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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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Coastal region and small island papers 12: papers
COASTAL
PROBLEMS IN A MICROCOSM: THE SMALL ISLAND EXPERIENCE
by Alain De
Comarmond and Rolph Payet
Republic of Seychelles
Introduction
The Seychelles consists of 115 islands with a total land area of 455 km². Forty-one of the islands are granitic and they are located within a radius of 50 km from the main granitic island, Mahe. The remaining 74 islands are coral islands. The Seychelles has an Exclusive Economic Zone of 1.4 million km². Seychelles can be considered a coastal zone in its entirety due to its size and homogeneity. The main economic sectors operating in the coastal areas are agriculture, fisheries and tourism. Tourism contributes about 17% of the Gross National Product and employs 18% of the total workforce.
In Seychelles, the population and development are highly concentrated on
the narrow coastal plateau, no more than 2 km wide, of the main granitic
islands. The coastal zone is therefore considered as the most critical areas for
adaptation in the country. Likewise, the entire country has varied and endemic
habitats which deserve conservation and protection.
Ownership issues
Coastal property ownership is controlled by several regulations and laws already in place. Perhaps the most powerful is the Town and Country Planning Ordinance (Chap.160). Planning permission is required for all forms of terrestrial development including those on the coastal areas under the Town and Country Planning Act.
The National Parks and Nature Conservancy Ordinance (Chap.1590) says that public access has been limited in 24 areas under the Protected Areas Act (Chap.40). The Beach Control Regulations (SI77 of 1978) provide some protection for beaches. Coastal property ownership is very rarely a source of conflict. The main conflict or disagreement in some cases has been on the ‘setback’ issue. Property owners find it annoying to abide by the policy of constructing any structure 30 m above the high water mark. Setback is still only a coastal policy, it might be feasible to turn it into legislation in the future to strengthen its status, perhaps in a Coastal Area Protection Act.
Coastal conflicts in Seychelles
Like in most Small Island States, who depend heavily on their coastal areas for most of their economic activities, Seychelles also faces coastal conflicts arising from several issues. The Government of Seychelles is facing a challenge in balancing the needs of economic development and the recreation needs of its people in coastal areas. But it must be noted that the subject of coastal conflicts has not been a major problem, until recently, probably as a result of increased coastal population and economic development, especially in tourism.
There have, however, traditionally been minor conflicts involving use of the coastal area, including pollution from other locations impacting on the coastal areas, coastal modifications by neighbours, litter and noise from picnickers, as well as landing areas for fishermen, which are eventually solved through consensus by the conflicting users. In most cases such conflicts are related either directly or indirectly to the coastal tourism industry and fisheries.
The level of coastal resource conflicts are quite low in Seychelles, but these are likely to increase as more land is protected (leading to coastal use restrictions), more land is reclaimed (taking up fisheries areas), and more hotels built (laying exclusive claim to beaches). With the population likely to exceed 100,000 by 2020, conflicts over land use and access to public resources will also increase.
Conflicts between the private sector and local communities are indeed evident by the number of complaints received by the Ministry of Environment and Transport, including dust, noise and odour pollution. A total of 18 cases were reported in 1999 alone. Small businesses operating within the residential areas and some large companies on the east of coast of Mahe (the main island) are the main sources of these complaints.
Conflicts between coastal tourism and other activities are not as pronounced as in many other countries. Nowadays because of the increased investment by the hotel industry in the islands, conflicts involving hotels restricting access of the public to beaches has raised concern over the way hotels wish to manage their beachfront properties.
Beach access
Access to the beaches is a big issue for the Seychellois people. Beaches
and the related coastal areas are used for numerous purposes by the locals,
ranging from artisanal fishing to the late afternoon swim after a hard day’s
work or the popular Sunday family picnic.
The state recognises that the Seychellois people should always have access to beaches. Nevertheless there have been attempts by large hotels to use restrictive measures to control the presence of locals on the beaches or coastal properties adjacent to their compounds.
Case
studies
There have not been a lot of coastal conflict cases historically in the Seychelles, but a few cases have arisen over the years.
One of the most exclusive hotels in Seychelles has already fenced the entire area around the beach and prohibits locals from crossing the hotel compound to get to the beach, which as a result makes the beach accessible by sea only. The hotel’s argument is that they are not restricting access to the beach but only from locals crossing the hotel compound to get to the beach.
In another case on the second largest island, Praslin, planning officials took drastic measures by physically removing the barriers that had been erected by a hotel to restrict the locals’ access to a beach and adjacent property.
Conflicts occur amongst users in the same sector as well, for example at the moment in Seychelles with the ‘construction boom’ in large and ‘haut de gamme’ hotels most of which are managed by internationally renowned hotel chains, the small locally-owned establishments are questioning their future in the business. They are arguing that such exclusive hotels are taking their share of the market.
The Seychelles government in its quest towards economic development, recently approved the construction of a five star hotel on Ste Anne Island which is part of the Ste Anne Marine Park, the most popular marine park in Seychelles. The Seychelles Marine Parks Authority which is responsible for the management of marine parks in Seychelles was based on the island and had to be relocated because of the project. Ste Anne Island is of high importance historically because the first settlement in Seychelles was set up there in 1770. Because of this there has been concern about whether such a tourism development, in a place of environmental, historical, and cultural importance was appropriate. Nevertheless, the government has assured the people of Seychelles that the development will be done in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way. The hotel also has plans to develop certain aspects of Ste Anne Island.
The Ste Anne development did not meet any physical opposition compared to a similar case in neighbouring Mauritius, in the Blue Bay Marine Park and Hotel Development conflict. This case is about coastal tourism development in the Blue Bay Marine Park, which caused environmental degradation, and resulted in opposition from the locals and a legal case.
Diving-operators and
fishermen conflict
Apart from the subject of access to beach, there have been a few cases where there have been conflicts between diving operators and local fishermen operating in the same area.
The Seychelles Fishing Authority has documented cases of
tourist divers cutting fish traps in the Beau Vallon area. On the main island of
Mahe, Beau Vallon is one of the top tourism spots with three large hotels spread
along the popular mile-long Beau Vallon Beach. Divers in the same area have
complained of over-fishing reducing the diving experience. The Beau Vallon
surrounding area is still being used by local fishermen using traditional method
such as nets, bamboo traps and line fishing. In terms of line fishing there have
been some cases whereby it is alleged that diving operators have released sharks
caught using the long line method. Each user group sees the other as a threat to
their own survival. Such conflicts are not unique to the Beau Vallon area
but have been reported in other areas of the Seychelles as well.
The Seychelles Fishing Authority states that after receiving the complaints they sometime write to the diving operator operating in that area reporting that a complaint has been made, or in some cases leave the matter in the hands of the police when there is enough evidence.
Wise practices discussion
Though the government is faced with the challenge of allowing the hotels to have their exclusivity, the subject of beach access by locals should be dealt with when the planning permission is given, the latter should take into account access to the beach, making sure that both during and after construction the beaches are always accessible to the public. A clear legal policy should be put in place concerning the subject and other coastal management issues in the form of a Coastal Area Protection Act as proposed earlier.
In terms of the fishermen/diving operators conflict, strengthening local identities and capacity building would help in enhancing cooperation between the two groups. A participatory process involving all the stakeholders in the planning processes for both activities is very important in conflict prevention.
With the ever-increasing pressure of lack of land, land use should be given extra attention especially when it comes to ‘sensitive’ areas along the coast. Coastal conflict resolution is supportive of the view that coastal management is about people management most of the time. There is therefore the need to build conflict prevention and management approaches at all levels, and to primarily focus on coastal communities likely to be affected in the long term (Payet, 2000).
References
PAYET, R.A, 2000. National Coastal Zone Management Report: Progress since Seychelles 1996 ICZM Conference. Republic of Seychelles
LUNDIN, C.G and LINDEN, O., (e.d), 1995. Integrated Coastal Zone Management in the Seychelles. Government of Seychelles.
REGAR Journal, 2001.
