Participative approaches to the Portuguese maritime cluster

As a public good, sea must be enjoyed and preserved according to the will of the majority of citizens. In order to do that, marine and maritime resources management must be accomplished through participative and democratic processes that increase the probability of correct decisions. The development of a participative sea-related process ought to facilitate the emergence of more creative and reality-adjusted solutions. The paper presents both the results of an inquiry launched to the seventy members (companies and public institutions) of the “Maritime Economy Entrepreneurship Forum” (MEEF) and the synthesis of a Delphi panel–type methodology based on fifteen maritime experts’ opinions. Based in these results, the authors propose a strategy in line with the UNESCO “Community-Based Strategy” (CBS).