Resilient Lagoons? Climate Change, Sustainability And Adaptation

Abstract

Lagoons are found at low-lying coastlines around the globe (Figure 1) and their associated wetlands are important, dynamic environments. Ensuring the sustainability of the world’s lagoons is vital for communities, ecosystems and economies. Lagoons support highly productive ecosystems and provide critical ecosystem services, societal benefits and myriad fundamental and valuable resources that are vital for the wellbeing and livelihoods of coastal communities. Yet, the sustainability of lagoons and the communities that rely on them are under increasing pressure from a complex set of interconnected issues, including climate change, sea-level rise, pollution, poor waste management, population growth and policy approaches that favour top-down governance to the exclusion of local knowledges and priorities (Convention on Wetlands, 2021). This article summarises the latest research on lagoons using the examples of Muni Lagoon in Ghana and Lagos Lagoon in Nigeria (Figure 1). It also draws from the interdisciplinary dialogues emerging through the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF)-funded Resilient Lagoon Network (see website), which seeks to challenge top-down management approaches and instead prioritise participatory approaches that value local knowledges and in which coastal communities are central to resilient lagoon governance.