About Us

Coastal CURA was a six-year project (2006-2012) that built knowledge and capacity, across the Maritimes, to support community involvement in managing our coasts and oceans. The Coastal CURA – a “Community University Research Alliance” – included a partnership of First Nations communities, fishery-related organizations and university participants, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Coastal CURA reached out to other communities, organizations and academics, as well as to government agencies, interested in contributing to the goals of the project.

Coastal CURA was interested in making a difference close to home, and across the country, wherever coastal communities and coastal resource users faced challenges from a range of environmental, economic and social impacts. Coastal CURA helped to meet these challenges by supporting community involvement in both grass-roots and large-scale integrated coastal and ocean management initiatives – and sought to coordinate management of multiple coastal uses (fishing, aquaculture, shipping, tourism, etc.), and that can have a major impact on the social and economic well-being of coastal communities. 

Across the country, coastal communities and coastal resource users face critical environmental, economic and social challenges. The Coastal CURA helped to meet these challenges - both immediate and long-term - through participatory community-based research that built knowledge and understanding, through improving our analytical and evaluative tools, and through development of organizational and institutional capacity.

We represented a well-developed partnership of academic, civil society, First Nation and fishery-related partners, along with a strong involvement of students. Together, we explored what worked and what did not in community-focused management of fisheries and other coastal resources, and forged a path toward the community-based governance and sustainable management of marine and coastal resources, in the Maritimes and beyond.

For a comprehensive look at Coastal CURA, click here.

View CURA Partners in a larger map