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.