Scope and themes

Coastal zones are essential to humanity because they host complex interactions between marine and terrestrial environments that support diverse habitats and activities, including tourism, fisheries, aquaculture, maritime transport, mining, and energy production. In 2020, the oceans contributed approximately USD 2.6 trillion and more than 100 million full-time-equivalent jobs¹, while coastal ecosystems generated approximately USD 20.4 trillion annually in ecosystem services. In addition to supporting high biodiversity, coastal zones possess important cultural, identity-related, landscape, and subsistence values². The increasing vulnerability of coastal zones to the effects of climate change highlights the importance of conserving their vast array of tangible and intangible values.

The diverse environmental and anthropogenic pressures affecting the 1.6 million km of coastline worldwide² require management approaches that recognize and address the connections between oceanic and terrestrial systems and between society and nature. These approaches must consider the diverse causes of past, present, and future problems while incorporating and integrating the perspectives, aspirations, and knowledge of the diverse social actors who converge in coastal areas. In this context, coastal communities, businesses, the scientific community, and governments play important roles in developing management strategies that seek to promote socially inclusive development while maintaining the long-term integrity of coastal areas, with international agendas providing an additional framework for these efforts.

The approximately 72,000 km of coastline in Latin America³ account for 4.4% of the global coastline⁴. Despite the ecological, social, and economic importance of this coastline, substantial gaps remain in our understanding of its socioecological systems, economic activities, ecosystem services, and intangible values. Addressing these knowledge gaps can improve our understanding of society–nature interactions and provide a stronger basis for the conservation and sustainable use of coastal heritage in Latin America. Notably, there is a need to develop innovative, locally grounded alternatives that contribute to the sustainable development of Latin American coasts, as well as to advance theoretical and practical approaches to coastal management that incorporate decolonial perspectives.

This special issue welcomes studies on Latin American coastal zones that adopt systemic, interdisciplinary, or transdisciplinary perspectives and integrate diverse forms of knowledge generation with the development or application of technologies to understand and inform the management of coastal systems. Studies may address environmental history, spatial and territorial planning, the biocultural value of resources, ecosystem restoration, vulnerability and risk management in response to multiple regional and local threats, and climate change adaptation measures.

Language: Spanish or English

Submission scope

Submissions should present original, unpublished research that provides theoretical, methodological, or practical contributions to understanding society–nature interactions associated with the management of coastal heritage in Latin America.

Authors are encouraged to submit original and innovative research that contributes to regional coastal management or provides a basis for its development. This may include meta-analyses, retrospective analyses (baselines), interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary approaches, and participatory action research. Studies may also address global issues and their regional or local impacts (e.g., climate change, biodiversity loss, and coastal erosion), specific coastal socioecological systems, resource-management practices in historically marginalized communities, including Indigenous and Afro-descendant populations, and alternatives for advancing socioenvironmental justice, particularly for coastal communities experiencing vulnerability associated with gender or age.

Of particular interest are manuscripts that examine regional coastal issues in the context of global agendas, such as the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Keywords: coastal socioecological systems; collaborative coastal and marine governance; coastal resilience; coastal restoration; gender equity; youth; Indigenous coastal communities; co-construction of coastal policies; participatory science in coastal and marine environments; coastal spatial planning; coexistence in coastal ecosystems; conservation of coastal resources and socioecological systems; technological assemblages for coastal management; integration of knowledge systems in coastal zones.

Submission instructions

Prepare your manuscript using the following MS Word template for this special issue (EN|ES). We currently do not accept LaTeX files. Ciencias Marinas will reject submissions that have not been prepared using the template.

By submitting a manuscript for publication in Ciencias Marinas, the authors acknowledge that they are submitting to a bilingual, international, open-access journal and declare that the manuscript is not under review by another journal; has not been published previously, except as a conference abstract, part of a lecture, or an academic thesis; has been reviewed and approved by all authors; and will not be published in another journal or in another form if accepted by Ciencias Marinas. Please consult the author guidelines for additional information on manuscript preparation and submission.

Editorial timeline

Invitation: 15 Octuber 2026.
Call for papers: 15 January 2027.
Article publication: Ongoing.
Call for papes closes: 31 October 2027.

Interested authors may optionally submit a brief abstract (<300 words) to determine whether their study falls within the scope of the special issue before submitting a full manuscript.

Guest editors

Alejandro Espinoza Tenorio, PhD

Manejo Sustentable de Cuencas y Zonas Costeras, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Lerma Campeche, Campeche, Mexico.

Eduardo Amir Cuevas Flores, PhD

Instituto de Investigaciones Oceanológicas, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Enseanda, Baja California, Mexico.

Ulsia Urrea Mariño, Doctoral Candidate

College of Science, Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, Texas, United States.

Martha Ileana Espejel Carbajal, PhD

Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.

Contact information

For additional information about the special issue, please contact the guest editors by sending an email to: manejo.costero.latinoamerica@gmail.com.

References

¹ [OECD] Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development: OECD; [accessed 2025 Aug 28]. https://doi.org/10.1787/A9096FB1-EN

² Davidson NC, van Dam AA, Finlayson CM, McInnes RJ. 2019. Worth of wetlands: revised global monetary values of coastal and inland wetland ecosystem services. Mar Fresh Res. 70(8):1189-1194. https://doi.org/10.1071/MF18391

³ Wurmann C, Soto D, Norambuena R. 2022. Regional review on status and trends in aquaculture development in Latin America and the Caribbean–2020. Rome (Italy): Food and Agriculture Organization. Fisheries and Aquaculture Circular, No.1232/3. 110 p. https://doi.org/10.4060/CB7811EN

⁴ Burke L A, Kura Y, Kassem K, Revenga C, Spalding M, and Mcallister D. 2000. Pilot analysis of global ecosystems: Coastal Ecosystems. Washington (DC): World Resources Institute. Report. 93 p.

Special Issue (Vol. 53 [1B]): Coastal Management in Latin America