The Baixo Vouga Lagunar (BVL) is located in the confluence of Vouga River with Ria de Aveiro coastal lagoon, which is integrated in Natura 2000 network. BVL natural characteristics permit a strong and balanced relationship between humans, land and water. The human presence, through farming, shaped the landscape as a function of production objectives and economic sustainability. Being a location of agriculture and life-stock activities and an important ecotone for several species, the adaptation to climate changes is mandatory if the provisioning of the ecosystem services are to be preserved.
The expected impacts of climate change in BVL include: changes in the precipitation pattern, increase of coastline erosion and saltwater intrusion through the lagoon and aquifers in adjacent areas. Moreover, the estimated increase in temperature and changes in the precipitation pattern will lead to drought events during the summer and floods during the winter. The changes in the precipitation pattern will additionally reduce the capability for aquifer recharge and in combination with sea level rise, increase the exposure to saltwater intrusion in BVL (Dias et al. 2014; Stefanova et al. 2015).
In the present study the theory of planned behaviour was applied as a general framework to understand stakeholders’ engagement in the process of planning adaptation to climate change, using 2050 as a temporal reference (Luís et al. 2015). For the BVL, 31 stakeholders responded to a survey. Results showed that Stakeholders’ intention of engaging in planning adaptation to CC was relatively high. Intention was mostly correlated to subjective norm towards engaging, which was medium, indicating stakeholders felt a medium amount of social pressure to engage in this process. This suggests that intention was likely determined by subjective norm. In turn, subjective norm was correlated to normative beliefs (e.g., towards other stakeholders and policymakers), and therefore was likely determined by such beliefs.
To the local community, BVL is still regarded as an ecosystem in a good condition, with a prevalent perceived risk for its fragility to climate change impacts. It is important for the policy makers to be aware of the locals´ perceptions towards climate changes impacts and policies and their willingness to be engaged in the process. The engagement of local communities should be encouraged as they can be a pivotal factor on the elaboration of realistic and executable policies, as well be a decisive factor for the achievement of the objectives aimed for climate changes adaption plans.