Coastal States Organization (CSO) serves as the collective voice for the nation’s coastal states, commonwealths, and territories on federal legislative, administrative, and policy issues relating to coastal, Great Lakes, and ocean management.
For more than 50 years, CSO has worked at the nexus of coastal science research, policy and social science research, outreach, and decision-making. We strive to provide coastal states with tools to inform coastal management and to improve their capacity to understand, plan for, and respond to changing coasts now and into the future.
CSO helps states and territories to maintain their leadership role in the development and implementation of national coastal and ocean policy. We work to shape federal legislation and regulations and advocate for increased funding for coastal and ocean programs and to eliminate regulatory and procedural impediments to Coastal Zone Management Programs’ (CZMPs) functioning. CSO connects CZMPs with decision-makers in DC and ensuring their views and concerns are represented.
CSO works with natural and social science partners to meet the research, data, and technical assistance needs of coastal states, territories, and communities. Our applied science and research investigates new and emerging, scientific and social science knowledge on key coastal management challenges, creates tools that can be applied in other coastal regions, catalyzes additional investment and research into critical areas of coastal adaptation and resilience, and cultivates a narrative around the importance of proactively managing our coastlines.
CSO leads engagement-driven applied science research projects involving multiple stakeholders to assess adaptive capacity of coastal communities to changing coastal conditions.
