The Integrated approach to Coastal Zone Management (ICZM)
Contents
General Background
The Coastal Zone
The nature of the coast
Being the interface between the land and the ocean, coastal areas are affected by highly dynamic processes. Coastal spaces also support unique and especially fragile ecosystems, being areas of great environmental and aesthetic value.
For instance, eight of the forty priority habitats listed in the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora Directive are coastal. Approximately a third of the Union's wetlands are located on the coast, as well as more than thirty per cent of the Special Protection Areas designated under the Conservation of Wild Birds Directive. (For more information on these Directives see Bird Directive, Habitat Directive, NATURA 2000)
These coastal ecosystems tend to also have very high biological productivity. The reproduction and nursery grounds of most fish and shellfish species of economic value are in the coastal strip, and a significant proportion of the catch of these species comes from this area.
Coastal uses
Humanity has always had a close relationship with the coast. Traditional uses of coastal space include trade and conquest, migration and defence and in some cases, a focus for cultural and spiritual identity (Carter 1988). Coastal zones are still of crucial importance for coastal states today. They are home to the bulk of the population, and account for a considerable share of the country's economic activities, being highly valued by society for the non-marketable goods and services they provide.
A wide range of human activities take place in the coastal zones (industry, tourism, fishing, aquaculture, etc). When these activities develop together on the narrow coastal strip, problems tend to arise, creating conflicts.
Due to its highly dynamic character, even development work with clear local objectives may have adverse effects elsewhere along the coast!
Coastal risks
Recent research shows that climate change could involve a rise in sea level of several millimetres per year, and an increase in the frequency and intensity of coastal storms. Depending on where they occur, the combined effects of these two phenomena will have serious repercussions on this area, such as major floods or erosion. At the same time, the expected growth, in tourism in particular, will increase human pressure on natural, rural and urban environments.
Need for coastal management
Protecting against coastal risks and providing adequate usages for these areas are not immediately compatible goals. Actually, the huge concentration of human activities in this narrow strip has led to rapid degradation of these zones' rich and important ecosystems and habitats and, as a result, the entire coastal system faces an uncertain future.
However, the coastal zone is a difficult area to manage due to temporal issues (current, tides and seasons) and the overlapping of physical geography and hydrography (inshore, shoreline, offshore), of jurisdictions, legal mandates and the remits of government agencies and the often competing needs of stakeholders.
Typically, many different local, national and regional government agencies are responsible for different aspects of the same physical areas and different uses of the coastal zone, e.g. fisheries, environment, agriculture, transport (inland and marine), urban planning and cadastre, etc. These ministries often find themselves undertaking the same or similar tasks and sometimes, even working against each other due to inharmonious and competing objectives of their legal mandates. The frequently encountered government technique of merging some ministries, organisations or agencies and separating others, either physically or based on mandates, usually fails to yield the desired results of increased efficiency in government and reduced duplication of effort and resource expenditure.
Evolution of Coastal Zone Management practices [1]
The largely sectoral ad-hoc management strategies of the past have proved inadequate to deal with the highly complex ‘hybrid’ human-environmental interactions characterizing the development of coastal areas.
Environmental costs of the traditional model of economic growth and the current challenge imposed by the paradigm of Sustainable Development (UNEP 1992), imply a move towards more rational approaches to coastal development.
As a result, Coastal Zone Management (CZM) initiatives are turning to more integrated strategies worldwide, attempting to balance the benefits from the economic development and human uses of the coastal space while sustaining over the long-term, the ecological, socio-cultural, and historical values of a particular given area.
Inputs to CZM evolution
- The UN Conference in the Human Environment (1972) and the rise of the Global Change concept
- The UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED 1992) and the statement of the Integration Principle by Agenda 21, Chapter 17
This key statement was enunciated when coastal management had already accomplished almost three decades of evolution and implementation, during which the UN system had strongly contributed.
- Implementation of national policies during the 1990s
- Issues of global change, globalisation, and increasing attention to a multi-perspective concept of diversity
During the 1970s, environmental and developmental goals were pursued in a non integrated way; then the need to contextually pursue them arose and expanded during the 1980s; finally the full integration was enunciated by the adoption of the sustainability concept by Agenda 21 in 1992. An evolution has solidified, during which the emphasis was initially posed on the environment conceived in physical and chemical terms, then the economic and biological components were introduced, and finally the social and ethical components were embraced.
Some definitions of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM)
Many definitions of the term ICZM amongst inter-governmental organisations and scientists exist. Some of them are listed within this section [2]
General Principles of ICZM
ICZM is still a relatively new and evolving concept, and there is as yet no consensus regarding even issues suchas the fundamental nature and structure of the coastal zone, the most appropriate timescales for the application of CZM policies, or the key criteria for defining Sustainability in coastal zone development.
Nevertheless, there are some agreed general principles for ICZM:
The integration principle
It was developed by Agenda 21 as a tool to pursue Sustainable Development in coastal zones, which requires:
"new approaches to marine and coastal area management and development, at the national, subregional, regional and global levels, approaches that are integrated in content and are precautionary and anticipatory in ambit"
Agenda 21, 17.1, 1992
The Precautionary Principle
ICZM in Europe
ICZM in other international institutions
References
Relevant links
Roadmap for Capacity Building for ICZM
| List of articles on Capacity Building for ICZM |
| Capacity Building Network main page |
