Paper Short Abstract:

Coasts of Mediterranean islands shed light on multiple issues: economic, legal, environmental. The case of the Maddalena archipelago (Sardinia) will illustrate emerging conflicts concerning eroding beaches. Those conflicts mobilize varied knowledge, regulation and images of an Edenic Mediterranean

Paper Abstract:

The Mediterranean coasts – and in particular those of islands – represent an observation prism capable of shedding light on a plurality of issues: economic, legal, environmental, etc.

This communication will illustrate the case of the Maddalena archipelago in Sardinia, a former military outpost on the border with France and a marine base operated by NATO, today a tourist locality caught in territorial competitions with other localities. Here, conflicts have been emerging around eroding beaches since the 1990s. Such conflicts appear to stem mainly from direct anthropogenic impacts, damage to the seabed and climate change. Lately, a particular phenomenon has regularly been capturing headlines: the theft of sand from Sardinian beaches by tourists. At Maddalena, alongside the closing of beaches, « nature based » programs are also developed, to protect Posidonia meadows and fight against erosion.

We will then explore the possibility of comparing this case to those of other islands and archipelagos, located in more or less close but different spaces with regard to history, tourist development, geology and geography. In each context, conflicts and attempts at action regarding the loss of marine sand take shape in a specific way, mobilizing varied knowledge, regulations and the media images of an Edenic Mediterranean.

Analyzing these specificities will make it possible to analyze the multiple factors that shape the fight against coastal erosion, while questioning the way in which political-economic and cultural issues at different scales relate to sand management and the consideration ecological and social specificities of this material.