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An Integrated Approach

Many of the environmental problems of the seas and coasts cannot be addressed in isolation. They are intricately interwoven with each other. The environments of land and sea are interdependent, linked by complex atmospheric, geological, physical chemical and biological interactions. The human activities that affect, and arise from, these environments also depend on economic and social factors. And the problems cross physical and institutional boundaries, so that there has to be international co-operation to set common objectives and implement compatible policies and programmes.

Nowhere is the interdependence of the seas and coasts with their hinterland - a linkage that is economic as well as environmental, historical and cultural -- as obvious as where large rivers enter the sea. Many of the world's oldest, largest and most prosperous cities - centres both of culture and commerce -- stand where fresh and salt waters meet.

Rivers were, and still are, liquid highways carrying people, goods and ideas from the coasts deep into the land and vice versa. River basins and the flat land around estuaries are fertile ground for producing food and raw materials for the peoples of the coast. The accelerating environmental problems of the river basins, coasts and seas are still generally seen as separate, and treated as such, instead of being addressed together and as a whole. But some countries, such as France, have developed a successful integrated system for managing river basins that is now being extended to coasts.

Fortunately, old perceptions that the problems could be solved in isolation, by specific measures addressing single sectors, or just by "technological fixes", are beginning to wane. Today's environmental managers and policy makers are increasingly realising that lasting solutions can only be achieved through a comprehensive, systematic and sustained approach - and that management plans for the sea and those for the coastal strips and rivers and their basins. must be co-ordinated.

This is often called integrated coastal management (ICM). It provides a framework for integrating environmental, economic, social, cultural and public health interests to ensure sustainable development. It can operate at different levels. Thus ICM , to take one example, might evolve from a local programme dealing with a few pressing issues like protecting habitats or treating sewage to more comprehensive national or regional programmes.
Many countries, developed and developing, are beginning to apply the concept, if in different ways.

The concept of ICM is simple enough, but implementing it is often difficult and patchy in practice. As there will be both winners and losers among different interests, policies are often effectively determined by those with big enough constituencies to ensure that their views and interests prevail. Lack of funding and skills may well constrain ICM, and many countries may need technical and financial assistance. There is a pressing need for more and better trained managers from appropriate cultural backgrounds with particular expertise in environmental planning and conflict mediation. Much can be done to improve management within existing funds and capabilities. There are some inexpensive systems for sewage disposal, for example, which may bring great benefits until the money is available to raise standards to the levels found in many industrialised nations.

This report presents a stark picture of the deterioration of the world's seas and oceans. But all is not yet lost. There are still grounds for hope. The problems are increasingly becoming better understood: the solutions to them are increasingly being worked out. The gap between such knowledge and effective action is largely a matter of political will. What is needed is demonstrable public and political commitment, not merely in signing agreements and conventions, but in providing the resources to implement the remedies that are now so abundantly clear. Then we shall be able, with Hamlet, to "take arms against a sea of troubles, and, by opposing, end them."