Previous Page Table of Contents Next Page


9. INFORMATION, TRAINING AND EDUCATION

A full-scale programme will include many important information, education and training responsibilities, which would be handled by the planning unit of the ICZM programme (Box 9.1).

Often, the availability of information is not the main problem. In fact usually not enough use is made of available information from within the country, from ICZM studies in other countries, and from guidelines and other materials which attempt to provide information relevant to the management of the coastal zone. Also studies have been conducted in many countries on a great number of subjects related to ICZM and development planning in particular. The real challenge is to collate this information and to make effective use of it in addressing planning and management issues.

With an ICZM management unit reviewing development proposals and often requesting changes in project specifications, developers will soon find that they can benefit from prior consultation with ICZM staff. Also, a need for technical descriptions and guide-lines will emerge. Consequently, the planning unit may find another role in providing a variety of technical consulting services to developers and other coastal interests.

9.1 Research and Information

This section discusses the priority types of information that should be collected and made availabel through the ICZM programme.

9.1.1 Data Base

Expansion of the data base available in most countries for management of coastal seas resources will be required. Technology for acquiring such information must be closely linked to plans for utilizing the coastal and marine areas. Likewise, requirements for data and specifications for equipment to acquire, manage, and analyse such data need to be defined in terms of specific user needs. Potential users should be made aware of data available and of technological developments for obtaining coastal seas data and for processing and interpreting such data.

National research capacity needs improving in most cases and certainly in developing countries, building on present capacity for fisheries and other national research laboratories, universities, etc.

Current mapping and resource characterization technologies and information systems available to developing countries should be assessed. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) will play a very useful role for data inventories and collection, promotion of data analysis, elaboration of synthesis and historical perspectives, monitoring coastal development and developing coastal degradation indexes.

BOX 9.1-INFORMATION NEEDS FOR ICZM

The following are some principal types of information needed for ICZM:

  1. Physical environment: terrain data (including history), erosional processes, storm surge, winds, tides, air-sea interaction, sediment transport, geological setting, subsidence, sediment supply, meteorological data, climate.

  2. Biological environment: Primary and secondary production, distribution and extant of living marine resources, major habitats and ecosystems, ecological relationships that determine productivity, presence of rare, threatened or endangered species; indicator species.

  3. Sociological information: Some important requirements include the following: resource dependency; historic use patterns including methods; factors determining historic use patterns; identify current use patterns; identify whether current use patterns are sustainable; demography; sociocultural information; land and sea tenure.

  4. Economics: Resources and resource use patterns should be given economic values. Qualitative values - resources and resource-use patterns that cannot be economically valued have to be considered. Specific economic pursuits that should be included in data collection are: fisheries, tourism, ports, energy, settlements, transportation, aquaculture, mining, oil/gas, waste treatment and disposal, settlements, cities, traditional practices.

  5. Issues: It is necessary to identify the groups with a stake in the use and management of coastal resources groups and potential conflicts among them.

  6. Institutional mechanisms (national, state, and local): ministries, departments with division of responsibility, organization and hierarchy; legislation on zoning, pollution, resource, utilization; interagency councils; advisory panels; standing agreements with private parties; permitting and other administrative processes to carry out legislation.

Assessment of the present status of coastal zones is required urgently, including diagnostics on eutrophication, occurrence of red tides, ciguatera, coliforms at beaches, nitrification and salinization of groundwater, fish abundance, habitat degradation levels, identification of local and upstream impacting activities (agriculture and others), wetland obliteration, etc.

9.1.2 Boundaries

Locating and mapping the boundaries of the coastal zone is one of the early tasks in ICZM planning. This would be fairly simple if an existing mapped boundary were used; e.g., the “25-year flood line”, a coastal highway, or a topographic line such as 5 m elevation. Where a new boundary line has to be delineated with multiple specification, the task could be complex, particularly where a high degree of precision is required because of expected controversy of the kind that occurs whenever land-use zoning of any kind is done.

9.1.3 Resource Surveys

An important aspect is identifying, evaluating, and delineating generic critical habitats such as mangroves, coral reefs, dune fields, seagrass meadows, and species habitats, and buffer areas around them where appropriate. Hazardous areas such as coastal flood plains and high-hazard zones could also be described and delineated. Polluted areas would be located and mapped.

Another important survey job is identifying, evaluating and delineating: 1) specific “environmentally sensitive areas” to be “red-flagged” for regulatory protection, through the development project review process; and 2) areas to be recommended for parks, reserves, sanctuaries, refuges, or other protected areas status.

Additional survey work to be done includes advance identification of areas that are not ecologically critical habitats but if developed could cause especially negative impacts on coastal ecosystems, such as steep slopes with high sediment runoff potential.

9.1.4 Environmentally Sensitive Areas

The survey, mapping, and evaluation of resources can be a very important addition to an ICZM programme. It can identify in advance the most valuable, or critical, coastal habitats, ecological functions, tourist attractions, and places most subject to natural hazards damage. This information would be useful in the review and assessment of coastal development projects and in identifying candidate sites for coastal parks and protected areas. A survey would also locate highly polluted waters and degraded resources that need rehabilitation. Another benefit would be the location of optimal sites for future development activities.

9.1.5 Carrying Capacity

Carrying capacity analysis as a method of numerical, computerized calculation for prescribing the limits to development with cold objectivity, was initiated in the 1960s. It has not achieved much success in influencing government policy because of the complexity of the parameters, and because politicians and administrators are reluctant to have their judgement pre-empted by a computer. Nevertheless, a non-prescriptive and more qualitative and normative concept of carrying capacity exists today and does influence tourism development (Clark, 1991a).

With carrying capacity, as with other biological analogies, the social dimension complicates the procedure for estimating limits (Dunkel, 1984). Some of the key components - such as tourist or user satisfaction - change when the users themselves or their preferences shift. Consequently, scepticism remains about the applicability of carrying capacity as a management technique and disagreement exists over-estimation methods (Dunkel, 1984).

Therefore, the actual carrying capacity limit - in numbers of visitors or any other parameter - is usually a judgement call based upon the level of change which can be accepted, regarding: 1) sustainability of resources, 2) satisfaction of resource users, and 3) the level of socio-economic impact (Clark, 1991).

9.1.6 Upland Effects

The planner needs to create strategies for reducing negative impacts from upland activities. It is important to know the degree to which, in the natural state, uplands terrain and hydrological systems - streams, ponds, wetlands - can hold and can detain large amounts of storm water, acting in effect as a natural sponge that holds water during heavy rains or snows for later, more gradual release. This provides an ecologically compatible rate of runoff flow as well as some protection against flooding for downstream communities. Uplands are also important in protecting coastal waters from storm runoff pollution because their vegetation and soils cleanse the water (Clark et al., 1980).

The beneficial functions of the coastal uplands are diminished when the terrain is cleared of vegetation, paved, or altered to accelerate drainage; when surface water bodies and watercourses are filled, detoured, or channelized; or when the natural flow pattern is significantly disrupted so that freshwater flow to the coast occurs in surges.

In a practical sense it will be most difficult for ICZM to obtain much influence over upland development activities because it is uncommon for those who plan dams or land clearing enterprise to consult with coastal interests. However, it is worth trying to review and comment on major upland projects (see Box 9.2).

9.1.7 Multiple-Use Management

In the coastal area, as elsewhere, some resources are more vulnerable to development impacts than others and some development types and uses are more threatening to resources than others. Information on these two aspects is useful to ICZM programmes, particularly categorizations which can be used in development project review and in multiple-use economic development planning. The simplest way to do this is by an approach in which:

- land and water areas are classified as - 1) approved for development, 2) not approved for development, or 3) approved for development under specified conditions;

BOX 9.2 - DOWNSTREAM EFFECTS OF LARGE DAMS

Rivers the size of the Usumacinta River in Tabasco, Mexico, control natural and human life for hundreds of miles downstream and most importantly where they spread into the wide plains of their coastal deltas. (The Usumacinta flows north across the Yucatan to enter the Gulf to Mexico at the Bay of Campeche.) Here, at the coast, the big rivers build, serve and rule the lowlands through hydrological, geological, and biological forces well known to science.

These force deposit silt to build and maintain the natural levees which channel the rivers and provide the high ground for human settlement. They provide water flows in a regular seasonal pattern, or “hydroperido”, to which all the trees, wetlands, fish, birds, wildlife, and human endeavours are keyed. The mighty Usumacinta River ministers to 4.5 million acres of delta wetlands and lowlands.

When the natural hydroperiod is altered by upstream dams that divert water flow or it to be released on an artificial timetable the consequences may be severe, particularly to the downstream people of the Mexican states of Tabasco and Campeche, whose lives and fortunes are tied to the Great Delta Wetlands.

This natural complex is a major resource system on the Gulf of Mexico rim, containing Mexico's largest mangrove forest, its richest shrimp fishing grounds (the Bay of Campeche), and its premiere Waterbird habitat. The wetlands also provide the major life support of the contemporary Mayan agrarian community of the Delta, including natural forage for their large herds of cattle.

The State of Tabasco is moving to conserve its part of the Great Delta Wetlands. In 1987, Governor Enrique Gonzalez Pedrero completed an intensive study aimed at creating a conservation plan for 700 000 acres as the “Centla Biosphere Reserve”. Under the Centla Plan, nature and human life will coexist under an enlightened scheme of resource management, the hallmark of the Unesco-hold created biosphere reserve model.

This is a triage approach whereby the safe and unsafe can be dealt with expeditiously, and maximum effort can be applied to the in-between categories of either areas or development types. This type of simple classification would be an initial job for the planning unit; later, more sophisticated types of classifications might be generated (e.g., land suitability analysis).

Another facet of the same issue is multiple-use potential. Decision-makers need to know what economic and social uses can co-exist in an area and which cannot. In most situations the multiple-use approach should be advocated. In some situations, however, exclusive use should be recommended. The ICZM planning unit should be prepared to investigate compatibility and make recommendations for multiple- or exclusive use.

Burbridge (1986) makes a compelling argument for multiple-use strategies for coastal resources in demonstrating that a unique feature of the ecological systems of the coastal zone is the wide variety of functions they serve and the broad array of economic and environmental goods and services they provide. In the case of mangroves, over 70 direct and indirect uses arise from mangrove forests. In addition, the mangrove forest acts as a nursery, a feeding or spawning area for commercially valuable fish and shrimp species. These and other services cannot be replaced at a reasonable cost.

The following have been listed by Sorensen and McCreary (1990) as economic sectors identified by various countries, all of which may be addressed by integrated ICZM programmes:

Many of these uses could coexist in a multiple-use approach while others might not, or would have to be severely restricted. ICZM's role is to sort them out and recommend the optimal mix. For example, there is little problem in combining fisheries, tourism and water supply, but mixing port development and tourism with critical area protection (e.g., mangrove forests) may be very difficult. The role of the planning unit is to evaluate the effects of uses in combination in order to advise the decision-makers and managers.

9.1.8 Restoration/Rehabilitation of Resources

While not all coastal resources that have been lost can, in a practical sense, be returned to productivity, some of them can. Mangrove forests can be replanted, dikes dismantled, normal fresh water or tidal flows to wetlands restored, and coral reefs can be started toward gradual renewal. The ICZM planning unit should identify, through survey, the critical areas that have been degraded and can be repaired at reasonable cost and effort. These can be mapped, priorities assigned, and a strategy for rehabilitation created.

9.1.9 Environmental Assessment

As mentioned, a major task of the information function of ICZM is to conduct environmental impact assessments for particular projects under review. According to Maragos et al. (1983), the environmental assessment process is the mechanism by which the ecological and other environmental consequences of proposed development are estimated and recommendations provided to decision makers to reduce or avoid impacts. For coastal development, the major steps of the assessment process include:

Maragos et al. (1983) emphasize that most development involves several phases; preliminary feasibility studies; selection of a plan and detailed engineering and design; construction; operation; and decommissioning of facilities, if applicable. Throughout the assessment and planning process, there will be an accumulation of physical, ecological and other environmental information. In time this information normally progresses from general, qualitative, and extensive in character to detailed, specific and quantitative. Although qualitative information is invariably required for all types of development, the choice of alternatives to be implemented dictates to a great extent the need for quantitative information. Often the need for expensive quantitative data-gathering can be avoided if the project proceeds in a direction that minimizes adverse impacts.

An important role for ICZM entities is in public information and education. Information the public as to the purposes and approaches of ICZM and the long term benefits to be gained from conservation is important. Holding local consultations and hearings is essential to the success of new initiatives that affect coastal communities.

9.2 Training

Staff training is essential in a field like ICZM where so many different types of activities and technologies are involved. Training would range from short courses and on-the-job training to formal university degree courses. International assistance is available to most developing countries to meet a variety of training needs.

In one example, the Coastal Area Planning and Management Division of Trinidad and Tobago (located in the Institute of Marine Affairs) listed its priorities for staff training in ICZM as: (McShine, 1985)

  1. assessment of sociological impacts

  2. assessment of economic impacts

  3. cost benefit analysis

  4. simulation analysis

  5. resource management

Another type of training activity that is particularly important for ICZM programmes is orientation courses for decision-makers and agency staff in the various ministries or departments that are affected by ICZM. Seminars, clinics, field trips, and other dialogues will help these agencies to understand the ICZM programme and assure their cooperation. Lack of sufficient data and/or personnel trained in ICZM should not be seen as a barrier to the initiation of an ICZM programme. The shortage of people trained in coastal zone management or with detailed knowledge of coastal ecosystems is sometimes given as a reason why the ICZM process cannot be initiated. In practice there is normally sufficient manpower with skills in basic ecology, economics, planning and administration to support an ICZM initiative.

The basic requirement is for a small group of 10 to 20 persons from different disciplines to form the nucleus of an ICZM team. Staff from existing agencies can be assigned to this team on either a part-or-full-time basis without undermining the normal work of these agencies. Additional manpower can be made available by placing emphasis in the ICZM programme on in-service training and recruitment of trainee staff who will attend ICZM courses before taking their appointments in government.

9.3 Raising Public Awareness

Public education is a prerequisite for successful implementation and management of marine and coastal resources. The most important goal of education in this setting is to convince people of the value of protecting resources for the long-term, sustainable benefits that protection can provide. Environmental education aims to provide the community with both information and an ethic so that its members can make informed decisions about the use of their resources (Clark, 1991 (a)).

Political and financial support is also dependent on the level of awareness of decision-makers. In educating politicians and economic planners, it is important to use language and concepts with which they are familiar. Carrying capacity studies that utilize cost-benefit analysis can produce figures such as estimates of revenue, sustainable yields, and other quantifiable data that can be used to convince decision-makers of the economic and social benefits of protecting ecosystems (Clark, 1992).

The first step in designing an education programme is to identify the various target audiences. Artisanal fishermen, dive operators, and tourists are examples of target groups found in marine and coastal settings. Next, specific educational objectives must be established in terms of knowledge, attitudes and behaviour to be changed or influenced within each target group. For example, the knowledge that a protected area can increase fish stocks and catches in nearby fished areas can lead to positive attitudes towards the protected area, and compliance with its rules (Clark, 1991 (a)).

This approach is being used by the ongoing CIDA Fishery Enhancement Programme based in Discovery Bay, Jamaica, which is encouraging a shift towards the use of larger mesh size wire for fishpots to improve the sustainability of the fishery. In exchange for turning in one fishpot made with small size mesh (one and a quarter inches in diameter or less), fishermen receive enough larger mesh size wire to make two new pots of equivalent size. This helps to offset the costs of new gear and the per pot decrease in catch biomass that will result from using larger mesh (Clark, 1991 (a)).

Initially, a multifaceted approach, combining printed materials, audiovisual presentations, and face-to-face interaction, is probably the best way to start an education programme. Depending on the target audience and budget, a variety of additional options can be employed: mass media (press, television, radio), fixed exhibits, tours, training workshops, the sale of promotional items such as T-shirts, and informal recreational activities with an educational focus. Evaluation and feedback mechanisms should be built into education programmes to allow for necessary modifications in approach (Clark, 1991 (a)).


Previous Page Top of Page Next Page