ICZM Scoping Problems and Issues

The objective of this task is to describe the generally understood conditions of the coastal zone at the start of the ICZM Process, whether or not they are verified or verifiable at this stage. It is better to include all perceived problems and issues at this stage, leaving them to be “distilled” into a manageable and refined set of “core” issues later in the Process.

The first analysis of key Problems and Issues should be relatively cursory - primarily to guide future discussions, to assist in the identification of stakeholders, and to identify work priorities, recognising that the list will change and be refined over the whole cycle once a wider range of stakeholders are brought into the ICZM Process.

Techniques & Tools

The selection of issues must encompass the full spectrum of the 3 pillars of sustainability – environment, society and economy (avoiding “observer bias” in the identification and selection of issues resulting from the professional background of the persons conducting the analysis). The nature and quality of governance is also a key theme that will be developed through the objectives, definition of indicator and the policy process, and should therefore be included in the problems and issues analysis. Therefore, the institutional issues related to governance performance need to be taken into consideration in order to identify what the institutionally perceived outside (environmental/social) and inside (for functioning of their institution) problems are, and how they respond to those problems. The problems and issues should therefore be described under governance, environmental and socio-economic headings.

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