The South East Regional Marine Plan: Implementing Australia's Oceans Policy

In 1998, the Australian Government released Australia's Oceans Policy (AOP), a world first policy initiative focused on providing a framework for integrated ecosystem-based management of Australia's vast marine domain. The South East Regional Marine Plan, the first regional marine plan to be implemented under AOP, was released on 21 May 2004. This paper argues that although full integration across sectors and jurisdictions has not occurred, new AOP initiatives, institutions and governance processes have considerably increased sectoral and jurisdictional coordination in the South East region.     

Integrated management of marine biodiversity in Europe: Perspectives from ICZM and the evolving EU Maritime Policy framework

Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is high on the international agenda for nature conservation. Marine and coastal ecosystems account for an important share of the biological diversity on Earth. As a consequence many international conventions, European legislation and national laws refer to marine biodiversity. The protection of marine biodiversity is a complex legal issue as it requires consideration of geographic (between land and sea), political (between conservation and exploitation), and economic (between fisheries, tourism, intellectual property and many other sectors) factors. Like Matryoshka dolls, marine biodiversity is a heterogeneous notion difficult to address as one discrete area in the development of policy agendas or juridical frameworks. In the past decade, the EU has been very active in Promoting Integrated Coastal Zone Management and in developing a framework for an Integrated Maritime Policy. This article reviews the status of marine biodiversity in the policy and legal initiatives of the European Union, a challenging issue to both the objectives of conservation and to the concept of integration.     

A new direction in coastal management

This paper argues for a stronger integration of marine sciences and coastal management studies that generates better formulated marine policies and viable policy implementation strategies. Integration of natural and social sciences in environmental management has surfaced as a key issue recently in the fields of sustainability science, ecosystem-based management, and social–ecological resilience. This paper promotes such trend in marine studies, and examines the rationale, progress, and examples of the integration.     

Combining process and output indicators to evaluate participation and sustainability in integrated coastal zone management projects

Integrated coastal zone management has evolved in practice and in the literature to implicate and advocate for public participation. Public participation has been proposed to open debate, contribute to policy formulation, increase government accountability, build support for agency programs, reduce community tensions and increase the sustainability of the actions. This study analysed the success of three integrated coastal zone management projects based on 8 process and output indicators. Public participation does not seem to have had an impact on the overall project objective nor on the sustainability indicators. These results bring us back to the initial concept of ICZM based on horizontal and vertical integration, and suggest that projects promoting ICZM need to be adapted to each specific cultural and political context. Long-term sustainability and natural resource management will only be achieved when the projects and activities are adapted to meet the reality on the field.     

Implementing integrated oceans management: Australia's south east regional marine plan (SERMP) and Canada's eastern Scotian shelf integrated management (ESSIM) initiative

Integrated oceans management (IOM) is emerging in the international arena as a tool in meeting requirements for sustainable use of ocean space and marine resources. Australia and Canada are at the forefront of these developments and, being without set precedents, each state has adopted quite different strategies to implement IOM—Australia adopting a policy-driven approach delivered through Regional Marine Plans and Canada developing legislation that provided a framework for policy implementation delivered through an Integrated Management Framework. Despite these significant differences, examination of initiatives in both states indicates that there are also significant commonalities and shared experiences, providing important lessons for implementing IOM.     

Lessons learned from Eastern Africa: the development of policy on ICZM at national and regional levels

Coastal zones of Eastern Africa are endowed with a diversity of life forms and resources which support large populations of coastal communities. The economies of the countries in the region are dependent on these resources in the form of fisheries and coastal forest products, tourism, shipways and coastal facilities such as ports, industries and urban centers.Population growth, especially in coastal urban centers is increasing the demand for coastal and marine resources. In addition, poverty, lack of awareness and inadequate management have resulted in over exploitation of coastal and marine resources, habitat destruction including shoreline erosion as well as marine pollution. The rate of resource depletion and environmental degradation is on the increase. There is an urgent need for instituting management measure that will reverse the current trend.The governments in the region have accepted and are committed to the implementation of Integrated coastal management (ICZM) as an effective mechanism for addressing and resolving the multiplicity of issues experienced in coastal areas through sectoral coordination and collaborative approaches. However, the process has just begun and there are a number of ICZM initiatives in progress at local, national and regional levels. This paper presents the issues of the coastal zone and reviews some of the progress made to date in the implementation of ICZM.     

Protected areas and coastal and ocean management in México

No explicit “integrated coastal and ocean management” policy or program has been formally instituted to manage coastal and marine issues in México. Nevertheless two existing environmental policy tools: ecological zoning programs and coastal and marine protected areas, which have incorporated interagency and multi-stakeholder participation within their design, are currently being used in lieu of such strategy. Coastal and marine protected areas in México are the result of independent initiatives taken over the last 75 years and as a group cannot be characterized as the result of a systematic approach. Nevertheless México's 55 coastal and marine protected areas currently with a valid legal decree, occupy 11,791,824 ha which represents 69% of Mexico's total protected area surface. Only 46% of these include marine ecosystems with a total of 3,577,527 ha with the remaining 8,216,194 ha consisting of coastal ecosystems. (See In press update.)     

Human populations and coastal wetlands: conservation and management in Brazil

This article describes the main factors responsible for the degradation of the coastal areas in Brazil and their impact on coastal population. It also analyses the main policies of the Brazilian government concerning the management of coastal areas, focusing on the shortcomings of the methodologies used. It emphasizes the role of the establishment of marine protected areas, as an important tool for coastal management. Lack of support for coastal management from local communities is a common feature of the proposed approaches. The article also describes local initiatives for coastal management as a positive development for the solution of the ecological and social problems existing in the Brazilian coastal areas.     

Towards coastal risk management in France

The coastal territories of mainland France constitute a prime example of an at-risk territory, with their growing concentrations of people and economic activities located mostly on a coastal fringe that is subject to shoreline retreat and coastal flooding. The perspective of higher sea levels due to climate changes exacerbates the risk that these territories will be exposed to natural coastal hazards. Since the “invention” of the littoral zone in the mid 19th-century, the vulnerability of the economic stakes on this coastal fringe has been managed mainly by controlling the hazards; this control is coordinated by the national government, which initiated coastal defense practices. At the beginning of the 1980s, natural risk prevention policies favored managing the consequences of natural disasters, with the creation of the CatNat insurance regime to indemnify natural disaster victims. By the middle of the 1990s, new natural risk management strategies had been invented to complete the control of natural hazards. As part of the emerging philosophy of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM), the French government encouraged the development of natural risk prevention policies by establishing Natural Risk Prevention Plans (PPRn) in 1995. These PPRn were a new approach to shoreline management that favored controlling development in coastal communities. As of 2008, PPRn had been approved in 270 coastal communities and required in 149.At the beginning of the 21st century, the French government set down the general orientations for managing natural coastal risks, but it was not the only stakeholder involved. Collective action emerged, bringing the national government, public institutions and the territorial and local authorities together to develop risk management policies. This collective action was facilitated by a form of decentralization of natural coastal risk management, involving regional or local implementation of the strategic orientations of shoreline management, respecting the general principles defined by the national government. These changes are part of the ICZM implementation process, which has been under way since 2005. The development of natural coastal risk prevention policies is reinforced by the soon-to-be-adopted bill concerning the Grenelle of the Environment. These policies are mainly financed by the Barnier Fund for major natural risk prevention, which is in turn funded by an obligatory contribution based on the CatNat insurance premiums. This type of financing raises the question of the relationship between risk prevention strategies and natural disaster management.     

The coast of Mexico: approaches for its management

The Mexican coast can be regionalized according to the main economic activities performed in it; for the purpose of this work we are considering five regions: North Pacific, Mar de Cortes, outh Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean. According to the national census, the population of the coastal zone in Mexico is increasing at a higher rate than the national average. The main industries located in the coastal and marine zones are oil and gas, fisheries, aquaculture, tourism, maritime transportation and ports, chemical industries, and minerals. Mexico has developed an environmental legal framework based on the Ley General del Equilibrio Ecologico y la Proteccion al Ambiente (LGEEPA), and the coastal management paradigm is strengthened through several other legal tools developed specifically for this purpose. There are three management strategies identified in this work for the coastal zone in Mexico: (1) Agency Leadership, (2) Protected Areas, and (3) Land Ordinance. Each one of these strategies includes stages for eventually developing an Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) plan that considers vertical and horizontal integration, scientific research of natural resources and ecosystems, and socioeconomic issues.     

Experiences of coastal management in the Pacific Islands

Integrated coastal management (ICM) is accepted world-wide as a comprehensive, multi-sectoral integrated approach to the planning and management of coastal areas. ICM is particularly suited to the island member countries of the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) because of their size, the interconnectedness of the coast and terrestrial areas and the high degree of association and community involvement with the management of coastal systems. With the exception of the highly migratory pelagic fish stocks, the narrow natural resource base of many Pacific islands make them particularly vulnerable to inappropriate development and mismanagement. Fortunately, the governments of many Pacific Island countries (PIC) have become aware of the benefits of integrated coastal management and are looking at ways of making it an established practice. This paper uses the framework of ICM to illustrate some of the author's experience of coastal management within the South Pacific region. Within the ICM framework, a range of tools and techniques are available to manage coastal problems. The success of any approach depends on the scale and magnitude of the problems to be addressed and the availability of information, institutional support and commitment from all stakeholders. The way in which programmes are conducted and implemented is particularly important. Top down initiatives may work at the regional level but tend to fail at the national and community level unless there are other incentives to support them. On the other hand, bottom up, process driven initiatives have enjoyed more success at the community level. Demand-based approaches have tended to be very successful at all levels, whether they be at the community, country or regional levels, particularly where all of the interested parties can collaborate and contribute to finding solutions to their problems.     

Integrated coastal management plan in free trade zones, a case study

Free Trade Zones (FTZs) around the world offer special advantages to investors and facilitate import/export of goods in order to boost the regional economy. Integrated coastal management in these areas faces special challenges in addition to what ordinary ICZMs usually encounter. For a successful ICZM plan, the very strong business orientation in FTZs has to be taken into account, while other important aspects such as environmental, social, and cultural issues should not be overlooked. The problem becomes more difficult where the free zone is situated in sensitive and valuable environmental circumstances.Kish Island, a free trade zone in the Persian Gulf region, has recently been the focus of a major ICZM study. In order to address the different needs of various stakeholders in the island, four strategic management plans are prepared. The investigations carried out in the course of this study indicated that the required management plans for this free trade zone should be provided with a spatial-plan-oriented approach, otherwise the integration can hardly be achieved and implemented.This article describes Kish FTZ characteristics and problems that required ICZM initiatives, the methodology for ICZM study, the preparation and implementation of strategic management plans considering the free zone obligations, and the need for a spatial umbrella plan to facilitate the integration among different plans in the implementation process.     

England's evolving marine and coastal governance framework

This paper reviews the principal marine and coastal policy changes in England since 1999. The key changes identified are the establishment of a strategic national marine and coastal policy direction, new marine legislation and institutions, the emergence of a marine planning framework, the consolidation of Integrated Coastal Zone Management approaches to coastal governance, the establishment of a Marine Protected Area network, and the decline of coastal partnerships. The European Union, UK National Government, and devolved administrations are identified as key influences on the governance evolution and their relative contributions are discussed. It is concluded that the English marine and coastal governance context has evolved significantly since 1999 and that the new framework, if implemented successfully, represents a genuine step towards an integrated governance framework for England's coasts and seas.     

Integrated ocean management and the collaborative planning process: the Eastern Scotian Shelf Integrated Management (ESSIM) Initiative

In its capacity to lead and facilitate the development and implementation of integrated management plans under the 1997 Oceans Act, Fisheries and Oceans Canada is working with a range of stakeholders through a collaborative process—the Eastern Scotian Shelf Integrated Management (ESSIM) Initiative—to develop and implement an integrated ocean management plan for the eastern Scotian Shelf off Nova Scotia. Stakeholders include federal and provincial departments, aboriginal communities, municipal and local planning authorities, ocean industry and resource use sectors, coastal communities, environmental interest groups, and university researchers. This large ocean management area possesses important living and non-living marine resources, high biological productivity and diversity, and increasing levels of multiple use and competition for ocean space and resources. The ESSIM vision is to achieve environmental, economic, social/community, and institutional sustainability in the eastern Scotian Shelf.The ESSIM Initiative is building a collaborative planning process that involves all interested and affected parties. Ongoing information sharing and dialogue with stakeholder groups is providing capacity building and important input to current proposals for a collaborative planning structure and the ocean management plan. A joint federal-provincial working group has been established to move the Initiative forward within government and to address policy and regulatory coordination for ocean management. The future ocean management plan will include a balanced set of environmental, social, economic and institutional objectives, indicators and management strategies, as well as spatial and temporal planning approaches to address multiple ocean use.This article provides an overview of the ESSIM Initiative, including an assessment of ocean use, ecosystem understanding, and ocean management and planning requirements. The design of a collaborative management and planning structure and process will be discussed, as well as the key elements of the future integrated ocean management plan.     

A dual-level framework for evaluating integrated coastal management beyond labels

Despite many efforts in the past 10 years, Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) evaluation remains much of a challenge. Building on theoretical resources provided by three bodies of work (strategic analysis of environmental management, integrated coastal management and evaluation of public policies), this paper first underlines some of the most critical weaknesses and “black boxes” in current ICM evaluation. It explains why a single purpose program evaluation model is unsatisfactory, and how it hinders evaluation in practice. It then suggests ways to re-think ICM evaluation, proposing a dual-level framework that combines evaluation of ICM initiatives with evaluation of coastal management systems.     

Rethinking post-tsunami integrated coastal management for Asia-Pacific

The December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami wrought environmental damage beyond the normal framework of integrated coastal management and has implications for coastal management in Asia-Pacific in the post-tsunami phase. Fieldwork conducted on the coasts of four tsunami-affected countries in 2005 and 2006 identified several “practitioner-type” issues that would have implications for ICM policy. These include the loss of land with accompanying land tenure problems; the safety zone in conflict with the buffer zone; the need for better integration of livelihoods restoration with the rehabilitation of coastal ecosystems; and the inclusion of tsunami mitigation in the larger framework of climate change mitigation. A discussion of these issues and future role of ICM would provide a fresh perspective to policy-practice of ICM. A proposal is made to study various development pathways of selected coastal villages as they recovered in the post-tsunami phase.     

Beginning integrated coastal management efforts in Madagascar

Integrated coastal management (ICM) is an emerging approach in East Africa for the solution of various coastal issues. This paper is intended to provide an update on the current practical aspects concerning the ICM process and related policies and strategies in Madagascar. Efforts are being made in Madagascar for the mutual integration of numerous coastal projects and activities within the Environment Program of the National Environmental Action Plan. The foundations for an ICM program, built during an ICM workshop, which took place at the end of 1996 upon existing activities, are being expanded presently. These developments concern, above all, the institutional aspects related to the formulation of an ICM program. Therefore, the actual situation sees an overgrowing collaboration of the national and international agencies involved in the implementation of coastal projects, in an expandingly integrating way, within an institutional framework that grows progressively stronger. The case of Madagascar suggests reflections on how ICM can mitigate potential sectoral conflicts as well as on, how the sometimes complex nature of the social and cultural issues may influence the development of an ICM program. The need for monitoring ICM is stressed and the role of outside partners clarified.     

Marine protected areas: a tool for integrated coastal management in Belize

Management of the Belize Barrier Reef was originally envisioned through the creation of marine protected areas. However, the influence of land-based activities was not accounted for in Marine Protected Area (MPA) programs. Therefore focus was shifted to an integrated approach via Integrated Coastal Management (ICM). The Belize ICM process has evolved into a system of coordination through the fostering of multi-sectoral linkages for integrated management of coastal resources. Marine protected areas were included in the ICM program as tools for achieving biodiversity protection and management of sensitive habitats. The ICM process has resulted in greater coordination and consultation in decision making for coastal resource issues, the MPA program however has not evolved with the trend of greater community involvement in MPA management. The greatest challenges to MPA and ICM programs in the next 10 years are: improved linkages between the two, fostering of community participation in management, broadening of the scope of ICM to watersheds and ocean governance, and sustainable financing for both programs.     

东亚海区的海岸带综合管理经验:从地方性示范到区域性合作

本文阐述了东亚海区海岸带综合管理实践如何从地方性的示范发展到区域性的合作管理框架，如何实现海洋和海岸带资源的可持续利用．文中着重突出了厦门市政府在维持环境保护和经济发展的平衡，启动和实施海岸带综合管理，以及与沿海国在国际合作方面的经验，总结了厦门实施海岸带综合管理的主要经验，包括多部门间综合协调机制、海岸带综合管理法律框架、科技支撑体系的建立，海洋功能区划、环境剖面和战略环境管理计划的制定，以及实现海上联合执法等等．同时阐述了东亚海域环境管理区域合作计划（PEMSEA）与澳大利亚合作伙伴之间的关系在推动沿海城市的国际合作中将起到的作用．     

Marine and terrestrial protected areas in Mexico: Importance of their functional connectivity in conservation management

In coastal zones, natural protected areas have been created without considering the relationship between the two environments they involve. This is currently a crucial challenge for conservation efforts, because the protection initiatives taken in coastal watersheds need to be integrated with the marine component. With the aim of contributing to increase the knowledge in this issue, the present work analyzes the current state of conservation efforts in the Mexican coastal zone, based on a simplified theoretical approach focusing the coastal zones as a group of ecotones functionally connected by the flow of matter end energy. We found that only 16 of 92 Mexican coastal watersheds have natural protected areas in all the ecotones analyzed, whereas 15 of them lack of any kind of protection. The present investigation may facilitate the appraisal of gaps in watersheds and coastal ecotones conservation management, with emphasis on the connectivity between marine and terrestrial environments of the coastal zone.