In 2025, Nils Zakee hopes to complete his traineeship at Rijkswaterstaat. Over the past few months, he has been intensively involved in the Interreg project MANABAS COAST. He reflects on his first experiences, his role within the project, and his project aspirations for the future.
Within Rijkswaterstaat, the lead partner of MANABAS COAST, Nils was a familiar face. With his background in aquatic ecology, he initially did an internship, participating in various projects. Nils: "I was involved in making the situation safer at a lock system, making steel and concrete bridges more sustainable, and sustainably powering the Oosterschelde barrier." After this internship, he decided to start a traineeship at Rijkswaterstaat in March.
His first encounter with the MANABAS COAST project was an interesting one. "One of the partners mentioned the name, and for some reason it just sounded funny to me. I became interested. When I heard that the project was related to the coast, I was sold. Freshwater is interesting, but I already had some experience with that. To me the coast is more challenging, because it is highly susceptible to change. It's incredibly diverse."
The time to familiarize himself with the project was limited: "We almost immediately left for Bruges for a partner meeting. When we arrived, I hardly knew anyone, but that changed quickly." Nils was particularly struck by how many people from different countries shared enthusiasm for the same topic. "That was incredibly nice to see. Everyone can connect on the content, but due to cultural differences and different environments, the project approach varies within each country. This international aspect was very insightful to me. At Rijkswaterstaat, we tend to think we are good at managing water, but many other countries and organizations are as well!"
He also noticed that social context plays a crucial role within MANABAS COAST. "Many scientific studies are conducted, but as experts on Nature-based Solutions (NbS), we sometimes forget to involve stakeholders in our process. I have become more aware of that now." Nils joined various work packages within the project. "As Rijkswaterstaat, we pay attention to what we can learn from each other as partners, and how to organize this within the project." He also contributed to one of work package 1’s (mainstreaming framework) focus points. "With the document NbS fundamentals, we provide guidelines for anyone who wants to implement NbS. Through research and discussions, we have, among other things, identified potential barriers in the process of implementation and upscaling NbS." Currently, this document is mainly used within MANABAS COAST, but Nils expects it will soon serve to inspire others.
His own time at MANABAS COAST has now come to an end. Nils: "I hope the larger project goal, scaling up NbS, is achieved within ten years’ time, and that more people keep nature in mind in their everyday work. That people in the places that matter also see the value and benefits of NbS. It would be really cool if we could achieve that."