Introduction to Integrated Coastal Area Management
4. Stakeholders in integrated coastal area management
Integrated coastal area management brings together stakeholders from a wide spectrum of
society. These stakeholders represent local, regional, national and transnational interests
and generally these interests do not coincide with one another, making ICAM an arena
characterized by negotiation, compromise and conflict.
The stakeholders in ICAM can be separated in terms of their organization, namely, well
organized stakeholders, which may include, elected officials, political parties, and private
industry, and less organized stakeholders, for example, subsistence resource users, coastal
landowners, and ethnic groups. Together, these stakeholders make up a network of public
and private organizations, determining coastal policy, and also serving as a framework
for the implementation of resource management and water and land-use regulation
(Sorensen and McCreary 1990, Beatley et al. 1994).
4.1. Well-organized stakeholders
4.1.1. Elected officials
Elected officials usually through their own volition or through pressure from their
constituency or the general public, decide to initiate or to heighten awareness for the need
for a coastal area management program. This happened in May 1995 when the then
Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Major General Bantu Holomisa,
called for a new environmental policy. The policy that followed, the National
Environmental Management Act (NEMA), provides the framework within which
environmental policies, such as South Africa’s new coastal management policy, has to be
applied (Sorensen and McCreary 1990, Department of Environment Affairs and Tourism
1997).
Elected officials not only refer to the upper echelons of government, but also include
local and regional officials, which are important in coastal area management because they
can often influence the allocation of coastal resources or land use (Sorensen and
McCreary 1990).
4.1.2. Political parties
Coastal resource policy is usually encompassed not often a major priority of a national
political party, it sometimes being addressed by the broader environmental and
conservation portfolios. However, when the need for an integrated coastal area
management policy has been realized due to public concern for the coastal environment,
then it is the politicians who have to initiate the process. The call for a new South African
environmental management policy by Major General Bantu Holomisa in May 1995 must
be seen in a particular context. The African National Congress (ANC) has been in power
for only a short time and was starting to implement its Reconstruction and Development
Programme (RDP). The RDP is an integrated, coherent socioeconomic policy framework
that seeks to assist the historically disadvantaged people of South Africa by (i) meeting
basic needs, (ii) developing human resources, (iii) building the economy, and (iv)
democratizing the state and society. These objectives will be achieved by having a
programme that is (i) people-centred, (ii) links reconstruction and development, and (iii)
having continuous and overall coherence and unity of purpose (Sorensen and McCreary
1990, African National Congress 2000, Mbendi 2000, The Reconstruction and
Development Programme 2000).
4.1.3. Government agencies
Government agencies, include ministries, sub-ministries, and other agencies with sectoral
interest, are important stakeholders in coastal resource management. These agencies
usually control a vast array of coastal activities, such as navy and national defense, port
and harbor development, shipping, fisheries, mariculture, tourism, research and erosion
control. These agencies also control activities which is not restricted to the coastal area
but which depend on the coastal area, for example, agriculture, forestry, fish and wildlife
management, parks, pollution control, water supply, flood control and energy generation.
However, these government agencies control and manage very specific resources which
causes fragmented coastal management (Sorensen and McCreary 1990).
This fragmentation leads to sectoral interests being represented by certain ministries or
branches of the executive branch, or regional subdivisions and functional divisions. Each
sectoral division of government may have a number of functional divisions, each
responsible for a certain task, for example, levying of charges, formulation of policy, new
project construction, and information dissemination. These differences in responsibilities
determine what a particular functional division interests will be (Sorensen and McCreary
1990).
South Africa has attempted to avoid the problems of sectoral environmental management
by passing the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) in 1998. The NEMA
sets the basis for the new integrated coastal management policy, the “White Paper for
Sustainable Coastal Development in South Africa” and also provides some of the
structures to integrate the policy within the relevant government agencies. The
Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism is the designated lead government
agency, which is responsible for the implementation of both, the NEMA and the new
coastal policy. One of the structures, which aid coordination between various government
departments, is the Committee for Environmental Coordination (CEC). The role of the
CEC is explained in the section called “3.4.4. South Africa: Stages 4 and 5:
Implementation (Operation) and Evaluation”.
4.1.4. State owned enterprises and parastatal corporations
Coastal resources, such as oil, mining, tourism, and fisheries, are usually controlled by
private enterprise. However, there are instances where the state wholly owns and controls
resources and also where the state relinquishes some of its control for parastatal
corporations (see definitions below) to form. Parastatals, in general, are able to engage in
commercial ventures and to generate an income to sustain its activities. This income is
usually supplemented by the state, but unlike government departments, parastatals are not
bound to return income and surplus funds to the central exchequer (Mpumalanga Parks
Board 2000).
Parastatal = A semi-autonomous, quasi-governmental, state-owned enterprise (Library
of Congress 2000)
par·a·stat·al (p r -st t l)
adj.
Owned or controlled wholly or partly by the government: a parastatal mining
corporation.
n.
A company or an agency owned or controlled wholly or partly by the government.
(Lexico LLC 2000).
4.1.5. Private industries
Private industries use resources, such as, fishing, tourism, ports, timber, and oil.
Examples include Malaysia's Matang forest supports mangrove harvesting on a 30-year
rotation, and Ecuador's shrimp mariculture industry (Sorensen and McCreary 1990).
Large multinational corporations are important stakeholders in coastal resource
allocation, sometimes having more economic and political power than a national
economic sector. The economic power of multinationals give them considerable political
clout, for example, in Aruba, the multinational company, Exxon, decided to close a
refinery, which provides half the island's income, shaking its economy. In Indonesia and
Malaysia, multinationals are in a position to make concessions to state-owned oil
companies and local fishing interests. The influence of the multinationals cannot be
underestimated, which is why government always needs to negotiate with them (Sorensen
and McCreary 1990).
There are also foreign investors on a smaller scale than the multinationals, for example,
Japanese investors funding Malaysian prawn trawlers, and Ecuadorian investors looking
to the Dominican Republic's mangrove habitats for rearing ponds (Sorensen and
McCreary 1990).
4.1.6. Industry or labor organizations
4.1.7. Lending and aid institutions
Agencies of the United Nations and international aid institutions are important in the
coastal resource management of developing countries. The United Nations, through its
Secretariat and individual agencies, provide guidance and assistance on a variety of
coastal issues.
4.1.8. Scientific community
The scientific community is an important and influential group in the coastal resource
management of many developing countries. Most of the coastal researchers are
foreigners, often having their own agendas for coastal management. The scientific
community influenced the redesignation of Aldabra Island, Seychelles from a proposed
airstrip to a research preserve. Their expertise and vast information base at the Darwin
Research Station, Galapagos Islands, also gives them large influence over the coastal
resources management of the area (Sorensen and McCreary 1990).
4.1.9. Conservation organizations
Conservation organization, irrespective of whether they operate at local, regional,
national, or international level, can have a great influence over the management of coastal
resources. These organizations include the grassroots-level organizations, such as,
Greenpeace, independent organizations, for example, the International Institute for
Environment and Development (IIED), and hybrid organizations, for example, the
International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). These
groups with the scientific community are often referred to as non-government
organizations, they being neither bureaucratic organizations nor commercial concerns
(Sorensen and McCreary 1990).
Non-government organizations are important players at meetings and conventions
involving natural resource management. They make up a substantial component at the
Convention of International Trade on Endangered Species (CITES), the International
Whaling Commission (IWC), and the London Dumping Convention. These organizations
generally fall into four categories, namely, those working at a national level with a single
resource, those either at regionally or globally involved with direct action for coastal
resource conservation, and those globally concerned with collecting, organizing and
sharing information to inform coastal management policy (Sorensen and McCreary
1990).
4.2. Less organized stakeholders
4.2.1. Subsistence and artisanal coastal resource users
Almost all developing countries have subsistence and artisanal users of the coastal area.
This include artisanal fishing, mangrove forestry in Southeast Asia, rice cultivation in the
landward side of the mangrove area in Africa and Asia, and honey production or
gathering in Indian mangrove forests (Sorensen and McCreary 1990).
These users are often poorly organized, having little political influence, or access to
information on coastal resource management. National and international organizations
usually assist artisanal fishing to make it a more formal activity, for example, the creation
of the government run company, the Sociedad Comercializado e apoio a Pesca Artesenal,
in Cape Verde in order to assist their artisanal fishers (Sorensen and McCreary 1990).
4.2.2. Coastal property owners
This group of coastal users is very small but who can have influence on coastal resource
use. They generally consist of coastal landowners and other coastal or inland residents.
4.2.3. Ethnic groups
Longstanding conflict and negotiation often characterize the relationship between ethnic
coastal groups. The Indonesian land resettlement program, oil exploration in Malaysia,
and Sri Lankan coastal management all involve conflict between ethnic groups as well as
other economic sectors. The intensity and pervasiveness of the conflict arises from the
compelling consciousness of social honor linked to ethnic distinction, which leads to
political solidarity and patronage. New regulatory program s often does not solve conflict
between ethnic groups because underlying conflicts are not addressed (Sorensen and
McCreary 1990).
4.2.4. Social classes
The coastal area affects and is affected by almost all social classes, from artisanal fishers,
to middle class merchants and bureaucrats, to members of the aristocracy and the
international jet set. Social classes are not strictly speaking coastal stakeholders, but class
provides some insight in how different coastal stakeholders are affected in the coastal
area. Class is also a broader social concept, which need to be kept in mind should a
coastal management program be envisaged for a particular area. Different classes have
different expectations for the coast, and an investigation should be made whether these
differences are going to lead to a more equitable or a less equitable situation.