward to, Saskia’s answer is clear: “I am looking forward to see more and more results coming out of the pilots, out of the strategies for mainstreaming, and out of how-to groups that find solutions for barriers. These results give all of us a lot of information we can learn from.”
Saskia’s vision
Her biggest hope for MANABAS is that NbS will become a much more common way of thinking when having to solve coastal problems. “Not only for professionals, but also for decision makers. The nature-based approach should always be one of the possibilities to decide upon.”
While the topic of NbS is very nice to work on, it is not the only thing she appreciates about working on MANABAS. Saskia: “Of course it is a very interesting topic, but on top of that I very much enjoy working together with all our partners.” She enjoys the meetings and the positive attitude of all the people involved. “The people working within MANABAS are very nice to work with. They are all enthusiastic professionals!”