The main goal of the Pegaso project is to construct a shared Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) Governance Platform with scientists, users and decision-makers linked with new models of governance. To this end, a paper on governance criteria is being finalised by partners.

The ICZM Governance Platform will facilitate the application of the ecosystem approach to the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts, to support the implementation of the ICZM Protocol - linking the knowledge and information of the different elements required for the equitable and sustainable management of both coastal land and waters.

To implement the ecosystem approach, the Pegaso project has compiled information from all countries in Mediterranean and Black sea countries through an extensive survey across countries, and has presented a summary of the first results to the ICZM Protocol national focal points (representatives from ministries responsible for the environment in Mediterranean and Black Sea countries) in Istanbul, Turkey last October and later during the Extraordinary Meeting of the PAP/RAC National Focal Points, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 18-19 October 2011.

The national focal points welcomed the idea and requested to become users of the Pegaso platform for better governance.

The Platform will foster links between the scientific world and that of decision-making, policy formulation and the everyday management actions at the national, regional and local level. It aims at providing a place for these worlds to meet, exchange, discuss, and argue if necessary to apply the best integrated coastal management solutions based on current scientific data.

The ecosystem approach is a strategy for the integrated management of land, water and living resources that promotes the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources in an equitable way. The application of the ecosystem approach will help to reach a balance of the objectives of the Barcelona Convention. It is based on the application of appropriate scientific methodologies focused on levels of biological organization which encompass the processes, functions and interactions among organisms and their environment. It recognizes that humans, with their cultural diversity, are an integral component of ecosystems.