Warming Seas in the Coral Triangle: Coral Reef Vulnerability and Management Implications

The highest diversity coral reefs in the world, located in the Coral Triangle, are threatened by a variety of local stresses including pollution, overfishing, and destructive fishing in addition to climate change impacts, such as increasing sea surface temperatures (SSTs), and ocean acidification. As climate change impacts increase, coral reef vulnerability at the ecoregional scale will have an increasingly important influence on conservation management decisions. This project provides the first detailed assessment of past and future climatic stress, thermal variability, and anthropogenic impacts in the Coral Triangle at the ecoregional level, thus incorporating both local (e.g., pollution, development, and overfishing) and global threats (increasing SSTs). The development of marine protected area (MPA) networks across the Coral Triangle is critical for the region to address these threats. Specific management recommendations are defined for MPA networks based on the levels of vulnerability to thermal and local stress. For example, coral reef regions with potentially low vulnerability to thermal stress may be priorities for establishment of MPA networks, whereas high vulnerability regions may require selection and design principles aimed at building resilience to climate change. The identification of climate and other human threats to coral reef systems and ecoregions can help conservation practitioners prioritize management responses to address these threats and identify gaps in MPA networks or other management mechanisms (e.g., integrated coastal management).     

Community Participation in Marine Protected Area Management: Wakatobi National Park,Sulawesi, Indonesia

Coral reef areas are threatened worldwide by growing populations, tourism development, and use of poison and dynamite in fishing in areas adjacent to the reefs. The designation of marine protected areas is one strategy for addressing these problems. Wakatobi National Park, established in Eastern Indonesia in 1996, contains approximately 50,000 ha of coral reefs and a resident population of Sama-Bajo people whose traditions and current livelihoods tie them closely to the sea. The present research, using participatory rural appraisal methods, focused upon the impact of the designation of the Marine Park on their lives and investigated the potential for public participation in park planning and management. The Wakatobi Park Management Plan does not address the needs and interests of local people. Priority should be placed on adaptation of park zoning and protection regulations to accommodate the livelihood requirements of indigenous communities.     

Abrolhos 2000 : Conserving the Southern Atlantic's Richest Coastal Biodiversity into the Next Century

The Abrolhos bank, an area of continental shelf off the coast of Bahia, Brazil, has the most biologically diverse coral reefs in the entire southern Atlantic Ocean. The coral reefs and nearby coastal ecosystems constitute a global conservation priority and are the target of the Abrolhos 2000 project, initiated by Conservation International as part of its global marine conservation strategy. Although portions of the Abrolhos reefs are located within a marine park, they are not afforded adequate protection due to insufficient conservation resources and a failure to be part of a broader integrated coastal management program. Through partnerships with government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, local communities, the private sector, and other stakeholders, Abrolhos 2000 is working to provide these needs while establishing local capacity for conserving coastal and marine ecosystems. The project's initial successes provide examples of useful strategies for making integrated coastal management work in the context of emerging economies.     

钻孔灌注桩在珊瑚礁地质条件下的施工工艺

在珊瑚礁地质条件下,先冲孔穿透珊瑚礁再钻孔施工灌注桩,在国外设备受限的条件下完成了任务,对于工程量不大的项目起到了很好的效果,在类似工程中可以借鉴。     

Competing Visions for Marine Tenure and Co-Management: Genesis of a Marine Management Area System in Chile

Chile has been attempting to establish a Management Area (MA) system that melds the use of marine protected areas with marine tenure. The process has brought to the fore the competing interests of various user groups: artisanal fishermen, marine science professionals, government managers, tourist developers, and the Navy. We explore the core relationships among fishermen and the ecologists and biologists whose work is essential for establishing and maintaining a MA. The MA system's creation and implementation raise the key question of whether a marine tenure system can work under the conditions imposed by the Chilean government. There is a need to recognize and reconcile contradictions in a government management model that strives simultaneously to be a conservation zone and a financially profitable co-management zone. This article examines the MA management system's fault lines in the context of Chile's political economy, and the intimate interaction of management with fishermen's cultural survival strategies.     

The Role of Universities in Supporting Integrated Coastal Management in the United Kingdom

Integrated coastal management has been seen as the way to deal with the challenges currently facing managers of our coastal zones. In the tropics, these areas are typified with resources such as coral reefs and mangroves that are able to support a variety of activities. Integrated coastal management takes a multi-disciplinary approach that involves the integration of the different institutions and stakeholder groups in the coastal zone. A survey of tropical coastal locations revealed that fully implemented integrated coastal management is limited with programs apparently failing at the implementation stage. These coastal zones share a number of common challenges exacerbated by poverty and conflicts between the coastal activities. Conflict management needs to be incorporated into the management process that pays particular attention to the overextraction of resources and destructive resource use.     

The Quiet Revolution in Visual Resource Management: A view from the coast

Abstract

This introductory piece traces the growth of knowledge and activity associated with visual resource management in general. A specific framework of questions regarding methods of coastal zone visual resource management is presented. The state‐of‐the‐art in methodological studies is listed for each question, and the methodological questions are related to the major articles with the special issue of the Coastal Zone Management Journal. Major legal federal statutes, state statutes, and court cases are reviewed in light of visual resource management in the coastal zone. The remaining articles within the special issue that deal with integration of VRM into decision‐making are then arrayed against a management framework. This framework includes regulatory situations for (1) public land management and planning, (2) public projects involving private lands, and (3) public regulation of private projects.     

Cost Scenarios for Coastal Water Pollution in a Small Island Nation: A Case Study from the Cook Islands

This article presents scenarios of watershed pollution costs in Rarotonga, the largest of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific. The valuation method applied here estimates the market costs that would be avoided in the absence of watershed pollution. The study finds gross annual watershed pollution costs in Rarotonga between NZ$3.2 to NZ$17.7, with a best estimate of NZ$7.4, million. The best estimate results in household costs of NZ$2,900 per year and equates to 3.12% of gross domestic product. A wide error margin is placed around these estimates due to uncertain and incomplete datasets, a common situation for small island nations. They are presented as “cost scenarios” rather than definitive results. The article explores the practical, theoretical, and policy issues surrounding the valuation of water resources in the context of small island nations. It is argued that rough estimates of opportunity costs, limited to market goods and services, can supply governments with sufficient information to assess the relative importance of watershed pollution.     

Integrated Coastal Management in the Philippines: Testing New Paradigms

With fisheries declining, coral reefs battered, mangrove forests under threat, pollution levels rising, and coastal communities experiencing increased poverty, the Philippines faces severe challenges in managing its coastal resources. Coastal management efforts began in the Philippines more than 20 years ago through various community-based projects. Now, integrated coastal management is expanding in the country and holds the potential to reverse the trends. This article analyzes the situation in relation to new approaches for coastal management being undertaken through the Coastal Resource Management Project supported by the United States Agency for International Development implemented by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. This project, drawing on the lessons generated by past and ongoing coastal management initiatives, is emphasizing integrated approaches to management over narrowly focused fisheries management and habitat protection efforts. It highlights the increasingly important role of local governments and the changing roles of national government to effectively support integrated coastal management. Multisectoral collaboration is explained as standard procedure to achieve outcomes that are broad based and sustainable. Local and national level activities are contrasted and shown as essential complements in building institutionalization of resources management within all levels of government. A practical result framework is explained for measuring relative success at the local government level of implementing best practices for coastal management. Finally, lessons being learned related to collaboration, level of focus, education, and communication; who is responsible; and expansion of the project are highlighted.     

The First Step for the Environmental Management of Australian Beaches: Establishing an Effective Policy Framework

Beach management and coastal management are interwoven and scale-dependent activities in Australia. Present coastal policies are broad and designed for large, national, and statewide scales. They specify ecologically sustainable development as the overarching goal for coastal management and provide the context for beach management. On smaller scales, an approach focusing on the reduction of geomorphic hazards as the basis of beach management was established by the Coastline Hazard Policy, with nonhazard aspects of beach management such as ecological, economic, and social concerns assuming secondary importance. Although beach management can occur effectively under these coastal management arrangements, better guidance is required to make this process as effective and efficient as possible. This guidance - the policy framework - could be better developed for beach management and better integrated with existing coastal management arrangements. While this policy development is not strictly necessary to achieve positive outcomes from beach management, it is necessary to effectively guide implementation of the existing broad coastal policies. Effective goals for beach management are yet to be thought out and clearly articulated in Australia. A good start would be to couple the present goals of ecologically sustainable development and hazards reduction into a coherent goal for beach management. A specific policy for beaches should be developed given the importance of beaches in Australia.     

Adaptation and Learning in Coastal Management: The Experience of Five East African Initiatives

This article explores principles of adaptive, learning-based resource management and their practical application in coastal management projects in East Africa. The principles of feedback and adjustment, experimentation, and carefully guided participatory processes that capture widespread knowledge are used to describe the experience of five projects in Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique. The findings are drawn from a variety of sources, including site visits and interviews. The main finding is that adaptive methods are a major feature of all projects, and the general approaches used in each case are similar.     

Providing Public Access to the Shore: The Role of Coastal Zone Management Programs

In many coastal states and territories, coastal zone management (CZM) programs have been the prime catalyst in leveraging public access initiatives among state and federal agencies, public organizations, and the private sector. A wide range of tools are used, including acquisition, regulations, technical assistance, and public education. The diversity of approaches is illustrated through a variety of case examples. Although hard numbers for measuring outcomes were not uniformly available, between 1985 and 1988, when federal and state CZM funding dedicated to public access was tracked, $141.5 million (unadjusted 1988 dollars) were spent on 455 public access-related projects. A policy shift occurred in the 1990s away from reliance on acquisition and regulation as the most effective means of providing access and toward technical assistance and public outreach-a response to the overall decrease in funds available for access. CZM programs have been able to balance the contradictory goals of the federal Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 (CZMA), such as protecting coastal resources while providing for increased public access to those resources. It is recommended that CZM programs conduct assessments to determine the kind of access needed in the future and where it should be located. And, due to the creativity and innovation that states and territory coastal programs use to achieve access, it is recommended that a national clearinghouse be established for documenting and sharing information on innovative tools and programs.     

The Effectiveness of Coastal Zone Management in the United States

The Coastal Zone Management Effectiveness Study was undertaken between 1995 and 1997 to determine how well state coastal management programs in the United States were implementing five of the core objectives of the U.S. Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA). The five core objectives studied were: (1) protection of estuaries and coastal wetlands; (2) protection of beaches, dunes, bluffs and rocky shores; (3) provision of public access to the shore; (4) revitalization of urban waterfronts; and (5) accommodation of seaport development (as an illustration of the policy to give priority to coastal-dependent uses). Separate articles in this issue of Coastal Management report the findings of the five studies, each dealing with one of the core objectives. Each of the articles assesses issue importance, processes and tools used, and the limited outcome data available for that objective. This article provides an overview of the purposes of the study, the methodology used, the summary findings of each study, and overall conclusions and recommendations of the study team. State coastal programs are found to be effective in addressing the five CZMA objectives examined, but this conclusion is based on very limited information about program outcomes. A more definitive conclusion will require better outcome information. Coastal managers in the United States have not agreed upon indicators of success, which severely inhibits systematic and sustained collection of outcome information. A national outcome monitoring and performance evaluation system is recommended to address these deficiencies and allow better determinations of program effectiveness in the future.     

Coastal Crisis: The Failure of Coastal Management in the Spanish Mediterranean Region

It is a fact that coastal zones in the Mediterranean are becoming progressively more seriously degraded. Instrumental to the phenomenon in Spain is the evident failure of the coastal management that the institutions have pursued for over three decades, both under the old, state-centralized model, and the new organizational model with the political division of land into autonomous regions. This failure can in part be explained not only by the inadequate tools the administration possesses to address the dynamism and complexity of the new economic activities that have sprung up along the coast, but also by incoherent sectoral policies. Finally, there has been no all-encompassing political strategy capable of dealing with coastal communities' demands for development and the need for the protection of ecosystems and their natural resources. All this has resulted not only in a deterioration of the area, but also in the discrediting of actions implemented by the institutions, and their plans and programs being perceived as an obstacle to economic development.     

Coastal and Ocean Management in Canada: Moving into the 21st Century

The experience in coastal management in the tropics that is presented in this special issue is considered in light of other coastal management initiatives worldwide. The major challenges confronting those working to promote cross-sectoral, participatory approaches to the management of coastal areas are discussed. Emerging conceptual frameworks are considered. Several factors critical to the design of coastal management projects and programs are identified. The article concludes with a reflection on priorities for furthering the practice of coastal management in the next decade.     

Governing Coastal Spaces: The Case of Disappearing Science in Integrated Coastal Zone Management

Scientific knowledge is central to “good” governance of coastal spaces: developing methods through which the complexities of the coastal zone can be understood by stakeholders to improve the sustainable management of coastal systems. Enhancing our knowledge of the range of processes that shape coastal spaces and define the total behavioural environment of the system remains a primary challenge for the coastal research community. However, this article raises the argument that current approaches to Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM)—the preferred governing framework for the coastal environment, do not give sufficient emphasis to this fundamental need. Improving the basic scientific knowledge that underpins policymaking at the coast is argued to be urgently needed. Issues such as that of developing a communality of the purpose and approach between stakeholders within the coastal zone (through conflict resolution and access to information, for example) seem to claim the rights of the integrated management research agenda. However, the very nature of ICZM as “worthwhile coastal management” requires that integrated management represents more than a governing framework. Successful integration in coastal management must also be underpinned by knowledge of the integrated behavior of the system. Science has an increasingly marginalized position within ICZM and as a result geographers, contributing knowledge of the patterns and processes of the human and environmental landscapes, are also becoming a disappearing breed in integrated coastal management.     

Coastal Management and Economic Development in Developed Nations: The Forth Estuary Forum

This article considers the issue of economic development as a component of coastal management initiatives in developed countries, focusing on the Forth Estuary Forum as a case study. The evolution of coastal management into integrated coastal management is briefly considered, as is the context of the Scottish coastal management system and a brief discussion of the variations between the different legal systems within the UK. The current hurdles to economic development and the views of developers and economic agencies being considered in the coastal management process itself are highlighted, illustrating the process of integration and the current voluntary regime in the UK, particularly in the Forth Estuary Forum. The article concludes that economic development issues must be taken seriously if coastal management is to be integrated and inclusive.     

Capacity Building for Integrated Coastal Management in Asia-Pacific: The Case for Case Studies

Development of awareness and capacity is a central component to the delivery of ICM and spans from local communities to national-level politicians. Education and training activities associated with ICM must be extremely varied to match both the existing capacity and role that the stakeholders play within the process of ICM. Consequently, there cannot be considered any effective “generic” ICM training; training must be tailored to match the requirements of target groups. The transfer and uptake of good-practice thus becomes an important aspect of quality enhancement in ICM capacity development. Six case studies from the Asia-Pacific region are presented that show diverse and innovative examples of good practice. A comparative analysis of these case studies is carried out in terms of institutional level of impact. In addition a generic systems-based evaluation framework is used to determine the extent to which the training impacts upon ICM implementation indicators. It is concluded that the exchange, transfer, and translation to local conditions of appropriate good practice in ICM capacity development can be an important element in enhancing the impact of ICM programs on the coastal environments and societies. Furthermore, there appears to be a positive link between the involvement of national/state/regional stakeholders in capacity-building initiatives and impacting a wider variety of indicators of ICM delivery.     

Facts,Fictions, and Failures of Integrated Coastal Zone Management in Europe

Nearly 40 years on since its first tentative steps in North America, this article considers whether Integrated Zone Coastal Management (ICZM) in Europe has grown to maturity as a form of governance. The article summarizes the findings of recent research concerning the levels of implementation of coastal management in Europe, with particular reference to the UK experience. A research framework is used to identify the different motivations behind the social actor groups involved in coastal management. The application of this framework reveals four major findings about gaps in implementation: (1) the complexity of responsibilities at the coast continues to prevent agencies from taking a “joined-up” approach; (2) a policy vacuum is constraining implementation from national to local scales; (3) informational obstacles are significant in preventing co-ordination between science and policymakers, and between different sectors; (4) a democratic deficit is preventing implementation in the working practices of coastal stakeholders, with little opportunity in decision making for public comment or local accountability, especially offshore. The article also explores different conceptualizations of the role of coastal management and planning held across Europe, providing an analysis using the Strategic Management literature and the experience of the EU Demonstration Programme on Integrated Coastal Zone Management (1996–1999). Recent arrangements, with the availability of priming funds from the European Commission and emphasis on “pilot” and “demonstration” methods, have tended to encourage a project-based approach to ICZM that may fail to realize long-term objectives. The article seeks to present an analysis of the behaviors of scientists, academics, policymakers, and practitioners, and will be of interest to all those seeking to establish ICZM within the wider system of governance, as supported by the Commission of the European Community (2000) Communication on ICZM (COM 547). Some technical solutions are also offered from the UK experience that will be of use to coastal project officers working at national and regional levels.     

Cyclone Mitigation Perspectives in the Islands of Bangladesh: A Case of Sandwip and Hatia Islands

Most coastal areas of the world are now at risk from natural hazards such as cyclones, storm surges, beach erosions, tsunamis, sea level rises, and so on, resulting from geological and meteorological disturbances. In Bangladesh, during premonsoon and post-monsoon periods cyclone and tidal surges are considered the most catastrophic phenomena in coastal regions, including islands. Most coastal island residents of Bangladesh have been facing cyclones for centuries. The present study establishes a comparison between two neighboring islands, Sandwip and Hatia, of the Meghna estuary with respect to disaster reaction and management. Based on a questionnaire survey and observations, the study shows that the inhabitants of Hatia are more aware of and confident in disaster management than the inhabitants of Sandwip. Residents of both islands in the Meghna estuary have established trust in the warning signals following the heavy devastation of great cyclones of 1970, 1985, 1991, and 1997. The residents of Hatia have been facing cyclones and tidal surges more frequently than the residents of Sandwip due to the island's geographical location. In addition, shelter management and relief management are better developed in Hatia than Sandwip.