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Fish Out of Water? Inter-sectoral Conflicts,

Trade-offs and Synergies in FreshwaterResource and Coastal Zone

Management

Competition and Interactions• Fisheries and aquaculture compete for space and

resources in the most contested and fastest-developing geographical areas on earth – coastal zones and river basins

• Coastal zones and river basins provide globally significant environmental goods and services

• While many of the interactions within the fisheries sector and between the sector and other activities are of a competitive or antagonistic nature, a number of complementary or synergistic interactions may also exist

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Freshwater Resources • Inland fish production will continue to face

increasing competition for water from other uses• Integration is required in order to facilitate

sustainable inland fish production• Use allocation will require close liaison between

user groups, transparency in the decision-making process, cross-sector education

• An important focus is the evaluation and management of trade-offs associated with infrastructure development

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Freshwater Resources • Inland fisheries are greatly undervalued in water

management decisions • Better valuation methods that pay more attention

to non-formal values, particularly those concerning livelihoods, biodiversity and food security are urgently needed

• The ecosystem approach, with its focus on maintaining ecosystem functioning, is fundamental to managing water for inland fisheries and aquaculture

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Freshwater Resources • Hydrological approaches to water management

tend to focus on in-stream quantitative flows and often ignore the important impacts on quality and extent of adjacent floodplains and their associated wetlands

• Fisheries and aquaculture can play an important role in effective water management across the continuum from rain fed to irrigated agriculture, and increase the resilience of poor communities

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Coastal Resources • The livelihood of residents in coastal areas is

usually directly linked to coastal resource use• The environments of coastal zones are

influenced not only by human activity along the coastline and in adjoining seas, but also by activities inland and in associated watersheds

• These issues are often complex and cross sectoral boundaries

• They are difficult to resolve in a single-sector management regime.

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Coastal Resources • Fisheries and aquaculture must be conceived as

part of wider local, regional and national (scale) economic development and resource management strategies (nested)

• The entire process is closely linked to the institutional and organizational context in which the fisheries and aquaculture sector operates

• A major challenge is to modify the existing context in order to achieve preferred patterns of coastal resource use.

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Coastal Resources • Marine protected areas (MPAs) can be considered

components of ICM programs because they protect the biodiversity and ecological processes

• MPAs have come to be advocated as the solution for all fisheries and ecosystem management problems

• MPA management must be coordinated and integrated with coastal and fisheries management activities outside the boundaries and linked to development programs that address the needs of local people

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Governance, Decisions and Trade-Offs

• Improved governance processes are needed that facilitate compromise by stakeholders and favor integrated resource management

• New institutional arrangements are needed to link decisions on upstream uses and resource management to those for managing downstream uses (integrated aquatic resource management)

• Decentralization reforms to local levels • Clearly defined goals and responsibilities to

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Principles for Investment

• Support institutional and governance reforms that link decision-making across sectors and across multiple scales of intervention

• Integrate an ecosystem-based approach into infrastructure planning

• Adopt multi-criteria analysis for water allocation and use environmental flow assessment as a way to quantify the environmental criteria

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Principles for Investment

• Strengthen watershed and coastal zone management bodies with strong civil society representation

• Invest in local capacity to assess and weigh the livelihood implications of alternative resource management scenarios

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Implementing the Principles

Investing in integrated aquatic resource management:

• Xiamen, China• Batangas Bay, Philippines• Tanzania

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Implementing the PrinciplesXiamen, China

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Implementing the PrinciplesXiamen, China• As a consequence of industrialization and urbanization;

increased population growth; uses of coastal and marine resources diversified and intensified resulting in severe space competition, resource-use conflicts, and pollution.

• weak institutional capability • lack of integrated planning and coordination • inadequate legislation for effective resolution of multiple

resource-use conflicts • poor law enforcement• weak marine environmental consciousness

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Implementing the PrinciplesXiamen, China• Lead: Xiamen Municipal Government with PEMSEA

(GEF, UNDP) 1994-2008• Investment: demonstrate the application of integrated

coastal management (ICM) for effective prevention, control and mitigation of marine pollution

• Executive Committee involving over 20 government agencies

• Institutional mechanism for interagency consultation, coordination and review

• A shared vision and commitment for change

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Implementing the PrinciplesXiamen, China• Strategic environmental management plans• Marine Management and Coordination

Committee • Integrated law enforcement legislation • Sea-use zoning • Citizen participation and awareness building• Marine Pollution Monitoring Program

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Implementing the PrinciplesTanzania• Tanzania Coastal Management Partnership• National Environmental Management Council

and URI-CRC (USAID) 1997-ongoing• Investment: improve the well being of coastal

residents and their environment through the implementation and strengthening of the Tanzania National Coastal Strategy 2002

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Implementing the PrinciplesTanzania• Decentralization to districts for implementation • District ICM action plan integrated with

collaborative fisheries management plan• Human and institutional capacity development • Mariculture and tourism guidelines• Broad participation of stakeholder • Establishment of MPAs

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Implementing the PrinciplesBatangas Bay, Philippines

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Implementing the PrinciplesBatangas Bay, Philippines• Industrial center and shipping hub• Inadequate and fragmented environmental and

natural resource-use policies, plans and programs

• Lack of legal and institutional mechanisms for integrated management

• Limited knowledge and capability of local stakeholders on integrated environmental management

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Implementing the PrinciplesBatangas Bay, Philippines

• PEMSEA (GEF, UNDP) 1994-2004• Investment: demonstrate the application of

integrated coastal management (ICM) for environmental protection

• Batangas Integrated Environmental Protection Council

• Private-public partnership• Strategic management plan

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Implementing the PrinciplesBatangas Bay, Philippines

• Sustainable cost sharing mechanism with private sector

• Sea use zoning • Public awareness and participation • Improvements in environmental quality and

institutional coordination for management

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Scaling upInvestment opportunities in integrated aquatic

resources management: • Build interagency, intersectoral, and

intergovernmental partnerships for sustainable development

• Balance conservation and economic development

• Strengthen technical and institutional capacities• Improved water and coastal resource allocation • Fuller participation of stakeholders

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