There is growing evidence of international immigration becoming increasingly influential in peripheral areas in some Southern European countries. Particularly in small localities, where the maintenance of a significant number of active populations is crucial for social, economic and environmental sustainability, immigration can be of vital importance for local and regional policy-making. This paper presents the perceptions, experiences and concerns of various international immigrant stakeholders in Southwest Europe regarding the main challenges in achieving sustainability. Its focus is on rural areas and small towns in Alentejo Litoral (Southwest Portugal) and Alt Empordà (Catalonia, Northeast Spain), places where foreign immigration is above the national average. Using qualitative methods (semi-structured interviews, literature review and participant observation), the main findings show how immigrant stakeholders’ perceptions of local sustainability are rich, engaged and diverse, including interesting differences between some Northwest European immigrants and less advantaged immigrants, e.g. Northwest European immigrants (i.e. British, Germans, French, Dutch, Belgians) stress environmental challenges for sustainability much more than the rest. Overcoming some native prejudices, immigrants in Alentejo Litoral and Alt Empordà also contribute to local knowledge of the ways to achieve dynamic local societies and economies, as well as conserve natural protected areas and agricultural environments.@en

Climate change impacts are no longer just a future issue for communities in the Mediterranean climate regions. This comparative study offers insights on climate change risk perceptions and attitudes among environmental, economic and social stakeholders in coastal areas in northeastern Spain and South Australia, as well as compares interviewed stakeholders’ risk perceptions with available documentary data and participant observation. Using a community risk assessment approach, the results show that some stakeholders perceive that climate change is already and/or may further continue to affect their employment, mostly in a predominantly negative way. Interestingly, some other interviewed stakeholders consider that climate change creates opportunities through new and additional areas of work. The findings also suggest that climate change may influence relocation of coastal residential populations in both case studies, which is likely to be an acceptable option among the stakeholders. This acceptance can be linked to the fact that in both areas there is a significant percentage of resident population with migrant background. This study calls for a need to understand better the personal experience of climate change in industrialized countries, as well as to consider coastal relocation in the integrated coastal planning and other territorial and population policies.

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Climate change is widely recognised as a serious threat, especially to some Mediterranean wetlands; therefore, their ongoing protection is of great concern. Aiguamolls de l'Empordà (north-east Catalonia, Spain) and Kotychi-Strofylia wetland (western Greece) are considered important coastal wetlands deserving protection both by European and national authorities. The main aim of this study was to explore stakeholders' perceptions on local climate change there and to contrast these perceptions with some of the local meteorological data from the Estartit station (near Aiguamolls de l'Empordà) and Andravida station (near Kotychi-Strofylia). Semi-structured interviews with thirty-six stakeholders from both coastal wetlands have been conducted with the aim of understanding the perception and constraints facing those currently engaged in a wide range of social, political, environmental and economic activities in both territories. The research results showed that major climate change effects such as increased air temperature, precipitation change, prolonged droughts and shifting seasons were more pronounced over the past twenty years and are of particular concern in both wetlands and their surrounding areas. Moreover, the stakeholders from Spain had a higher awareness of sustainability issues than those from Greece. It is worth mentioning that about two-thirds of the interviewed stakeholders in both areas perceived their coastal wetlands as unsustainable. In addition, stakeholders from the Greek area had higher willingness for not emigrating from their territory than those from Spain. Finally, about half of the stakeholders indicated that they are in favour of natural adaptation measures based on technical solutions such as setting up sand dunes and beach barriers.

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Climate change seems likely that will greatly affect natural protected areas and other vulnerable areas such as Mediterranean. Thus Aiguamolls de l'Empordà can be regarded as a key case study to assess current knowledge and perceptions of the potential climate change effects on the coastal population and economies in the Spanish Mediterranean region. This study finds out that it is essential to gather and integrate local traditional knowledge with scientific knowledge in order to develop successful responses to climate change. Furthermore, it supports the position that vulnerability analysis must be participatory and must include social, cultural, environmental, economic and political dimensions, like it was the case in this research.According to the quantitative and qualitative data gathered, major climate change effects such as increase in air temperature over the past few decades, a decrease in precipitation but increase in its intensity, the increase in the severity of droughts, and the decrease in biodiversity and ecosystem services are the most pressing climate change effects and serious threats to the observed area. In addition to this, the location of the coastal municipalities (their exposure) also makes them directly vulnerable to coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion and sea level rise. Stakeholders also found that climate change adaptation is needed and this finding may suggest that even if cost of adaptation is high, further losses to the economy and ecosystems might be even higher.

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