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Environment and development in coastal regions and in small islands |
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Environment and development in coastal regions and in small islands |
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Legal provision for integrated coastal zone management
INTRODUCTION
Today
the coastal zone attracts the attention and interest of many professions. Global
climate change has the potential to seriously affect the coastal zone. The
probable raise in world ocean level, due to melting of glacial caps, will have
serious ecological, social, economic and even political consequences. Such
changes will have not only local, but also regional and global implications. So
the question is, can the world community unite and develop a system of measures
to minimize the consequences of global climate change and the negative influence
of human activities. A legal mechanism is needed to ensure that these measures
can be realized.
Their
rich natural resources have historically made coastal areas some of the most
exploited regions of the world. Now more than 60% of the earth’s population
lives within 60 miles of the coast and migration from inland areas to coastal
zones is growing constantly. There is a sharp conflict between the aspiration of
immediate use and consumption of coastal resources and the necessity to provide
a long-term reserve of these resources.
Many
coastal areas are polluted with wastes from local and inland industrial and
agricultural enterprises. Due to this contamination of the environment the
attractiveness of tourism decreases, the recreational potential is reduced and
fisheries are reduced or completely disappear. Such degradation of ecosystems
occurs where offshore oil and gas deposits are exploited, ports and marine
protective structures are constructed and at oil terminals (Ajbulatov,
Mihajlichenko et al., 2000).
The
global shortage of natural resources is becoming a real threat. Striking
illustrations of this in coastal areas are coastal erosion, deterioration in air
and water quality and reduction of biodiversity. In the opinion of authoritative
economists, modern extraction of non-renewable natural resources “reduces
their quantity, which could be potentially used in future. This has generated
the fear, that all countries of the world will exhaust their resources and their
disappearance will put a limit to economic growth” (Fisher, Dornbush and
Schmalensee, 1998, pp.659-660). One problem with conservation of the environment
is that, although there is an abundance of international and national
legislation concerning it, this legislation is inadequate. This inadequacy is
aggravated by a less than optimal State natural
resources administration (Vylegzhanin
and Zylanov, 2000)
The
degradation connected with increased use of coastal resources inevitably results
in aggravation of social problems and economic development setbacks. The
problems of plural jurisdiction and competition among users of resources in the
absence of mechanisms for settlement of disputes, inadequate forms of resource
conservation, and also the absence of national and local policy for coastal zone
management to provide knowledge for decision-making will result in loss of
capability of sustainable development in the future (Ajbulatov,
Mihajlichenko et al., 2000).
The planned economy, absence of market mechanisms and the strictly centralized political
system, which existed in the Soviet Union, did not allow the development and
implementation of integrated coastal zone management (ICZM). Nowadays in the
Russian Federation there is no legislative or regulatory base for executing a
coordinated strategy for use and development of natural resources of the Russian
coastal zone. The institutional system and authorities
for coordination of joint actions to achieve
sustainable development of the coastal zone of the Russian Federation has never
been created. Radical economic reforms necessitate the coordination of economic
activities in coastal zones of the Russian Federation and this in turn requires
that laws are established that consider the zone as an integral object of
management with a terrestrial component and a marine
component.
The
reintegration of Russia into the world community allows it to make use of
foreign ICZM experience and to develop legislation for management of the coastal
zone on the basis of international legal documents and acts of the European
Community and other economically advanced countries combined with existing
environmental legislation of the Russian Federation. However, formation of the
legislative basis requires a special responsibility and balanced
approach with selective introduction of international and foreign legal norms
on coastal management that have proved their value, into domestic
legislation (Ajbulatov,
Mihajlichenko et al., 2000).
