4. Conclusions

Irrespective of the adoption of direct or indirect strategies to address the negative external effects of agricultural activities, all coastal area agricultural development plans should include standards and criteria related to the effects of agricultural activities on soil and water, for example, and should contain targets for reducing negative externalities. These standards and targets have to be backed up by monitoring, reporting and evaluation systems and by staff training to ensure that the control of negative externalities is given due emphasis throughout the planning, implementation and review process. Conversely, in the context of ICAM, agriculture is entitled to reciprocal protection against the negative impact on it of the activities of other sectors.

ICAM requires the coordinated allocation of resources to different activities to maximize their contribution to sustainable development. Decisions about individual activities must take account of both their direct costs and benefits and their effects on other activities.

Planning for the integrated management of a particular coastal area therefore requires:

systematic examination and understanding of the existing and potential interactions that affect different activities and resources in the area, and analysis of how these interactions are likely to develop over time;
analysis of the effects of interactions on different activities and on the coastal area as a whole;
identification of ways of encouraging benefits from complementary interactions and ways of limiting the harmful effects of competitive and antagonistic interactions;
identification of the costs and benefits of activities that take into account their beneficial and harmful effects on other activities;
negotiation, arbitration and legislation to encourage a mix of activities that will promote sustainable development in the coastal area as a whole.

This integration must be additional to, and coordinated with, existing sectoral and subsectoral planning.